To Those of You Giving Up Your Tegus - Consider This First

[carcharios]

I know keeping tegus isn't easy. Their feces smell pretty bad, they need special lighting, they need a huge cage, they require feedings that can be expensive, etc., etc. But before you give up, consider the following.

1. Put them outside! Look up craigslist for "rabbit hutch". You can usually find them for less than $75. Having your tegu outside eliminates so many issues: no more smelly room, no worries about proper lighting, more space for your lizard to get exercise, etc., etc. The $75 you spend on their outdoor enclosure will pay for itself when you consider the cost of lighting and the rest of the tank setup, etc.

2. Chicken necks, chicken hearts and gizzards, occasional dog food, and eggs! A whole carton of chicken necks costs roughly over $1 and will easily last two weeks. Tegus love eggs and they're also another cheap item. Also, the chicken necks contain plenty of bones so no more calcium supplements - more $ saved!

3. Hibernate them. If you do this in the fall, your expenses go down even more and you'll appreciate your tegus more in the spring when they awake. It also cuts down on the food costs. Mine go down from mid October to late March - the busiest time of the year for me, so it works perfectly.

 

[DaremoAlpha]

I like the outside enclosure idea except I live in Canada and have seen snow in july here hahaha so for me it is great tolet them free roam out in the yard but they still get to come in at nights.

Have to say I am not big on the dog food idea personally and would rather spend a bit more of rodents which I buy in bulk to save money ( wife hates me having a freezer full of foods for them but it is worth it )

Hibernating is great plus once they are down steady your also saving on your bulbs too.

Great ideas

 

[HorseCaak]

carcharios:

Thanks for the Forum Post! I'm thinking of adopting mine away (which may be the reason you posted this), but what you said made me rethink. However, a few issues.

1) I live in Washington. Not sure if the temps are high enough however the humidity definitely is. I could supplement with flood lights for heat I guess. I know I could plan to bring her indoors during fall and winter when she will Hibernate.

2) I like to take trips. Feeding would be an issue. Still not sure how often Tegus HAVE TO be fed. What are their eating habits in the wild? DAILY still?

Any ideas? Thanks again.

-BLAIR

 

[carcharios]

Blair:
Washington State has temps that would work out. I've been to Holly along the Hood Canal in July and I recall it being in the 80's during the day. Remember this, just because the ambient temperature is in the 70's or 80's doesn't mean that their basking temp is this low. Even on cooler days (low 70's), my tegus still make the effort to leave their huts to bask. And again, the actual temp in their basking spot is going to be much higher than the surrounding areas. I've never recorded the temps of their basking spot but I can assure you that its warmer than the outside environment.

In terms of feeding, I feed mine every day BUT that is probably overkill. I just read an old article from '72 published by a keeper at the National Aquarium in DC and she said that they were only feeding their adult tegus twice a week - Tuesday and Thursdays. To be honest, I think a lot of people overdo it because it's fun to watch them eat. But truth be told, I think you could get by with feeding them twice a week so long as you give them plenty of food during those feedings. Consider this, Diego, my smallest tegu, went ELEVEN months without eating or drinking! Of course, when he finally woke from his pseudo-hibernation, he was thin. But if you saw him a month later, you'd think he was a different lizard. Remember that they store fat reserves in their tails too so they can weather a little bit of fasting.

Blair, I'm a biology teacher. I have the summers off and I travel A LOT. But my neighbor feeds my guys when I'm gone and I have her come twice a week. I leave a rubbermaid in the fridge full of chicken necks and she just tosses them in their cage. She waters their dish too BUT because they're kept outdoors, their dish usually fills up naturally when it rains because the top of their rabbit hutch is just screen and lets the rain in.

 

[VARNYARD]

Blair, I will tell you for a fact that tegus do not eat everyday in the wild. What if they have storms that last a week, tegus are not going to be out looking for food, I keep mine outside here, and when we have a week of down pours they do not come out to feed. Often times bad weather can last a week if we get tropical weather.

So if they go a few days, it with not hurt them in the least, it happens in nature.

 

[carcharios]

Let me back up Varnyard's point. I've noticed the same thing with my guys in bad weather. They'll stay in their hides during cool, rainy, or overcast days - and yes, sometimes this means several consecutive days. I'm sure a few days won't hurt them at all. Again, Diego went 11 months straight without food. He's now grown twice the size in just two months and I can't believe it's the same lizard. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I moved him out of his indoor 40 gallon aquarium and into the outdoor rabbit hutch, where he's getting natural sunlight. These guys were meant to be outside and if you can accomplish this, I think you'll really appreciate your lizard more - and it will be much less work.

I should also add this, IF I had kept my lizards indoors, I probably wouldn't have them anymore. When you consider the size of their cage - which would have taken up an entire room, the smell of their feces, and the lighting expense, it gets really aggravating. But moving them outdoors eliminates all those issues. Their hutch has a mesh bottom so their waste literally falls through the mesh or gets washed out via rain or a hose. The smell is non-existent as natural decomposers outside go to work on it immediately. They wake up around 8 am every day and soak up the rays and retire around 5 to their hide, so they're on a natural schedule. And the cost of their 4 x 7 hutch was about $75 versus hundreds had a built their cage myself or purchased one specifically for reptiles. I honestly think that you should give it a go before giving up. And again, I think you can get away with leaving them outdoors in Washington State.

 

[Herplings]

The reasons you have posted for people to think about should be long thought out before you even buy a Tegu. I think people are getting rid of them for other reasons. Mainly boredom.
People get stuff and then they want something else, or they want bigger, or just something new to look at. They sell stuff off to make room for new stuff.

I have never had that problem personally. I still have Reptiles that I got when I was 15 years old. I am almost 30 now.
I don't get rid of anything. If I want something new I just make room for it. Could be the reason I have 3 Reptiles rooms in my house. :doh :doh

As far as cleaning poop. Tegu poop is easy. Tegus are pretty much the smallest animal I own. I don't even consider them a large Lizard. Medium size at the most.
Come over when my Retics take a crap. 10-17 pounds of crap in one cage. If 4 or 5 do that the same night...... Do the math. Not to mention the 1-2 gallons of pee per cage. :-D

Food for the Monitors and Tegus are not to bad. I can shop for them at Wal-Mart, plus the 1 or 2 whole prey items a week I feed.

All in all I pay about 200 bucks every 6 weeks to feed my whole collection and my electric bills are about 200 bucks a month in the summer and 400 bucks a month in the winter.
But, it is worth it.

 

[reptastic]

The reasons you have posted for people to think about should be long thought out before you even buy a Tegu. I think people are getting rid of them for other reasons. Mainly boredom.
People get stuff and then they want something else, or they want bigger, or just something new to look at. They sell stuff off to make room for new stuff.

I have never had that problem personally. I still have Reptiles that I got when I was 15 years old. I am almost 30 now.
I don't get rid of anything. If I want something new I just make room for it. Could be the reason I have 3 Reptiles rooms in my house. :doh :doh

As far as cleaning poop. Tegu poop is easy. Tegus are pretty much the smallest animal I own. I don't even consider them a large Lizard. Medium size at the most.
Come over when my Retics take a crap. 10-17 pounds of crap in one cage. If 4 or 5 do that the same night...... Do the math. Not to mention the 1-2 gallons of pee per cage. :-D

Food for the Monitors and Tegus are not to bad. I can shop for them at Wal-Mart, plus the 1 or 2 whole prey items a week I feed.

All in all I pay about 200 bucks every 6 weeks to feed my whole collection and my electric bills are about 200 bucks a month in the summer and 400 bucks a month in the winter.
But, it is worth it.

i agree with you completely, i will never get bored with my reptiles, wish could house mines outside but since i have an open yard and i rent and i would worry about someone stealing them or them escaping so i just try to get them outside as much as possible and they enjoy it! but i will probably never own a burm or a rectic for those reasons you mentioned lol my boas are enough lol!

 

[carcharios]

I don't think people will try to steal my Tegus because Kimo would scare the crap out of them the first time he lunges at them with his mouth wide open. I've noticed now that he does this when he's hungry and is getting used to me being around his cage. After he's fed, he doesn't lunge, just kind of licks my hand through the cage.

I also live up on a hill so we don't have a lot of neighbors coming around. What we have here are mostly animals at night, owls, foxes, raccoons, possums and during the day we have lots of bald eagles, osprey, red-shouldered hawks, coopers hawks, etc., etc. Though I could see some animals going after Freida, most animals would think twice though about going after Kimo. Even my cat, a notorious lizard killer (she'd done a number on the 5 lined skink population that used to inhabit my deck) is scared to death of Kimo.

 

[White_Lotus]

I don't keep my tegus outside because everytime i take one outside they run for the hills. I've had to dig my chacoan from ontop of a gas tank of a car, my male akira has darted across the street when we were the only ones there and i was just sitting next to him. My tegus are especially more active, more flighty and more defensive when i take them outside >.< I'm terrified to keep them outdoors last thing i need to have happen is i open the cage and find 3 4ft tegus gaping and whipping their tails at me...

I have come close to giving up on my tegus, i've cried when i ran out of food and had no money, and they are scratching at the glass. Its most rewarding when i open the cage door and my big boy Akira(my first tegu) comes walking to me and lays his head on the door tracks while i pet him <-- That is why i don't give up my tegus.

 

[carcharios]

Only one of my tegus tried to run away and that was Diego, who is much smaller and faster than my two larger tegus. He is not allowed out of his exterior cage at this point for fear of him taking off again. I'm going to wait until he gets larger and thn move him in with my other two larger specimens.

They'll subside if they're kept outside but you've got to handle them a bunch. The cage I'm building for them right now is 10 x 5 x 6' high so I will be able to walk into the enclosure with them and still handle them. I'll tell you how it goes as soon as I get them in. Kimo has stopped lunging at me now and seems much more relaxed but I haven't really handled him too much because he's still guarding Frieda. I took Frieda out yesterday (when Kimo was in his hide) and she was fine.

 

[HorseCaak]

Blair, I will tell you for a fact that tegus do not eat everyday in the wild. What if they have storms that last a week, tegus are not going to be out looking for food, I keep mine outside here, and when we have a week of down pours they do not come out to feed. Often times bad weather can last a week if we get tropical weather.

So if they go a few days, it with not hurt them in the least, it happens in nature.

That sounds about right Bobby. Thanks. However, in the mean time, while I don't have access for an outdoor setting for my girl, (moving in September...) she is kept inside. Inside, she is in a controlled tank with her basking spot and what not so she is constantly out and hyper and wanting out of her cage. She climbs up to the top and hangs from the cables like a bad little girl, then she falls. Over and over and over and over again! I can see how them hiding in bad weather is especially fine because they aren't burning energy, rather they are saving it. So if she is constantly pissed and trying to escape, how many days would you see safe with no food? Sometimes you just want to take a 4-5 day trip and don't have anyone to feed, so you can't ever leave. This is my main concern.

 

[VARNYARD]

I do not think a small trip is going to be an issue, I would just put her in the dark and cover the cage, she should be just fine and calm down without the lights being on.

 

[HorseCaak]

Blair, I'm a biology teacher. I have the summers off and I travel A LOT. But my neighbor feeds my guys when I'm gone and I have her come twice a week. I leave a rubbermaid in the fridge full of chicken necks and she just tosses them in their cage. She waters their dish too BUT because they're kept outdoors, their dish usually fills up naturally when it rains because the top of their rabbit hutch is just screen and lets the rain in.

Thanks Carcharios. How do you have it set up for feeding? You say they "throw" the food in. I know when I feed mine in the cage, she likes to drag the food away and set it down on the mulch, risking eating substrate when it sticks to the food. Another thing that is a pain is her walking thru her food or taking a dump then walking thru it and tracking it EVERYWHERE! I don't much care to take her out anymore unless I plan to give her a bath first. Since I've got her in her new cage, she has become such a hassle in these ways. It never used to be like this. Used to be able to spot clean much easier in her smaller cage...

 

[carcharios]

I shouldn't have said "throw it in the cage" Sometimes I do throw their food in the cage but I have a big bowl - it's more like a beer tray in terms of size that I put their food on. And yes, Kimo still manages to drag it through the mulch sometimes so I've gotten rid of most of their substrate other than what's in their hide to avoid this issue.

Lately, I've been using barbecue tongs to feed them. I just grab a chicken neck with the tongs and they snatch it up. This way, I can avoid them dragging it from the dish to the substrate and this way they also won't associate my actual hand with their food. It seems to be working out so far. I'm going to continue this method when I move them into their kennel in two weeks.

Also, their kennel does not have any cyrpus in it. It's just compacted topsoil at the moment. If their food lands in the soil, so be it. In the wild, no one feeds them off a dish. In fact, some organisms in the dirt are probably really healthy for their digestive tract.

 

[carcharios]

I shouldn't have said "throw it in the cage" Sometimes I do throw their food in the cage but I have a big bowl - it's more like a beer tray in terms of size that I put their food on. And yes, Kimo still manages to drag it through the mulch sometimes so I've gotten rid of most of their substrate other than what's in their hide to avoid this issue.

Lately, I've been using barbecue tongs to feed them. I just grab a chicken neck with the tongs and they snatch it up. This way, I can avoid them dragging it from the dish to the substrate and this way they also won't associate my actual hand with their food. It seems to be working out so far. I'm going to continue this method when I move them into their kennel in two weeks.

Also, their kennel does not have any cyrpus in it. It's just compacted topsoil at the moment. If their food lands in the soil, so be it. In the wild, no one feeds them off a dish. In fact, some organisms in the dirt are probably really healthy for their digestive tract.

 

[carcharios]

Here are some pics of their old rabbit hutch enclosure and their new kennel enclosure that I'm in the process of finishing. There is also a pic of Diego's smaller outdoor enclosure, which I'll move him out of once he's big enough to coexist with my two bigger tegus. Right now, he'd fit through the caging so I think he'll have to wait until next summer before he's ready for the upgrade.

Frieda came out to visit while I was snapping the photos and eventually Kimo emerged too (notice door closed for his photos, lol). You can see the new enclosure in the background. Diego was in his hide in the smaller enclosure so no-go on the pics of him, which is a shame because he looks nothing like my two bigs. He may be a hybrid blue or an extreme. You can also see the new hide I've made for my two big dragons. I found an old clay septic pipe and burried it under a bunch of boulders from my backyard. I've secured the poultry netting about 1.5 feet up the walls as well as under their topsoil and there is another layer of netting I attached to the top of their cage to keep predatory birds out. I still need to put some sort of flashing up along the sides to keep Frieda from climbing up and then out through the caging because she's just small enough still that she can fit through the 2'' wide caging. Suggestions appreciated!

 

[HorseCaak]

Kennel...

I like the Kennel. Clean and easy. I'll be moving and renting at first for a year so I need something that isn't going to cause a mess or questioning by a landlord. Thanks for the pics! Sorry, no suggestions for escape proofing.

 

[carcharios]

The kennel cost me $200 on craigslist - you can get the same 10 x 5 x 6 kennel at Tractor Supply Co for $300 new. It's a modular kennel, took about 20 minutes to put together with butterfly clamps. I had to purchase three rolls of the poultry netting, of which I've only used two so far. The netting was $11 a roll at lowes. Took about 10 topsoil bags (half off at walmart because they were torn a little) for a total of $5 bucks. The rocks are from my backyard and the old clay septic pipe is also from my yard. Not super expensive - especially when you factor in that I'm not paying for lighting fixtures, bulbs, an aquarium, lumber, etc.

 

[Rhetoric]

These are pretty neat, are you still housing them like this? I might consider doing something like this for the summer, spring seems a bit too cold for oregon. We've had a few warm days but its still pretty cold for the most part. My garage has a back door going to our patio, I was thinking of doing something like this and keeping the tegus out there during the day, if the weather isn't too cold maybe they can spend the night out there. I feel silly asking, but when they're out there like this they're fine without lighting and all that? If they get too cold they can just go burrow or go into their hides..? What do you think would be reasonable as far as night temps go? Or highest day temps? Theres a week or so in August where the temps get 100ish, thats usually the hottest it gets where I'm at.