Undertegu heating

[rosieuk]

I've got a free roaming adult male B&W. He's moderately tame and likes to wander around the flat, he's not so keen on his harness. I got him in 2014 so he's around 4 years old.
I've a couple of questions -

how hot are your tegu when they finish basking? With Priscus he seems happy to start walking around at 31-34c (measured with heat gun mid back). He's also shown the warm bloodedness a couple of times - walking him outside - he started off relatively cool and after half an hour he was very hot to the touch (no sun & overcast) - and it wasn't mating season. I think they can do it at will.

Ive set his basking spot with 4 x 7w heat mats - two always on, two on timer and his basking spot is 110-115f - they're under two large floor tiles & he seems to love it - he also has an overhead 10.0 coil uvb. I'm not going to do him any harm with that setup? He has a massive appetite and I don't know where it goes. He's about 6kg but not overweight.

He's good around kids - a highlight was the two year old who thought the flicking tongue was a tegu game and tried to play catch the tongue (still not as bad as antidepressant tiddlywinks!).

Another issue is baths - since he worked out he can get out of the bath with some judicious scrabbling I am having problems getting him to bathe for any length of time. Any suggestions?

 

[AlphaAlpha]

All sounds great and like he's in good hands..... If you have a shower try putting that on slowly over the bath and let the bath fill up naturally around him, mine loves this and sits under the water droplets... Make sure you keep an eye on tepreture

 

[Merlot]

My Gu loves the water hot hot. Will stay in there all day unless he poops. I’ll drain and add some more hot water. My tegu also loves feeling the droplets from the shower head, in fact, he like to drink water best when I’m misting the water in mini thick droplets of water trying to mimic rain fall. Likes to try to catch the droplets or drink off the plants

 

[rosieuk]

All sounds great and like he's in good hands..... If you have a shower try putting that on slowly over the bath and let the bath fill up naturally around him, mine loves this and sits under the water droplets... Make sure you keep an eye on tepreture

I tried this and he absolutely loved it. Flopped out on the bottom of the bath and went to sleep, looked like he was enjoying a back massage. Does anyone know if tegu are supposed to have gastroliths? I was thinking fine smooth aquarium gravel might be worth trying.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

I actually put some pea gravel in my enclosure and on a few occasions i have caught Alpha eating them but they always pass straight through so I'm not worried...... I thought this may have being getting extra minerals from with in the stone but it could be gastroliths....IDK

Rosie where in UK are you?

 

[rosieuk]

I actually put some pea gravel in my enclosure and on a few occasions i have caught Alpha eating them but they always pass straight through so I'm not worried...... I thought this may have being getting extra minerals from with in the stone but it could be gastroliths....IDK

Rosie where in UK are you?

Colchester.

I'm tempted to try because he eats like food is going out of fashion - but won't touch fruit and seems to have a tardis colon - eats and eats and eats - sometimes poops quite quickly - sometimes glaciation moves faster. He quite enjoyed the shower today - scratching and generally enjoying himself but I don't think he's familiar with the use of eyelids when it comes to water. He's soooo big now, I can barely pick him up, it's like trying to pick up a toddler. I hope they never learn to hunt in packs - 5 to 10 large tegu is something you wouldn't want to argue with.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

I'm up in Yorkshire .....yes Alpha was a ferocious eater last summer but he slowed down over the winter months.... I think hes just starting to get his appetite back though so we will see.

 

[rosieuk]

I'm up in Yorkshire .....yes Alpha was a ferocious eater last summer but he slowed down over the winter months.... I think hes just starting to get his appetite back though so we will see.

It's more the part where he eats food that doesn't look like it fits in the available space, then does it again a couple of days later and so on and on and on - there doesn't seem to be the room for it all. He'll eat 4 chicken eggs quartered one day and 2 days later two salmon steaks so quick they don't touch the sides, he should look like a little barrel, but no indication he's even had a couple of sticks of celery. Still so pleased he finally likes baths - he's quite a handful even when he's calm.
He tagged my leg in September, my own fault (and I think he had sore tooth), and I couldn't walk for two days - from the bruising caused by bite. Don't annoy tegu for you are crunchy & good with ketchup. More to the point - they have a 1000n bite force.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

I wouldn't worry too much about how much he's eating, probably just in a growth spurt .... I haven't had the pleasure of a full grown up bite yet.....lol.....but my arms look like I'm into self harming due to scratch marks....omg

I read somewhere that as long as your tegu is not scraping its belly on the floor as it walks/runs then this indicates that hes NOT obese.