which kinds of fish???and some other questions.

[wes]

i'm wondering which types of fish you guys feed your tegu's?

1:can i give salt water fish to them or not?
salmon,cod,pangasius,alaska polak etc.... all filets because they eat mice, rats and new born rabbits as well and from these sources they get the bones, furthermore i dust eggs,fruits, chicken,turkey and everything else without bones with zoomed repticalcium without d3.

2:what about feeding bread, mashed potatoes,rice,spaghetti
(without sauce only the dry pasta) and so on? i've red they can eat this too but i've never tried it so far just wanted some opinions here.

3:sometimes i give beef liver and heart but what about steak or lean (meatloaf????) ground beef? is this good to feed too?

4:they may not eat porkchops or any meat coming from pigs right?

i would like to feed a varied diet as possible and they don't accept alot of fruit
(only 1 female will take it readily).

last one: i've red that most give chicken and turkey raw (chicks, ducklings and ground turkey) so don't you guys worrie about them getting salmonella or does this not affect tegu's? this is the main reason all of my shorttailed pythons only get commercially bred rodents+ the watery slimy stinking feces.

thanks.

 

[wes]

so no one has an answer to my questions?????

 

[Filphfio]

I fed ground bison one night to my tegus, and my monitor. The monitor liked it better then the tegus. I havent fed fish yet.

 

[laurarfl]

Umm, OK, let's give it a shot! Your mileage may vary, but this is kinda what I've gathered along the way...

"1:can i give salt water fish to them or not?
salmon,cod,pangasius,alaska polak etc.... all filets because they eat mice, rats and new born rabbits as well and from these sources they get the bones, furthermore i dust eggs,fruits, chicken,turkey and everything else without bones with zoomed repticalcium without d3."

Yes. Those are good fish, but all things in moderation. Variety is the key and you want to watch for high levels of mercury, just like our food. Fish can contain thiaminase in the gut and feeder fish have higher levels than other fish. Goldfish have high levels of Vit E are considered a poor food choice. I would dust fish with Herp-vite along with Repti-Cal and use Repti-Cal without phosphorous.

"2:what about feeding bread, mashed potatoes,rice,spaghetti
(without sauce only the dry pasta) and so on? i've red they can eat this too but i've never tried it so far just wanted some opinions here."

I've heard of people feeding pasta to their igs, but I avoid it. It's not part of their natural diet.

"3:sometimes i give beef liver and heart but what about steak or lean (meatloaf????) ground beef? is this good to feed too?"

I have given mine steak leftovers but I cut off any portion with seasonings or wash it really well first. I'd stay away from meatloaf because of the bread content.

"4:they may not eat porkchops or any meat coming from pigs right?"

Most commercial pork no longer carries the parasite risk that it used to. Ground pork is fatty, but I would think lean cuts are OK.


"last one: i've red that most give chicken and turkey raw (chicks, ducklings and ground turkey) so don't you guys worrie about them getting salmonella or does this not affect tegu's? this is the main reason all of my shorttailed pythons only get commercially bred rodents+ the watery slimy stinking feces."

I've heard that snakes get nasty stool from poultry, but the tegus don't seem to have that problem (shrug). Sure, I worry about Salmonella, so I take the same precautions I would use in my own cooking. I keep it well refrigerated and I freeze any leftovers. I thaw it quickly so it doesn't sit out too long. I also use probiotics which was shown in some studies to reduce the incidence of Salmonella in iguanas. Their digestive and immune systems are much different from ours. I'm not saying that they couldn't get overrun with bacteria and parasites, but they eat whole food and digest all sorts of stuff. They have quite a strong stomach to eat all the dead, garbagey junk they eat in the wild. They are an opportunistic dumpster diving sort of lizard by native accounts.

 

[wes]

thank you very much for the info,

i gave those probiotics(nutribac) in the past(for my snakes and savanahs i had back then) as well but they are not sold here anymore and i've red about those tests on iguana's regarding salmonella so i'm aware it's a good producy but unfortunately i can't find it anymore. is there something sold in a drugstore that i could use(for use with humans) the nutribac was designed for reptiles.

as for the fish: i would not feed whole seafish, just the filets-do these contain thiaminase as well?

 

[laurarfl]

It seems gutting the fish eliminates the thiaminase threat.

Since I have to take probiotics, I just use my own. You can find all sorts of brands sold at pharmacies.

 

[PuffDragon]

reptileUV.com sells the NutriBAC. If your interested you might be able to purchase it through them.

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[wes]

thanks for the info but i've mailed different companies in the us and none of them would ship to belgium unless i order huge amounts.