Zilla doesnt like her new home

[Aardbark]

Its kind of funny. I just spent $400 and about a week of time working on it, and Godzilla (my red tegu) doesnt like the cage.

I put her in, and she walks around, inspecting, digging, looking around, but in about 5-10 min, she comes back to the entrance and comes crawling back out if I leave the door open). If I have the entrance door closed, she comes and pokes at it with her nose.

She is 4 months old. The cage is 6'x4'x2.5' The cool side, (and most of the cage) is about 75 and the warm spot is only 80. I have to work on getting the warm side warmer. The humidity is steady at 70 and there is plenty of uvb lighting. The substrace is cyprus, and I have some plants and rocks in there to make it look and feel nice.

Its weird how she doesnt want to stay inside it. Any ideas? Should I just put her in and close the door, and sort of force her to get used to it? And yes, obviously I need to make it warmer in there. But the cage is still warmer than it is outside the cage. So why is she comming out of the cage so much?

 

[kellen.watkins]

Give her some time, its not uncommon for tegus to hate a new enclosure, my vanilla loves the new enclosure. Since I put her in, eli hates it and is acting aggressive all the time

 

[new2tegus]

That doesn't mean she hates it haha, if she starts picketing in the front of the cage holding a sign that reads "This enclosure sucks!" I'd be worried then,but she's just checking it out. My gu always wants out, just their nature to want more space to roam, they weren't meant to be kept in an enclosure, you know this, they know this. Just their natural curiosity. She will get use to it.

 

[Steven.]

Yeah its a time factor.. She's not use to it, so she probably thinks its her free time... leave her in there for a couple of days to get adjusted to it...

 

[Aardbark]

Thanks everyone.

Even when I close the door, she crawls over to it and pokes at it and give me the old, big puppy eye look.

 

[Aardbark]

Im such a sucker, I cant resist that face.

 

[new2tegus]

Yeah, it's hard to not just let them out. Mine comes over and scratches at the door, and normally I let him out every time,but sometimes I can't hang around and have to run errands. Other days, I just leave him out.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

Im such a sucker, I cant resist that face.

So cute!

 

[Aardbark]

Hehe thanks. So is Kodo.