blue tegu color

maddogg9019 · New Member Joined: Apr 23, 2006 Posts: 6

I just got back from the New York Metro Reptile Expo and there was a blue tegu there. The guy there said that it was about 8 months old, but i saw that it had a pretty nice light powder blue coloring. Anyways can blue teugs develop color at 8 months of age because i thought that they didnt start untill about 18 months of age. Thanks for your help

-matt

Teiidae · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject:

Welcome to theTegu

- While I have not kept any Blues, there are a few people on here who have and could help with your question - I have read 12-18 months for their color to appear - Perhaps the Tegu maybe is a little older than 8 monhs - How big was it

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Nero557 · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:20 am Post subject:

yeah, maybe the guy who had it just said it was 8 months because he might not know that hibernating will slow down the growth... so he could just be guessing at the age... I also have not kept blues, but I just thought I'd pop that in there...

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Rick · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:12 am Post subject:

I have not seen blues 'blue up' that young, but then again, not all blues seem to get blue. As stated, the age may be off. Resellers don't always know.

Keep in mind, many times an argentine black and white can get a blueish or greenish tint as well when under some lighting. In the NH expo a few weekends ago (which has many of the same vendors as the expo you attended) one vendor was selling a small deformed (MBD perhaps) argentine black and white tegu as a blue tegu for $80. I informed him it was a black and white and he removed 'blue tegu' from the tank. At the end of auction he lowered the price to $40. It still didn't sell.

So, use caution.

Rick
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tegulevi · Respected Member Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 489

with mine it seems like temperature had something to do with it. because if the are basking there is verry little blue on thier heads, but when they first come up from a burrow and havent warmed up yet they are ery blue, i just thought that was interesting

Nero557 · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 1:08 pm Post subject:

Well, like most other reptiles, I'm pretty sure that tegus can darken their color in relation to their body temperature. Such as when I bearded dragon is cold it will turn darker almost black to be able to absorb more sunlight/heat. And when they get warm, they will lighten up the color as not to absorb as much, I am sure tegus probably do the same thing, just not as drastic of a color change. Also, color from dark to light and vice versa, can tell you if your animal is unhappy or not. So don't always assume that a dark color means they are cold, they could just be unhappy. You shouldn't assume on the temp right away, check the temp, then up it if it isn't correct, because if it is correct and you up it because the animal is darker then you could end up cooking your animal. Keep in mind I am saying light to dark and dark to light, not from one color to another color.
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-Art-

maddogg9019 · New Member Joined: Apr 23, 2006 Posts: 6

Yeah I think that the guy sellling it said that he had recieved the tegu a couple of nights before the show. I am 99% sure it is infact a blue tegu because of the color, black spot on the end of the nose, and i saw some orangeish coloring on the belly. I would say in my best guestimate that the blue tegu was about 2ft. give or take a few inches. It was for like 300$ but at the end he was gonna sell it for like 225$ Hopefully in a couple of weeks if i can convince my dad :wink they will still have the blue tegu and i can get it down to 200$ becasue it is also missing part of its tail. Luckily the tegu seemed allright temperment wise but was pretty squirmy at the show but i can understand that

Sorry for the long post but i was trying to answer some of the Questions. Thanks for your help

-matt