How much food is to much?

pumpkin · Member Joined: Apr 14, 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Detroit

My little tegu is doing so good thanks to everybodies advice!!
I have been hearing that tegus eat ALOT, but I'm haveing a hard time figureing out how much is alot. She'll eat about a dozen or two crickets a day and then look like a blimp and take a nice nap under her basking bulb, is this a good amount of food?
My beardies when they were little could put away 100+ crickets no problem.
So should my tegu be eatting more crickets or is she in the norm?

teguboy77 · Valued Member Joined: May 17, 2006 Posts: 140 Location: pa

Well when there young i feed them till there full or as much as they want to eat,cause these lizards grow fast, alot of food helps with growth.As they get about 18 months i start feeding every other day then when they are about 30 months old or 3 years old i myself feed them every two days.

pumpkin · Member Joined: Apr 14, 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Detroit

ok so she probley is eatting a decent amount. I have another question though how can you tell the difference between an argentina and colombian besides size? Ducthess doesn't have a green head but she is still kind of young.

YorkOC · Valued Member Joined: Oct 09, 2005 Posts: 101

attach a picture and everyone on here will be able to tell you what type it is.

worleygurl · Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:13 am Post subject:

Hi. This is a difficult question to answer without more information.

How big is your tegu from the tip of it's nose to the tip of it's tail?

How old is he/she supposed to be?

What exactly are you feeding it?

The species is also going to be important. Where did you get your tegu from?

My tegus are right around the 20" mark and they are pigs. I feed a large variety of food.

On fruit and insect/worm day they will eat a huge plate of fruit (I'm talking about a 9" dinner platel like most of us have in our cabinets) along with (and this depends on which insect/worm I feed) 100 night crawlers, OR 150 crickets OR 150 super worms. I always mix in assorted greens and veggies with the fruit as well. They willingly eat (no tricking involved) collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, arugula, mache, tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squash, snap pea, green beans, yellow beans, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, apples, and papaya.

On chick day, they will eat 2 chicks a piece.

On rodent day, they eat 4 hopper mice a piece. Hoppers are too small for them but I've still got hoppers in the freezer so I'm using them up before moving on to adult mice.

Two days ago, they had soft boiled eggs along with a heaping plate of fruit and salad. They ate every bit of the four soft boiled eggs along with the salad and fruit.

Yesterday, in addition to each eating their chicks, they also ate some fruit and one crawdad each. I was only able to buy two crawdads because that's all that was left at the pet store.

I think I will start taking pictures of their dishes before I feed them. I think it would be neat to share pictures of how much our tegus eat a day.
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Kris, Herps they're not just a hobby, they're a way of life!

pumpkin · Member Joined: Apr 14, 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Detroit

She isn't very big at all, I got her from a peltile show I was never told how old she was or anything.
I haven't measured her yet I wanted her to get settled in first. She doesn't seem to crazy about pinkies though she is all about the crickets.