soon to be new b/w tegu owner!!

Erin · Member Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 27

hello guys!!!

I was browsing the place out and thought i would ask a few things.I will be getting a tegu in a few weeks. so far i have his tank on order 200 gallon tank.I have his 2 lights, his temp and humidty reader and his beding.

My biggest concern now is his diet. he currently is being fed Merrick dog food..and from reading threads i dont think this is very good for him!!! he is 2 1/2 yrs old.

so my plan is to give him insects/mice and fruits/veggies. is this okay?now i asked the guy why he was being fed this and his responce was he wont eat nothing else

so could i still give him alittle dog food and then the other stuff? and how often should i be feeding him?

sorry for the million questions ,i just wanna make sure he will be okay.

thanks alot guys Erin

Ben3233 · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:

Of course, giving always dog food is not very good.

What you could do, is to investigate the meat (mice,turkey,fish,insect,egg)

After that, if he seems to enjoy them, you can investigate the fruits, they do love the sweet fruits like : grape,melon,banana,strawberry,papaya etc.

If he is doing well, you can finally introduce the veggies,but If he doesn't like it, you can put the veggies into a blender, and mix the veggie pudding with the meat(turkey) he/she is going to eat it without knowing anything about it lol

Do not forget to give him some supplement like calcium/d3vitamins and miner-all

good luck!

_________________
Ben
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mistery, but today is a gift...that is why we call it the present". -Tortoise Oogway

Erin · Member Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 27

ok great Ben!!!! now do i really need to do the supplements? if so thats fine.any kind you can point me to. and for meet can i give him like beef hearts , some boneless lean chicken and for fish some canned mackerel. i plan to feed him worms to

iam trying not to get ahead of myself but as you can tell iam very excited about him!!!!!

jose2187 · Honored Member Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 259

yes supplements are very important, reptivite is a multi vitamin for reptiles just dust some food with it

angelrose · Moderator Joined: Jan 05, 2008 Posts: 1455

Hi Erin and Welcome to theTegu family.

dog food is not always good it has too many fillers and cat food is worst. never canned fish only fresh fish fillets. reptiles and sodium do not go together.

here is a large variety list of tegu food I have seen and just mix it up on your nice big tegu.

http://www.tegu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1353

Erin · Member Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 27

thanks AngelRose

I printed the list of foods

so it sounds easy for feeding.now after reading some more threads(love this site guys!!!) now i got what and what not to feed him .but would i feed him 1 or 2 times a day?

txrepgirl · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject:

Hi Erin.Welcome to the Tegu forum family and congrats on getting your new Tegu.Yes,the calcium and vitamine powder is very important.I will give you some info at the end so you know when to give it to him.One of my Tegus eat some dried dog food every now and than.When he had the runs not to long ago the vet told me not to give him any raw meat and to give him some dog food for now ( it was for like 5 day ).We give our dogs Nutro ( brand ) that has no fillers.I don't give him the dog food he just gets in to it when he free roams and I forget to put it up.The vitamine and calcium powder that I use is Rep-Cal,Advanced Formulation,Herptivite with beta carotene Multivitamins and the Rep-Cal Phosphorus free,Calcuim with vitamine 3D ultrafine powder.Hope that helps.Good luck with him.

http://thetegu.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=35969#35969

http://thetegu.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=34545#34545

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/feeder-crickets-worms-rodents-roaches-and-more/

http://rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_01.asp

angelrose · Moderator Joined: Jan 05, 2008 Posts: 1455

Erin, I feed them till they are full. get to know him. I have my arg. Lance he wakes at the crack of dawn and he eats up and basks for a while and so far sleeps for the rest of the day.

then there is Guin, she wakes a little later, basks for a while and then eats a little in the am, in the afternoon and the evening.

and Angelrose she likes to eat whatever I am cooking mixed with egg.

take your time and get to know them. they are curious, smart and wonderful.

Erin · Member Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 27

ok very good. i will post some pictures of him when i get him(wont have him till may 3 or so)

angelrose · Moderator Joined: Jan 05, 2008 Posts: 1455

Congrats in advance. you will be ready and your tegu will love you for it.
looking forward to those pics of your beautiful tegu.

Erin · Member Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 27

now 1 more things ..really..lol

on the lights do they make a bulb combined with the 2 lights they need??

i was thinking if they did it would be better instead of having like 3 lights the uv/uvb and then the basking light. do they make the uv/uvb bulbs?

so i can put the uv/uvb on one side of the tank and the basking on the other side.

angelrose · Moderator Joined: Jan 05, 2008 Posts: 1455

Erin
there is a really good bulb put out by either ZOO MED or EXO TERRA. I use the EXO TERRA (less expensive brand and they both do the same thing). Solar Glo, Sun Simulating Lamp. Self-ballasted mercury vapour bulb.

Optimal levels of UVB,UVA visual light and heat in one.