columbian tegu furniture

DJeter26 · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:44 am Post subject: columbian tegu furniture

I have a colombian Tegu, and he hides alot. he’s out from about 9:30 AM to about 11:30 AM. he’s not aggressive or anything. I read on another thread that he might stay out more if I had more in the cage so he diddn’t feel all out in the open. It makes sense to me, but I’m not exactly sure what to put in there. at the moment the cage is 4 ft long, 2 ft wide, and 2 ft tall ( he’s about 1.5 ft himself ). It has a long branch going from the bottom right corner to the top left, a water bowl, and a basking rock ( not heated, but basking ). any ideas on how to furnish? o, by the way, my mother and I are making him a pond to lay in with an airator ( i think thats what it’s called ) so i can have little goldfish in there for him to snack on if he feels the need.

Rick · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:49 pm Post subject:

In the case of furnishing for any tegu, make sure he has a hide or two. Some people place on hide in the enclosure in the middle of the enclosure so that is it partly in the warm zone and partly in the cool zone. I have heard of others who put one in both ends. You can also put in several pieces of clean driftwood, knotted jungle vine (looks like really knotted drift wood), some fake plants, some fake hanging plants, etc.

Make sure everything is clean. Even stuff from your local petshop has been handled by staff and customers and if they handled a bird or sick lizard prior your tegu could get infected.

I use fake plants because I have never been able to keep any plant alive for more then a month in my tegu enclosure. They like to pull it down, tip it over, dig under it, etc. As a precaution, since I haven't ever heard of it happening, I still buy fake plants that the leaves and stems are large enough that the tegu can't swallow it if the tegu pulls it apart.

Juvenile tegus, though they are not arboreal, still love to climb. Getting something that they can climb on (I use a large piece of knotted jungle vine) can really stimulate them to explore.

I place items throughout all of the enclosure. This way there as playthings to explore in all temperature zones.

There are also other ways to stimulate your tegu. Move all of the furnishings around in the enclosure when you clean it to change the bedding. This gives them something new to explore. The only thing I leave constant is the food & water dish as well as the hide.

Another thing you can do is several times a day drop in a snack (in the form of a live cricket) into the enclosure. I often place one on the large jungle vine I have in the enclosure. As it looks around and climbs down my tegu will hear it or smell it, the tegu runs around looking for it, moving mulch aside, checking around and under everything until it spots the cricket then it climbs up and pounces on it.

I have recently bought a small rubber ball. I made a hole in each side just large enough for a cricket. I put a dozen crickets in the ball once in awhile I toss it into the enclosure. It too these tegus a short while to figure out what it was, once one listened he could hear the crickets inside it. He was tossing the ball around trying to get under it. He realized after this that when he did this the crickets would randomly fall out and he got a free snack. He absolutely loves the ball. I don't leave the ball in the enclosure and he only plays with it for short periods while supervised. tc5000 has a larger ball for his tegu to play with. It's not a solid ball, it appears to be one of the dog 'tug-o-war' balls. You can see the pictures of both balls in our respective albums. Mine is "Tux the Tegu" and his is "tc5000's Album".

I hope this is helpful to you. I would like to add a comment about the pond/goldfish thing. A small "pond" is a great idea, but should be cleaned and changed on a regular basis. Stangnant water is a breeding ground for disease. Tegus often enjoy to soak, but you just need to be aware of the upkeep of keeping a pond clean. As far as the goldfish, there is debate over feeding live goldfish. I am sure others who read this will post their opinions which is great. I have had tegus in the past (they were not mine but I had them for years while their owner was over seas) whom I fed live goldfish. I didn't do it as a regular food staple, but I did give them at least one a week just to randomize the menu some. I have also given goldfish to my current tegu with no issue. Some claim that live goldfish can carry parasites. My opinion is that this is indeed possible, but by keeping my own goldfish, crickets & mice, I never had an issue. Buying fish from a petshop and dropping them into your tegu could be a serious problem. As some people point out, buying live mice or other live foods, from a shop that doesn't clean up after them well or having them over populated, could also carry parasites.

Keep in mind, I am not saying to feed goldfish to your tegu. I am not saying to avoid goldfish. I still feed goldfish occasionally, but if I was going to use petshop goldfish I would not feed them to my tegu without at least quarantining them for a month or so to make sure they are not sick. (Note: not visibly sick does not mean they are parasite free). A safe route to take if you want to just mix up the diet, would be to freezekill goldfish for a few days, this would kill any parasites.

Rick

Rick · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:51 pm Post subject:

Ya know, while typing that it didn't seem to be so long, but after looking at it, I realized I just wrote a book! lol

I appologize for the HUGE post.

Rick