Agama International tegus

superduty220 · New Member Joined: Sep 27, 2005 Posts: 3

I am looking to buy a pair of ba@wy arg. tegus adult ready to breed, I missed out on the ones prolecat was selling day late and a dollar short. I am looking into agama international, Bert emailed me today with inventory and also a letter stating that his tegus are not handeled so being more wild. But everywhere I read and look all research says the same thing, regardless wheather adult or not with proper handeling and work they can be tamed. I keep thinking about bert because they are true arg. bloodlines and from what I see at his web site he has some really intense specimens. Scrathing my head, please give me some input on his tegus and taming. Superduty220

drfish · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:42 am Post subject:

Don't take this as gospel. Any Tegu can, and may well attack if it feels threatened, regardless of what the books say, and regardless of whether or not the Tegu is hand tame.

Basically, they are all individuals, so what Bert is telling you is right. If you put the time and effort in, yes it can be 'dog' tame, but as with dogs, they can attack, or get narky at any given time.

Englishtegu · Valued Member Joined: Jul 13, 2005 Posts: 111 Location: UK

I'm no expert, but I've had a pair of Bert's Argentine black and whites for a couple of months now. They were a year old when I got them, and hadn't been handled much.

I gave them two or three days to settle. Then v. brief handling on alternate days for two or three sessions. Then daily without exception since.

It took about four weeks for them to become 'tame'. At first it was bloody hard to get hold of them and almost impossible to hold them. The male would hiss, body roll and tail whip, but worst of all I got scratched to pieces over the first couple of weeks! (Not been bitten once though).

To be honest I found the first two or three weeks fairly stressful, but since then its been easy...

My tegus are already as tame as my blue tongue skinks or bearded dragons, and don't even flinch when I reach in to pick them up. The female climbs straight onto my shoulders when I pick her up.

Hope this helps,
Mark.

MO · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:14 am Post subject:

I was going to get a tegu from Bert but he only had 18" available and I prefer to get my reptiles straight out o the egg, if you know what I mean.

If I'm going to have to fight to tame something I would prefer it a little smaller. But that's just me.

I decided to wait for the next breeding season. I've heard many wonderful things about the hatchlings that Rick sells from members of this particular community. As Martha Stewart would say, "That's a good thing"!