Baby behaviour?

Brutus · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject: Baby behaviour?

This is Brutus. We've had him for almost a week now, and he's pretty awesome.

We do have a couple of questions tho. Brutus is being temporarily housed in a 90 quart stearalite container. He has cypress mulch for substrate, a water bowl, a few rocks to climb on, and a hide. He prefers to dig in and sleep under the mulch. His basking site is right around 100°, cool end is in the mid 80's. I mist the enclosure daily, keeping the humidity in the mid 60-65% range. He spends his late mornings (when he decides to come out) basking, then we feed him in a seperate container about an hour or so after he wakes. When we put him back in his enclosure, he will bask for a bit, then he goes NUTZ! He will start jumping at the lid, trying to grab the screen and cling to it. We take it as he wants out, so we let him out to wander around for a while. He will walk around exploring, climbing, rooting under pillows, things like that. He seems to be very inquisitive. Are we correct in thinking he wants out? Or is it something else? Basking temps wrong? He's pooping good, eating well, and is pretty well mannered when we hold him. He seems to enjoy being scratched under his chin, and likes to have the top of his head rubed as well.

I guess my question is, are these normal behaviours for a young tegu? We don't know how old he is, we forgot to ask.

Any input will be appriciated!

Thanks!
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Teiidae · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:15 pm Post subject:

I would say the temps are good and within reason, I'm a little higher on the basking side - 105-110, but yours seems to be ok with the temps "Is digesting" - I try to keep the humidity no less than 70%, although I like it higher, but I've found myself at much lower before really monitoring it...

I believe with that said, you are correct in thinking that the Tegu wants out of the enclosure - All the other behavior you are speaking of sounds normal and healthy, however he may need more space now, and if the container you are "temporarily housing" him in has no windows except for the top, time to upsize the enclosure...

Your care and the Tegu's behavior sounds fine to me - I would suggest more space though as they like to have room to run around and see what's going on around them...
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