Just became a Tegu dad

txrepgirl · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject:

poor little hamster.Hey but at least your Tegu ate some thing

.Don't starve him.At this point I would give him any thing he wants to eat.He is already weak as it is.With the lighting I really don't know what to tell you because you have such a big enclosure.I'm glad you read my post to late other wise he wouldn't of ate.I might be wrong but I think that he is depressed because he is locked up.We can't for get that he lived all his life out side and now he is inside.Our Tegus always been inside.Do you have a fenced in area where you can let him free roam ? it would be worth a try.Have you tried to give him some raw eggs ? I'm so proud of you for helping that poor little guy.

Ben3233 · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:

Taming a Wild or old animal is hard, but it will make you gain a lot of experience.

Don't worry, take your time...
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Ben3233
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

i0r · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:49 pm Post subject:

Here's a picture so you can understand his situation

That's a combined dog pen/storage house, divided in half. Dog pen with door facing my house, storage deposit with door facing the back, divided by a brick wall. I used to have my German Shepherd there until he passed away November 2006. Anyway....at the moment Juancho owns half that house....his half as you can see has a dog door down the left that leads out to his outside area. Though for the time being i have to keep it closed because the fence wasnt made for a reptile, so he would easily run away. So here's the thing....if everything turns out ok with him and he accept me as his loving father and makes no threat to the rest of my family and 2 small dogs he will have it all. All i need to do is replace the fence with a chicken/rabbit fence, fill up with dirt, rocks and some plants. I would also shape up the inside of his cage with sofisticated lighting system, maybe ventilation, heating and other obstacles he might like The thing is that i've promised my wife(who doesnt like reptiles at all) that if he continues being aggressive and there's a chance he will bite any of us that i would let him free once his all cured and recovered. So of course i dont like the idea of invest money if later on i would have to let him go. So for now he will only have the inside enclosure. I've told him though that if he behaves and adapts that he will have everything he wants and live like a king for all his life

Ok now to his recovery progress.
His wounds are almost invisible....the wound of his side of his mouth that was flapping like chicken skin on a buffalo wing seems to have attached itself again. My only concern is his toe/claw that has to be removed. Though i will wait to remove it until i can handle him and he stays calm. It doesnt seem to be infected or anything so all cool.

One thing that keeps worrying me is the lighting part.....thing is that here in argentina a reptile store is very hard to come by...and if you knew one and went there last year you don't know if it's still there today. So the lights i've installed aren't really made for reptiles...but bought in a hardware store....he currently has a 100w flood light and a black light(no description on it what so ever), both turned on from 10am to 7pm. It's approx 14 inches above his basking stones. And the flood light warms up the rocks pretty well. But is it good or can it harm him??? the black light lamp scares the heck out of me...no description?? Could it be a "common" black light?? and if so, what's the specs on a common black light?

Pic of him basking

Anyway i think i know a reptile store that is 3hrs from here...so next week if i get the chance i'll go there to get some proper lights if you guys think it's necessary.

Trust progress.
I've been sitting with him everyday now....he has never moved or seemed interested in anything while i'm around. But i guess it's a question of time. Today though when i went to sit with him he actually didn't seem to be bothered at all and slept for the first time in my presence. I hope it's a good progress that he sleeps and don't care too much if i'm around.....but the other half of me brain starts to think....what if....he's worse than i thought and feels so bad he really can't be bothered to care about something that's a threat to him. Though i think it's him getting used to me

Ben3233 · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:

Wow...your enclosure is totally awesome...

Make sure that the humidity level is between 60%-80% (70 average)
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Ben3233
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

i0r · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject:

Thanks Ben! Though here in Argentina the humidity almost never drops below 70 - 80% i'll check it on a regular basis

Ben3233 · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:08 pm Post subject:

ohhh perfect!
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Ben3233
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

txrepgirl · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:

Wow.You are a great dad to him

.Until you can get some proper lighting like the UVB light do you think you can put a dog collar and a leash on him to take him out side ( try to put it under neath his shoulders and not the neck)? he will get the proper lighting from the sun and maybe he will not feel so depressed if he gets to go out side and with the leash on you don't have to worry about him taking of.I put a small reptile leash on my Tegu and it works great.With the toe I'm worried that he is still in pain and maybe thats the reason he doesn't want to move around.Did he eat some more hamsters or any thing that was alive

? keep up the great job.I hope things will work out for you.Thank you for keeping us posted and for sending us those cool pictures.

i0r · Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:58 am Post subject:

Ok so this saturday i got him a proper UVB reptile tube, a calcium powder with vitamin D and a good house for him to hide in. I have to say that the same day as i installed the uvb light i immediately saw some improvements. He got much more active. And with his new house and all i know when he gets scared, because he goes there to hide if he thinks i'm bothering him too much. So all good for now. He has his secure hiding place which is fundamental because i will then easier know when he starts to accept me.....he also started to dig inside of it.

I gave him another hamster and yes.....he has got appetite

Will try to get him to start eat veggies/fruits/raw chicken this week. Just want him to know that hamsters and mice will only be given as a treat and not as regular food.

Also....the guy in the reptile store where i went to get his supplies told me that it isn't just enough to sit with him or pet him until he gets interested in me. He told me to lift him up everyday(very gentle of course) until he gets used to it that way. Because if not he might just support my presence but still be very aggressive to contact. So i'm gonna start to gently pick him up everyday, and once his used to it i'm gonna start use your shirt method Samantha

IOU the pics, as i was rather busy this weekend and didn't take none

spencer · Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:08 am Post subject:

WOW im so happy your willing to take in a animal and invest and do some much for it, thats dedication!
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i0r · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:12 am Post subject:

Thanks Spence!

To tell you the truth....just one week before i got Juancho i was looking into getting an Australian water dragon.....though when my friend called me and said he found a tegu that was pretty messed up i just couldn't resist to take care of him

Ben3233 · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject:

Water dragon are cool. I had one before, he always wanted to be handled/free roaming. They can't stay in their tank silently lol

But as I heard of Tegu Caracteristic and behavior, they are definitely the best

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Ben3233
0.0.1 Bearded Dragon (Uresaii)

gebris353 · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:50 pm Post subject:

Hi there, that's an amazing place for your lizard, I wish I had one like that for when I travel a day or two. I live with my parents so they take care of him in those situations but I still like it. I only have a not so big enclosure but he just sleeps there so it's ok. He roams the house most of the time or I take him to the park. He also has the kitten basket in the dining room if he wants to sleep while we are there.

And yeah water dragons are amazing, have you check Bill Flowers aka The Snake Artist video about them in YouTube?

Now we only need some more pictures of your Juancho!!!

txrepgirl · Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:34 am Post subject:

i0r just wanted to check back with you on how Juancho is doing.Hope all is well.

gebris353 that is so nice of your parents that they let you have that big Tegu and don't mind when he free roams the house.I rally love your photo gallery.You have a beautiful Tegu.Is it a he or she ? and how did you get him/her to lay on his/her back ? you should make a commercial for budweiser

or go on the animal talent show

.

gebris353 · Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Thanks txrepgirl glad you like them. I like your t-shirt method and the one with Zeuss yawning too! Well I'll still call him Juancho but it seems he is a girl in fact haha! I'm gonna ask Rick to be more than sure. And yeah I love taking pics of him like that, I'm gonna make a video of him to show you how to make him stay in his back when I get some time. It's really easy and he doesnt complain.

Btw! I0r's Juancho seems to be doing great! Check this video he made!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nn-HbpdGcU

i0r · Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject:

Sorry guys for my absence.....have had a few hectic days and not much time to be with Juancho nor post about his progress.

Ben: Yeah water dragons are simply just awesome...especially the aussie

And despite the fact that i got Juancho now i'm still considering getting one. But for the moment i'll wait and see.

Fabi: Well as said....it's my old dog pen and it has been empty for more than a year....so i'm just happy being able to give it some use. Gonna wait a bit and see if i'll start prepare the outside for Juancho. I think he'd like that

Samantha: Thank you for showing such interest in the recovery of Juancho. And i can tell you that he's doing just fine. His mouth is almost completely healed....though i've noticed that his upper jaw will have a permanent deformation(will get a pic on that). Not much...just like a bump. His wound on his left belly side is i think almost as good as it gets as well. It went from a little fleshy wound to pink scar and now it has a yellow/brown color. What remains is his left back foot toe though....but i've been told that it's not necessary to cut it off.....it's simply gonna fall off on it's own. I'll wait and see.
Here's a pic where you can see the wound on his belly as well as his bad toed(not too good pic though)

He looks a bit grumpy, doesnt he??

About his progress in captivity:

He have been quite calm. Not showing any aggression at all...which i reckon is a good sign. I've been sitting with him for a while every day now and he really didn't seem to mind me being there at all. I've even been able to put my hand(gloved) close to his head without him hissing or showing signs of aggression......as close as 5 - 6''!!
Today though for some reason he felt very bothered. When i first opened the door he went to hide in his house

Very grumpy today...talk about mood swings....haven't checked the sex yet...but by judging of his behaviour today i'd say it's female

no offense

Now to the feeding part! And this is BREAKING news!
Ok so i've prepared fresh food for him everyday since i got him....and he has never eaten not even 1 piece. I've given him chicken, beef, mango, papaya, plums, tomato, cucumber...and such, and he never ever took a bit of something that wasn't alive.
The only thing he has eaten since i got him are 2 hamsters and 3 super worms. Though if you look in the video i put up on youtube, that Fabi(gebris) posted here above...you can see him take a piece of chicken in his mouth and then spit it out and eat the super worms instead....well today when i prepared his food i said to myself that if he doesn't eat it i'd give him a mouse. Well the hours passed by and he didn't even smell the food.....so i then decided to toss him a mouse. The mouse landed somewhat close to his food bowl. He then had a go for the mouse but missed......but being so close to the beef and mango he actually took a piece of beef and swallowed it!!!!! His first piece of food that wasn't alive!! Of course after eating that piece of beef he went for the mouse

But good progress though....looks to be a long process trying to tame him a bit....but i've got plenty of patience, so it's ok