Stunted growth?

laurarfl · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject:

Great article, and describes my 5yo tegu to a tee. However, I found my yearlings to be a bit different. They are more active and eat more often...well, the B/W does anyway.

In this thread, I think the comment was made about underfeeding and stunting growth in the beginning of a tegu's lifespan. Personally, I don't think obesity is much of an issue in tegus under 24 months of age. Once they reach full size, then you do definitely need to think about over feeding. Even then, I wonder if it is the quality of food being fed vs the amount being fed.

The young tegu I was posting about here had some weight and growth issues. She's a constant mover and jumped repeatedly at the screen cage, regardless of the size enclosure I had her in. Once I changed her diet to more protein foods and less fruit, plus moved her to a wooden enclosure without a screen top, I found she carried out more typical tegu-like activities, calmed down, and started putting some length/weight on. She was so small for so long. Maybe she just finally decided to grow up!

_________________
Laura R (FL)
0.1.0 Colombian Tegu
0.2.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
1.0.0 Red Tegu
1.0.0 Green Amevia (yet another teiid)
8 other lizards
1 little gator
13 snakes
4 frogs
some bugs
and a partridge in a pear tree