Because Tegus

[pouchedrat]

This is my adult female, Bakara, I adopted over a year ago. I also adopted a second tegu a few months ago I've named Grunt. The two are awesome...


....That is all.

 

[CitizenNumber9]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing any pics of the other one?

 

[SamuraiSid]

Thats pretty rude to post a single pic.

Im curious what the temperment is, and how social the animal is with humans.

Also: age, size, and a picture with a pop can.


Thanks LOL

 

[Cavedweller]

Aaah so cute! I want a tegu so much.

Is that a dog bed? Is that where she usually sleeps?

 

[Shrike]

"Because tegus."

Enough said That's a beautiful lizard.

 

[RzezniksRunAway]

Aw, Tegus are one of my favorites! We had one at the shop I worked at that loved toys. He'd scavenge dog toys from the store and hide them in his crate, and it was freaking adorable. Logically, he probably thought they were food that he was saving for later, because it was generally brightly colored rubber things that resembled fruit...but it was still cute.

 

[JZC]

God I want a tegu. Someday....

 

[klawfran3]

I work at an animal rescue for exotic animals, and we have a tegu. It's a very sweet and nice girl, but oh sweet Jesus can it pee a lot. It peed out the side of its cage once and the whole floor around it was a puddle. But man are they such great lizards.

 

[pitbulllady]

Both Tegus and Monitor lizards have the capacity to do something that for many years was regarded as a uniquely mammalian and avian behavior: play. There are videos online of Tegus playing with dog toys, carrying them around, shaking them, throwing them up in the air, catching them, and then cuddling with that same toy-exactly the way that a dog plays with a dog toy. I've had Monitors that would play tug-of-war with me, and if I let them "win", they showed no further interest in the object, so their purpose was NOT to eat the object(a towel). I've observed even baby Bearded Dragons wrestling like puppies, not full-on fighting, but with inhibited biting and more rolling and tumbling than anything else. For so long, lizards, and reptiles in general, were simply written off as dull-witted, instinct-driven animals, incapable of learning and certainly not able to carry out behavioral functions that were associated exclusively with warm-blooded animals. That is why one of the most common arguments against people having such animals as pets has been, "but they can't even show affection-they don't wag their tails or act happy to see you or play and you can't train them to do anything"; in other words, if it doesn't act exactly like a dog, it's not a suitable pet. Now we are finding out that these lizards ARE capable of doing some pretty remarkable things and this mentality needs to change.
Slightly OT, but here is a video of a large Komodo Dragon playing tug-of-war with a dog tug toy with its keepers; bear in mind that if this behavior was purely predatory and it thought the item was actually food, there is no way that the keepers could have hung onto the toy! This animal is powerful enough to take it, and they are very aggressive towards anything that is attempting to take food from them:
[video=youtube;almJghl1VXk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=almJghl1VXk[/video]

pitbulllady

 

[pouchedrat]

A little story that happened today: I gave some chopped up fruit to Grunt, the younger of the two tegus (and the only one who willingly will eat food OTHER than whole prey.... my girl was raised on live and took a while just to get her to eat F/T) and Bakara of course snubbed her nose at it. I put a mouse on the plate for him while she was on the other side of the cage, and he ate it, but she SMELLED it big time. She came up to him, I blocked her while he ate the mouse, and she got really upset. When it was gone, she smelled around, and walked up to me flicking her tongue at me. Climbed right into my lap sniffing around, lifted right up and stuck her face right in mine, practically begging for a mouse. I had to give her one of the ones I had thawed out for the snakes..... I just felt guilty. MIND YOU she JUST finished eating FOUR baby chicks.... she wasn't exactly STARVED! She just really wanted a mouse!

 

[pouchedrat]

Grunt needs his nails clipped, I know. Both are towards the end of their shedding.

The cage is a 10 x 4 x 4 custom built boamaster. I was considering doing a fake rock background, or something like that, similar to how I decorate all my reptile and tarantula enclosures, but now I'm thinking of doing something completely different. I purchased some kudzu seeds online the other day, and I'm hoping that they will take in the cage. Maybe have them climb a trellis nailed into the back wall, covering the entire background. It's edible, too, so I'm thinking food for my prairie dogs, bearded dragon, rats, mice, roaches..... yeah, LOL! That, and increase the humidity.... hopefully......

 

[JZC]

How'd you set up that fountain?