Care Sheet for TegusAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 0 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 12/22/2007 |
Main Category: | Lizards |
Sub Category: | Tegus |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | 3DeathPunk |
Years Experience: | 5 to 10 Years |
Species: | Red Tegu |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Argentine Tegu |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Males will start to develop large joules, and have a brighter coloring after 2 or 4 years. Females are smaller and will not develop joules like the males. |
Mostly Active During: | Both |
Substrate and Water Needs: | The water bowl should be big enough for the tegu to soak in, because they love bathing, and being sprayed by water. So change their water everyday, and feel free to give them a bath once every week.
For substrate, I found that cypress mulch, and clean dirt mixture worked the best. Because it kept the humidity, and the tegu is able to burrow into the substrate. which is required, because tegus are known to be burrowers. |
Lighting and UVB: | I’m going to be talking about that soon, not now though. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | To be honest, I don’t know. All I know is that the substrate should always be moist, and be wet enough to hold the tegu’s burrows. But I do know that the moisture should be at 50.
And for temperatures, just use an ordinary heat lamp, with a UVB heat bulb, anywhere from 75 watt, to 150 watt, depending on the size of the tegu. |
Heating and Equipment: | If you read the temperatures and humidity, you should know. NEVER USE A HEAT ROCK THOUGH |
Caging Provided: | This is the painful part. Argentine tegus require a 8’x4’x4’ enclosure, that should be water proof, so that it will hold the moisture and humidity. But what you can do is build a 4’x2.5’x3’ enclosure and let him roam free for most of the time until your tegu goes to sleep. That’s what I plan on doing, when my red tegu grows that big. If not, just build a small wall between the tegu, and other stuff and let him live on the other side. |
Diet: | Omnivorous |
Description of Diet: | My red tegu is feeding on raw eggs, crickets, super worms, frozen thawed mice, monitor lizard diet, and fruits. Red tegus require fruits in their diet, in order for them to shed without a problem. Some of the fruits that I feed to my red tegu are: kiwi, mango, grapes, and strawberries. So here’s what their weekly feeding should look like:
Monday-Crickets, raw eggs
Tuesday-Fruits, crickets
Wednesday-Crickets, superworms
Thursday-Monitor lizard diet, fruits
Friday-Crickets, superworms
Saturday-Raw eggs
Sunday-Frozen thawed mice
most Argentine tegus are meat eaters, but they should be fed fruits for them to shed nicely. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | I really don’t use any, it’s always good to dust your feeder insects with calcium powder before offering them to your tegu. |
Maintenance: | It will cost you a lot of money, it will take a lot of space, it will take lots of time, and it needs to be loved.
I was never a big fan of handling reptiles, because I always enjoyed watching them doing their own things like they should be, but when I looked at my tegu’s behavior, I noticed that my red tegu, enjoyed being around people. So the more I handled him, the more friendlier he became. Now he’s just a big puppy. You can even take them for a walk on a leash, and train them like dogs. Just make sure not to bring him out on during the winter, because they might be hibernating. |
Some Words on this Species: | Red tegus are great pets to keep. They are very smart, and can become very lovable. My parents were reptile haters, and still is, the only kind of reptiles that they were fine with were leopard geckos, and they hated that too. At first I wanted a monitor lizard that would be fun to around with, so carelessly, I bought a red tegu from J&J Reptiles. then my parents found out after a couple hours, and they were pretty mad. But a couple weeks later, they became fine with the red tegu after seeing how smart he was, and every where I go, everybody asks me to show my big red komodo dragon, lol. Anyways, just make sure you know all the care for these animals before buying one, because some tegus can be really nice, and some tegus can become your worst nightmare (nobody wants a 4’ long carnivore lizard, eating meat everyday, and destroying whatever moves) |
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