Taming the beast!!

A lot of people will be buying a new tegu this season. I want to give some tips on getting them tame. Let me first say, Put yourself in your tegu's position. He is small, you are very big. Big things eat small things. So in his mind he is thinking you are wanting to eat him.To start with, you must build trust with your lizard. Here’s some helpful hints: first off the most important thing that people do wrong, is disturbing them when they are in their hide, never do this, this is their place of safety, that is one sure way to lose trust with your tegu. Next never (man handle) them, they seem to respond better if you are gentle. It is not going to happen over night. And just try to stay calm around him. If he thinks you are going to hurt him he will go into the fight or flight responce. So just take your time, and he will realize you are not a threat and calm down. Keep this in the back of your mind. In the wild these little guys are prey, so when you handle him, remember this. He will come to know you as a friend and not a foe. If you are gentle and slow when handling them, they will feel more comfortable, and respond better when they are handled.


Think of them as your puppy, when you pick him up, do not grab him behind the neck or around the belly, just reach under him. Hold him with a lite grip.
Tegus are the same as a puppy, they don't like to be grabbed either.
Instead reach under them with a loose hand and be gentle. Also when handling them. Let them move through your loose hands, just keep putting one hand in front of the other until he calms down and stops moving. Just remember, the more you grab them and try to restrict them, the longer it will take for him to trust you and become tame. The more interaction you have with him, the better. Just try to handle him with a very slow hand, in a calm manner.

Another point that I want to make, is tegus can become very food aggressive. They can and will associate you with food. They will bite the hand that feeds them, this is not done in a aggressive manner. My advice to this is never feed them in their cage. Never let them see you feed them. The best way to cure this problem, is to not feed them in their cage. Put the food in a separate cage, then take the tegu from his cage to the food. This helps in many ways. You are putting him with the food, not bringing the food to him. This keeps the food aggression to a minimun. Also by doing this, you are handling him twice a day, once to take him to the food, and another when you return him to his cage. It also helps to keep from getting impactions. If you keep him on substraight, and remove him to feed him, then you could feed him on newspaper. Then there would never be a chance for him to ingest the substraights. I hope these tips help. If you need more advice on this, feel free to ask. Good luck with your new pet!!

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This is awesome information, thank you. One question, would feeding the fruit and veggies platter in her enclosure be ok? I'm not using particulate substrate and she doesn't run to her dish. I saw first hand the aggressive feeding response with a mouse (downright scary).

I would not feed her in enclosure. As she gets older, the stronger the feeding response will get. It is best to feed in a separate place than her house. Have the food already there when you take her to it.