So, For right now My little guy(maybe girl, don't know for sure),

Colombian Black and white Tegu,
is in a temporary tank, the temps are close to where I beleive I want them. though he won't be in this tank much longer, Building lid for my 75 gallon tank, Redtail gets moved to that, tegu goes in 55 gallon tank.
The problem is, that they are the temps i beleive i want.

I've looked through quite a few caresheets, some seem good, some not so good.

From what i've gotten from them, It seems the temps should be about
79°-83° F on the Cool Side, 85°-90° F on the warm side, and there should be a basking spot of about 100°-110° F. The night temperatures should hit from 74°-80° F. It also seemed i'm looking for a humidity of Over 50%.

Sound Correct?

As for encosure, i'm thinking a blend of Eco Earth and organic potting soil, and may put a layer of cypress mulch at the top, i think this mix will best help hold burrows well, and also holds humidity well, The water dish for now is my Snakes old water dish (the Extra Large Exo Terra Tan rock dish, my snake has a kitty litter pan as hers now) when he gets larger, he will also get a Kitty litter pan for soaking, though i'll probaly leave the exo terra dish in also, one dish for soaking, one for drinking.

He has one small hide for now, a hollowed out resin log that stretches from one side of his tank to the other, and i'll probaly add a few more, removing them as he gets larger, and replacng eventualy with one full hide on the warm side, one on the cool side.

As for feeding, for now i'm feeding him dusted gut loaded crickets, and canned monitor food, but am trying to get the tegu specific canned food. Im also going to try to get him eating a bit of fruit and veggies, though i've heard colombians are sometimes known to disdain this. (i feed him outside his tank)

Im trying to get him into his big tank as soon as I can, because I don't have a UVB light for now, the bulb i'm going to buy is a self ballasted 100 watt bulb, and I think it would get the small tank he's in now way too hot.

I'll probaly heat using UTT Heaters, and a Light or two on top, but since i've purchased a ceramic heat emitter for my snake, have really seen how well they work.

Any tips on anything?, Temps sound right?, anything I should add to the diet?
I've never used cypress mulch, but ive read they really like it, is that true? Any risks with it? (remember feeding is done outside the tank)

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

i'm not much help as far as tegus go but it might help as well to try and look into some good books about them. maybe someone can help recommend a good one.

sorry I can't be of more help.

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yes i am a she ^_^

~My Babies~

1 Rosy Boa (male) Chaos
1 Snow Corn (male) Blizzard
1 Anertherystic Corn (male) Bullet
1 Senegal Parrot (male) Shadow
2 dogs (male) Spot and Bear

Thanks, i didnt really think about buying a book, i usualy do most of my research online.
most of what I found, came from exerpts from books, and many online caresheets, which ususly disagree to some extent, Anyone know of a good book, specificaly about Colombian B&Ws, or a book that goes into detail enough about each individual species that would be great though.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

On Another note...
Would there be any risk of him/her getting too scared in a 55 gallon tank, i've heard of this happening with baby leo's, any reason to temporarily keep him in a smaller tank?
I'd rather just get him in the bigger tank, but if its better for him to buy say a 20 long for the next few months, i'd rather keep him happy.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

A big tank is fine, even to start with. They tend to spend a lot of their time "hiding" under their bedding, but when they're on top they crave a lot of area to pretend they're "wild" in. For Zena I just use newspaper and a baby blanket. She loves it. Her temperatures have a bit of a range, as she does like to hide. They need to be misted to keep humidity up, but not so much that they develop sores from the wetness. Zena eats Monitor/Tegu canned food, pinky mice and or rats, raw ground turkey. To her crickets are "scary" and remind her of where she came from, so are the pinky mice and rats. The turkey we make into shapes about the size of a pinky before we feed, you can use egg to help hold it together. We do the same with the canned food. Then we use a spoon to scrape on the plastic box top that we feed her on (she likes to be able to whip around in a circle when playing with her food). For her we put a turkey "blanket" around her pinkies so she'll eat them. Some Monitors and Tegus like to eat raw egg from a bowl.
There is a site that is Tegus only. I don't agree with a lot of what I've read there. There is one person who says they feed 11-14 pinkies every other day. Zena wouldn't even attempt that. We have a book on Tegus, but I am staying at the hospital with my Mom while she is ill, so I don't have access to it. I read all the sites, then incorporate what seems to work best and try to use common sense. That is what it looks like you are trying to do, so I wish you the best on trying to figure out what makes the most sense to you and your Tegu. Give it lots of love and handle it a lot now, so it doesn't become "bitey" and a problem for you. My granddaughter loves the Tegu and carries her all around the house.

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Kat

Thanks Kat, I'll be happy if it stays as handleable as it is now, but if it ever does develop tempermant problems, and nothing I can do will remedy them, i'll still enjoy having such a facinating lizard around. I feed him/her outside the enclosure, so every day it gets handled at least once, i think it should come along greatly. As far as the monitor/tegu diet goes, i have not been able to find specificaly tegu canned food, and it seems they need a bit of fruit and veggies in ther diet, occasionaly he'll eat a piece of banana, or a tiny piece of strawberry, but i've taken to actualy mixing a bit of diced fruit into the canned food, he'll eat it right out of a bowl.

I also occasionaly feed dusted crickets, but just as much for the calcium powder as the cricket itself.

I have not tried pinky mice yet, though I do have a few frozen in the freezer my schneider was not interested in, will probaly try when he gets a tad bit bigger.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."

The canned Monitor/Tegu diet by ZuPreem is what I am talking about. It was recommended to us by a vet. With Zena we play the hide some small diced fruit or vegetables in the middle of her food - game. Occaisionally she will spit it all out (she doesn't believe fruit and vegetables are food). The Schneider's Skink from the college is also on a diet consisting of the Monitor/Tegu diet by ZuPreem. She is doing much better health wise until this last few weeks when the girls were over their work study allowance, so she was supposed to be being fed by other people, but no one fed her much. She is a little thinner than she should be right now, but is home with us for the summer, the girls would sneak in every few days to feed her, now she will gain back her weight. The Monitor/Tegu Diet already has calcium in it, but we add calcium to the raw turkey that we feed. I had never given this little detail much thought until I came across it not long ago, you always feed lizards raw, as their bodies cannot process cooked foods. Just thought, okay, that's interesting.

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Kat

yeah, most other animals in fact are set up for raw food. It is interesting, and in my opinion, humans have "de-evolved" a bit in regards to what we can and can't eat.
Though some argue that we have evolved ro gain more nutritional value from cooked meals.

I'm feeding the ZuPreem Monitor food, so far my tegu has been great about eating his fruit, though he definitly likes banana more then strawberry, and if offered fruit and canned food, goes after the canned food, hence feeding the fruit in the monitor food.
My Skink is now also eating the monitor food, In part thanks to your suggestion, and has been doing great on it. Though he also gets crickets regularly.

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"Nobody can do Everything, but Everybody can do Something."