Argentine Black and White Tegu questions

[MrLang]

Can anyone who owns an adult estimate how many lbs of ground turkey it eats a week?

What is their poop like? Pretty soft or more firm? Do they usually prefer to go to the bathroom in the same place?

I see a lot of enclosures with wires, fixtures, and lightbulbs exposed on the inside. Is this fine?

Do people use humid hides with B&Ws or is it preferred to keep humidity high in the entire enclosure by limiting air flow?

Has anyone heard of them going after other pets or trying to break into other pets' enclosures?

Thanks.

[MrLang]

Also is there any noticeable difference in temperament between males and females?

[John1982]

Can anyone who owns an adult estimate how many lbs of ground turkey it eats a week?

I go through .5 pounds or so of ground turkey per week but it's fed with other food stuffs. Feeding adults isn't as expensive as you'd think, growing yearlings will put away quite a bit more food as they get fed daily as much as they'll eat. Adults 2-3 times per week is fine or much smaller portions daily to avoid obesity.

What is their poop like? Pretty soft or more firm? Do they usually prefer to go to the bathroom in the same place?

Consistency can change depending on diet. For instance, when mine eat eggs it's quite a bit more gooey and smelly than normal. Typically my GU's feces are well shaped though a bit on the softer side. Mine don't show any favoritism as far as bathroom locations. If you're scared of your tegu pooping when you're handling, a short soak in luke-warm water usually does the trick.

I see a lot of enclosures with wires, fixtures, and lightbulbs exposed on the inside. Is this fine?

I wouldn't want fixtures or bulbs close enough that my GU could get to them, exposed ones should be out of reach. I use hardware cloth(wire) beneath the substrate in my outdoor enclosure so my tegu can't dig out and escape. It's exposed along the walls where I have it stapled to the sides, never had any problems and I've had tegus in there 4+ years now. You can see exposed wire in this picture of my outdoor enclosure, if you're worried you could always fold it in on itself before stapling.

Do people use humid hides with B&Ws or is it preferred to keep humidity high in the entire enclosure by limiting air flow?

It's preferred to keep the humidity in the entire enclosure high. If you keep the air too stagnant though, you could develop mold problems. I never had shedding problems when I kept mine indoors with daily misting and a humid hide - this was with tons of air flow as the entire top of my indoor enclosure was 1/2 inch hardware cloth. I should add I live where it's very humid anyway, even in my house the ambient humidity stays between 40-50% during the summer months. Here's a picture of the indoor enclosure I used - raised 3 tegus successfully in this until they were 2 feet and I was comfortable moving them outside full time.

Has anyone heard of them going after other pets or trying to break into other pets' enclosures?

Some people let their tegus free range around there other pets, I think this is a bad idea and wouldn't do it personally.

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Also is there any noticeable difference in temperament between males and females?

I've only kept males so I can't help you there with much personal experience. I've visited a breeder though and saw nesting females in all their demonic glory(don't mess with a girl protecting her nest unless you're ready for battle). Besides breeding season I'd say they're basically the same temperament-wise. They sometimes go through an agressive patch when they hit puberty(typically around 1 year of age). Mine would charge me a bit to test their newfound powers but this was quickly outgrown as they returned to their calm selves within a month or two.

[satomi325]

I don't know how common this is, but I know at least 2 people who have litter box trained free roam tegus. Its just newpaper litter in big cat pans around the room.

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[Duffster]

Our Tegu is 3.5 years old and goes to the back door when he wants to go out and poop. He hangs outside in the back yard for awhile then will scratch on the back patio door when he wants in. Considering a doggy door in the new house.