Argentine black and white tegu feeding

[jmugleston]

Showing that apple who's boss:

[Neal]

That's awesome!

What does their diet consist of?

[AlexiTLO]

That's awesome!

What does their diet consist of?

Rats, raw chicken/turkey, beef liver, various fish, mine loves scallops, eggs are debatable, they love fruit but mine has never eaten a vegetable lol. They shouldn't be fed dog food, lunch meat, etc. I avoid processed things, I don't even feed liver anymore.

[jmugleston]

Rats, raw chicken/turkey, beef liver, various fish, mine loves scallops, eggs are debatable, they love fruit but mine has never eaten a vegetable lol. They shouldn't be fed dog food, lunch meat, etc. I avoid processed things, I don't even feed liver anymore.

My Argentines eat a diet that consists largely of brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, fruits, some veggies, fertilized eggs (rarely unfertilized snake, bird, and lizard eggs) and an occasional rodent treat. Gut contents analyses from the wild Argentine tegus (Colombians are a different story) contain little meat so I try to recreate that as best as possible.

[AlexiTLO]

My Argentines eat a diet that consists largely of brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, fruits, some veggies, fertilized eggs (rarely unfertilized snake, bird, and lizard eggs) and an occasional rodent treat. Gut contents analyses from the wild Argentine tegus (Colombians are a different story) contain little meat so I try to recreate that as best as possible.

Do you have any links that can be referenced? Sorry but I don't see how rice and bread fit into it. As juvies they're more carnivorous, some of the big breeders say they flat out are carnivorous as hatchlings. I don't feed meat primarily, when my tegu was younger he would eat mostly meat with some fruit and failed veggie attempts (daily). Now it's more fruit and some meat with it, he eats about every other day. Most of the time the veggies just get thrown around.

I've seen this link passed around a few times, if my gu wants to eat some spiders I'm all for it lol.
http://www.ecoevo.com.br/pesquisador...ianae_2002.pdf

I guess more or less I feed things off of this list. It's posted on another forum as well and has a lot more responses but I'm not sure if I'm technically allowed to link it. Sooo here's this one
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Tegu-Food-List

There are a lot of debates on tegu diets, some people even feed a diet that is almost strictly whole prey.

[jmugleston]

Do you have any links that can be referenced? Sorry but I don't see how rice and bread fit into it. As juvies they're more carnivorous, some of the big breeders say they flat out are carnivorous as hatchlings. I don't feed meat primarily, when my tegu was younger he would eat mostly meat with some fruit and failed veggie attempts (daily). Now it's more fruit and some meat with it, he eats about every other day. Most of the time the veggies just get thrown around.

I've seen this link passed around a few times, if my gu wants to eat some spiders I'm all for it lol.
http://www.ecoevo.com.br/pesquisador...ianae_2002.pdf

I guess more or less I feed things off of this list. It's posted on another forum as well and has a lot more responses but I'm not sure if I'm technically allowed to link it. Sooo here's this one
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Tegu-Food-List

There are a lot of debates on tegu diets, some people even feed a diet that is almost strictly whole prey.

It will take me a bit to dig them up. The bread and rice are obviously not the native diet. Just less meat and more plant mater is what I was going for. At least one current breeder swears by a 100% meat diet. I don't choose to do so. Bert (of Agama Internation) did a number of odd items as well and he seemed to have it down so I figured that would be a good strategy to follow. Tegus seem to be fairly open to a wide variety of foods. Like saurian garbage disposals.

[AlexiTLO]

I went out to get some chicks today and someone mentioned trying a high quality dog food, I mentioned that my tegu won't eat veggies... I kind of thought about it but I have a hard time telling myself its okay to feed a lizard dog food, even if it is higher quality. I bought a can of wet dog food but I'm still not sure if I'll give it to him or my dogs lol. Yours will just eat leafy stuff straight up? Have they always done that or did you have to "trick" them at first?

The can I got had these ingredients:

Chicken Broth, Chicken, Chicken Liver, Duck, Lamb, Salmon, Brown Rice, Carrots, Potatoes, Oat Bran, Chicken Meal, Dehydrated Potatoes, Canola Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Hickory Smoke, Guar Gum, Dried Kelp, Sodium Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Parsley, Cranberries, Carrageenan, Zinc Sulfate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Sodium Selenite, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement

If you do find the links or whatever I'd love to see them, if not, no big deal!

[jmugleston]

Mine eat greens when they're mixed with other stuff. The other stuff they'll eat whether it is mixed or not. I have one that wouldn't touch anything plant based for a bit. She was raised on a pure rodent diet. After few months I was able to get her to accept mangos, papaya, and banana. Now she eats the odd mixes like everyone else.