Sleeping Beauty Awakens

From approximately mid-November to the beginning of February, my tegu displayed signs of slowed activity. As this is my first winter period with her, I do not believe I allowed her to achieve full hibernation, and now have been doing more extensive research regarding tegu hibernation. This topic is something I researched prior to bringing my tegu home, though it was daunting and, honestly, got pushed aside to topics I found more preceding.

There is significant debate on the importance of hibernation with overall tegu health, longevity, and fertility. While research pertaining specifically to tegus is limited, hibernation is still a very important aspect of tegu care where every tegu owner should be learned, whether they chose to participate in yearly hibernation or not. In my research, I have also found large debate on whether the correct term for tegus is brumation or hibernation. With the articles I have read, my opinion is that hibernation more closely describes the behavior observed in tegus when going into a state of slowed metabolism and dormancy.

Here is an article that debates the difference between brumation and hibernation, and the opinions of other tegu owners, researchers, and breeders regarding the vocabulary:

Difference between brumation and hiberbation

Tegus often go through a period of hibernation ranging from a few months to several. By manipulating a captive tegus environment, as well as providing means for tegus to "cool" themselves off, hibernation can be achieved. Although there are claims that breeding can occurred without hibernation of a tegu, it is recommended to hibernate your tegu prior to breeding if you desire successful results. Many tegus will go into a state of hibernation without intentional manipulation done by the owner, most likely due to other subtle external causes. Hibernation can be dangerous, and there are theoretical methods of preventing hibernation, although I am not promoting this as I personally am not knowledgable enough to determine the long-term effects of skipping hibernation periods. If this is something you intend to do, research thoroughly; be aware that any external factors can push your tegu towards hibernation, and it is not recommended to wake your tegu once in hibernation.

"As for stopping/preventing them from hibernation, well, it seems relatively simple if you have the means. Remove all external environmental cues, maintain a steady artificial environment, and they don't hibernate. The caveat is in removing all external environmental cues. A simple window to the real world will tell them it is time to hibernate and they likely will." -- tupinambis

If a tegu begins showing signs of reduced activity, staying burrowed for longer periods of time, and reduced appetite, the tegu may be preparing for hibernation. **Please understand this could also be symptoms of illness, so do not assume it is hibernation.** While there are many facets of research pertaining to hibernation, there are a few topics that every tegu owner should be aware of. There are preparations that should be made prior to hibernation in order to ensure the safety of your tegu.

1) Tegus should be properly "fasted" prior to hibernation. The recommended period of fasting varies between different people, although a generally accepted minimum is a week -- some recommend up to a month fasting period or longer (depending on the size of the tegu). There has been debate on whether fasting is required, and if a hibernating tegu with food still in the digestive tract is harmful. Here is a post by Tupinambis regarding the subject; most hibernation posts I link will be from him, as this is his main area of study:

Unfortunately, I know first hand that these breeders don't know what they are talking about. Yes, you can feed your tegu during hibernation and yes, there may not be a problem. However, this is the same logic that for those people who smoke and didn't get lung cancer, that it is then fine for everyone to smoke and no one will get lung cancer. It's an exception and it also probably does not take all aspects and details into account. 

In nature, as the winter or dormant period approaches, tegus start eating less and less and voluntarily undergo aphagia (stop eating). This period of "eating less" is substantial. It isn't the week before, it isn't a couple weeks before. At my study site, hibernation usually was in full swing ("started" for lack of a better descriptor) by the month of May (remember, this was in the southern hemisphere and so their winter was mid-year). The voluntary reduction in food intake (not forced by me, they chose this themselves) started in February. Food was available, they just wouldn't eat it. Now, this doesn't give us any indication of why they were doing this, or ramifications that could happen if they were continuously eating before entering hibernation, but this does strongly contradict what most people like to believe in in that hibernating animals gorge themselves before entering hibernation and it also shows that upon entering hibernation, their digestive tracts are likely void (empty). 

Now, in lab studies where we did things a little differently, there is more conclusive evidence. There was one experiment wherein the animals were kept under steady/constant conditions (lights and high temps during day, dark slightly cooler nights), feeding regularly (about every other day, large regular quantities). When then put into "hibernation" simulating conditions, cooling temps, no food, no light, with little change over period (about 2 weeks), the results were disasterous. Not soon after, and admittedly under this regimine they were not given the ability to thermoregulate or bask as they naturally might (the idea was to force hibernation, not give them a choice between hibernating or not), but after a couple of months we had catastrophic die-offs. Suddenly, within a couple of days of each other, about half our study colony died (roughly 20 animals out of 40 died). Admittedly, I did not get a professional necropsy done to be absolutely sure what was the accurate cause of death, but upon post-mortem dissection by myself, all the dead tegus had the exact same condition. All their tissues appeared fine and healthy, except for the digestive tracts. The digestive tracts showed hemoraging, what looked liked localized septicemia, occassional bloating, and necrosis. Again, admittedly, I didn't get pathogen work done or anything like that, so I cannot say with 100% accuracy what had happened. The remaining animals were "rescued" by resumption of regular temperatures, hydration (both injected and oral), flushing the digestive system with mild laxative, and daily "deep" enemas to flush out as much as possible. I recall a number of the animals I had thought were gravid because I could feel small, hardened ovoid objects by palpitation of their abdomen. Upon flushing out, these were discovered to be masses of undigested matter. Now, again I stress I cannot say with 100% certainty exactly what occured here, what actually killed the tegus, but this evidence is pretty strongly pointing in one direction. 

Later studies in the lab simulating hibernation (long term, that is) were only successful if the tegus had reduced temperatures, reduced or eliminated photoperiod, and the animals were fasted for several weeks prior to inducement.
Now, I will admit, under a different regime, where tegus can bask and warm up daily if need be, with reduced food intake, etc., that it is likely a tegu can eat during hibernation and not develop complications. However, from what I have seen, I would say doing so while not being entirely sure of proper conditions is extremely risky. As shown above, even under the most strenuous conditions the rate of lethality was only about 50%, but I'll also say the surviving 50% were NOT the picture of health. From other studies done, I know tegus can easily withstand several months of not eating as long as water is available. Taking all these actual scientifically determined facts together, many of them seen first hand by myself, my recommendation is to not feed during hibernation. 

Conversely, most of the time I've been given a "fact" by a breeder, I've learned those "facts" were not so, and instead merely assumptions. Some other "facts" I've seen presented by breeders of tegus: if tegus don't hibernate they become sterile because their gonads stretch; tegus regurgitate on their nests to moisten them; don't give your tegus vitamin D3 because it is toxic but do give them plenty of fish liver oil (a substance immensely high in vitamin D3); vitamin D3 can be supplemented in the place of and instead of UVB exposure; the only fruit tegus eat in the wild is dates (which are from the middle-east, not South America); blue tegus are subspecies of the Colombian tegu; temperatures have nothing to do with hibernation because tegus enter hibernation when temperatures are the same as summer (when they actually measured temps at my insistence, they learned the temps are NOT the same as when active); all of this is nonsense or contradictory. I could go on and on, but really, it should be clear there is an endless litany of pure jibberish passed off as fact by breeders. Not all breeders are bad, and I will admit that many produce excellent tegus and know good husbandry. However, most breeders like to be considered experts and know everything, but the sad fact is usually quite the opposite. To say you can feed tegus during hibernation and there will be no problems....I'm betting there are a number of other things going on that are "flying under the radar". To their credit it can likely be done. However, given how I often see people interpret things (ie. the usual "if a little is good, then a lot must be excellent" and such), the much safer course to take is to recommend witholding food during hibernation. Link to Thread.

My tegu actually decreased her food intake on her own, without my interference, and I did not force her to eat. If you believe your tegu is about to go into hibernation, and is not showing significant interest in food, it is generally safe to stop offering food in anticipation of hibernation.

2) Once your tegu buries itself, wait about one week (7 days) before shutting of the lighting/heat source. Occasionally, tegus will wake up before actually going into full hibernation.

3) Temperatures should be kept consistently between 13 and 18 Celsius. DO NOT allow temperatures to get below ~5 C. Some breeders recommend turning on the basking light occasionally during hibernation to allow your tegu to bask if desired, but this is not necessarily a requirement.

4) You can choose to hibernate your tegu in his/her original enclosure. It is not necessary to move your tegu to a different enclosure unless you have reasons to do so.

5) Make sure your tegu has a readily available source of clean water throughout the whole hibernation period.

If you are interested in learning more about hibernation in tegus, username: tupinambis is a great person to follow on thetegu.com/forum [in my opinion]. He has always been very knowledgable and helpful, and has conducted studies on argentine tegus in their native habitat. Located below are links to a few of his threads and/or posts:

Hibernation in tegus:a rebuttal based on logic and fact ¹ -- a must read
Suggested readings for hibernation/thermoregulation/seasonal
So uh.. Hibernation? -- this is probably one of my favorites, particularly page 3 post #19. There tends to be a lot of banter between Tupinambis and Varnyard in all their threads, though their posts are often very educational as Tupinambis has to s-p-e-l-l everything out for Varynard. My personal opinion is very positive towards Tupinambis, and I'd rather not share my personal opinion on Varnyard's "knowledge" regarding tegus.

Hibernation is honestly a very tedious subject, and there is what feels like an infinite amount of information to be learnt. After reading numerous articles regarding hibernation, there was one statement that really clarified the process of hibernation [to me] and how successful hibernation is achieved:

"Under conditions of changing photoperiod but constant high body temperatures, you do not see suppressed metabolism or hibernation.Under conditions of changing photoperiod and temperature, you can get hibernation." ¹

A photoperiod can be defined as the amount of exposure an animal or plant of light received during a 24-hour period. Note that the temperature stated in the second sentence is the tegus internal body temperature, not the external environmental temperature. This essentially means that regardless of external cues from nature (reduced light exposure, temperature variations . . .), hibernation will not occur if the tegu's internal temperature is unable to lower.

I do not believe my tegu hibernated this winter, as her activity was too great to be considered hibernation. I believe the lack of hibernation was due to her inability to achieve a consistently lower body temperature. While her appetite was reduced, as well as her activity, she removed herself from her burrow daily and accepted meals a few times a week. Despite not achieving full hibernation, there was still been a dramatic change in her activity level and appetite that was quite obvious. During the period of reduced activity, I had to coax her to eat and her meals were drastically smaller; now, she has reverted back to her voracious self, eating significant amounts of fruits and fish daily. Another observed characteristic of this time period was her lack of shedding -- prior to this, she was shedding bi-monthly, whereas shedding ceased for a full > three months during her hibernation-like period.

I apologize for all of the redundancy, but every post containing a forum thread with Vanyard posting or mentioned will come with a disclaimer.

WARNING! Do NOT purchase a tegu from Vanyard Herps (Bobby Hill). Though he was previously a reliable breeder, there have been numerous people scammed by Varnyard who, still, have yet to be compensated. Please view the links located on my previous post -- Commitment Issues.

I Just Want to Squish Them: A Bug Review

A few weeks ago, I placed an order for two hundred Silkworms from Mulberry Farms. They were sent to me via USPS, and although they all survived, there was a lot of miscommunication at the postal office. I am very pleased with Mulberry Farms, and their shipping practices, though I do recommend tracking your package to ensure you receive the insects in good condition. The post office did not notify me, despite the warning "Call when arrived" sticker, and I honestly don't know when they would have found my package had I not kept track.

The Silkworms were purchased with the intent of breeding, but it has become obvious over the few days they have been in my care that it is not an endeavor I wish to pursue. Silkworms, as stated on many other websites, are high maintenance critters, with food and cleaning requirements that go beyond what I am willing to provide for a feeder insect. Furthermore, while my tegu did attempt to eat a few initially, she soon became disinterested leaving me with 190 + uneaten worms.

On that note, I would not discourage other reptile owners from trying Silkworms, as long as they are aware of the potential financial loss (they are not cheap!) if their reptile does not like Silkworms. Mulberry farms is also a great company to do business with if you are looking for an insect provider: crickets, mealworms, silkworms, hornworms, etc.

Taming the Beast

It has been slightly under a month, and there has been a ton of progress, and a couple steps backwards, in the bonding process. When I first ordered my tegu, I had hoped for an already docile, tame animal. After watching all of those videos of amazingly calm tegus on YouTube, it was a bit discouraging to get a tegu that was flighty when handled. "Why is mine broken," I asked myself. Below are some observations I have made in the past few weeks regarding tegu bonding.

Positive experiences

I noticed a lot of progress when spending excess time around her enclosure. I know a lot of people recommend this when explaining "tegu taming," and I don't think it can be emphasized enough. Gradually, my tegu began feeling more comfortable with my presence and general movements.

T-Shirt method - like other websites recommend, using a t-shirt that smells like you can help familiarize the tegu with your scent. I not only placed a t-shirt inside of the enclosure, but also used a worn t-shirt to carefully remove the tegu from the enclosure and place it on my lap while using the computer or reading a book. My tegu often burrowed further into the shirt and fell asleep, or found a heat source (usually my leg) to lay next to.

The MOST SUCCESSFUL method so far has been through morning-time cuddles. Currently, the timer to turn on her lights switches on at 10:00 AM. For the past couple of mornings, I have removed her from her enclosure at approximately 8:00 AM, and brought her into the bed with me. I either wear a jacket with a collar or hood, or wrap a blanket around myself, and allow the collar/hood/blanket to partially cover her. Because her body is cold in the morning, she is much more amenable to remain in one place and let me pet her.

Mistakes I've made

Forcing too much interaction. Tegus give fairly clear signs when they don't want to be handled, and I chose to ignore those signs a few times. In the end, it dramatically broke the trust I was beginning to build with my tegu. She became more weary of my hands, and it made things more difficult.

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Tegus really are all different, so it's hard to determine how long it will take for a particular tegu to calm down and become comfortable with it's owner. This is a rough outline of our progress so far:

Week 1/Day 1: Tegu allows me to easily remove her from the bag. I SHOULD have used this opportunity to allow her to warm up in my lap, or in my jacket, but I was quite worried, due to her arriving late, that I placed her in her enclosure immediately. She immediately lays under the heat source and sleeps for the remainder of the day.

Day 2: Tegu is still fairly placid, and allows removal from the enclosure. She does not seem to mind when people approach her enclosure, and is sleeping the majority of the time.

Day 4: Tegu has finally eaten a large meal and appears to be very active. She is shedding, therefore I have not handled her.

Day 5: Tegu allows me to remove her from the enclosure and stays in my lap I am on the computer. She does not want to be touched, and instead burrows into a blanket.

Day 7: Tegu is now starting to get flighty when hands are placed in the enclosure.

Week 2: I have started moving tegu into a separate box for feeding. Tegu hates the box, and will only eat half of her meal in it. She does not like being placed in feeding box, and has started struggling when being removed from enclosure.

Week 2.5: Tegu is allowed to free roam during some evenings, and has become a little less flighty when being removed.

Week 3: Tegu goes into shed again, and hates my guts. Tegu does not like being handled at all and will jump out of my hands if given the opportunity.

Week 3.5: Backing off of tegu. I am only removing her for free-roam time and feedings. Otherwise, I am not taking her out to socialize.

Week 4: Continuing to only interact with tegu when cleaning/feeding. I sit by her enclosure daily to ensure she sees me every day for hours.

Week 5: I have been removing tegu from enclosure in the morning before heat lamp turns on. She stays in bed with me for approximately 2 hours every morning. She has begun jumping on me to get out of her enclosure to free-roam.

For the love of Tegus!

I feel like a mad scientist, or rather, at this point, a sociopath; putting random animal-like items into a blender is not normal behavior.

Tegus are omnivorous animals, though many juveniles prefer meat and whole-prey over fruits and vegetables. Despite her size, my tegu has become a voracious eater and has undeniably pushed me past my comfort zone when dealing with her “preferences” – preferences, as in all animals/food items being finely chopped to her desired size: (minced, not ground).

I found this post a few days ago when searching for different foods that are safe for my tegu, and decided to give my local Asian market a try.

Here is the post I found: Thread: Todays trip to the Asian Market... Tegus got some yummies!

Although I am part Vietnamese, trips to the Asian market freak.me.out. I feel like a helpless puppy, with no ability to convey, well, anything. "Ma'am, where can I find . . ." oh . . . you're running away from me. Wait, did she even work here? "Uh, I'm looking for silkworm pupae. Yeah. The stuff, you know, that looks like a worm, but it's a pupae . . ."

Disheveled, confused, and ready to give up, I finally find my way to the correct freezer. Jackpot! Here are a few items you can find at the market:

silkworm pupae - they come precooked
frog legs
silverfish (the fish, not the bug)
gizzards: chicken, turkey
animal hearts: chicken, turkey
a variety of snails
duck eggs (balut)
grasshoppers
krill
plucked quail

I snatch up a container of silkworm pupae, duck hearts, shrimp, and a duck egg, and dash out of the store in search for my life-saving bottle of hand sanitizer located in the car. I survived.

Home and Magic Bullet ready, I begin concocting a mixture of duck, shrimp, duck heart, and pupae. Okay. It doesn't look so bad once it's the consistency of ground turkey.

But will my tegu eat it?

NOPE. Of course not.

For some reason, my tegu does not like ground food: ground turkey, ground chicken, ground anything. I am not sure if this is due to the consistency (I do observe her wiping her face along the floor more than usual when trying these foods), or some other reason. Instead, she prefers her foods be finely chopped into small chunks.

Separated and not ground up, the balut (cooked) and turkey hearts were favorites. She refused to eat the silkworm pupae.

Overall, the trip was a success, although I don't think I'll be purchasing much from the Asian market at the moment. I believe it will be a great place to get a good amount of food for a reasonable price when my tegu is slightly larger, but currently she is quite small and there was a bit of wasted food, even when accounting for freezing most of it for later use.

Oh, and here is a picture of the brat looking smug. Note: the red by her eye, on her nose, and around her mouth is just food.

Chronicles of a Tegu

On September 4, 2013, I took the plunge into giant, scary lizard ownership, and it has already been filled with seemingly perilous situations (for the lizard, not myself). My hypochondriac of a self has already projected multiple illnesses upon my tegu, and I'm fairly certain this validates that I am not ready for parenthood. Hours upon hours of research have confirmed that I am indeed making a big deal out of nothing. One of my major concerns was food. 

"My tegu isn't eating enough. It’s going to starve in a single day and die!"

First, I have to say is thank goodness for thetegu.com. This particular forum has been a lifesaver and invaluable source of information. According to other tegu owners, it is quite common for tegus to refuse food for the first week of being shipped.

My tegu, thankfully, has consistently ate (at least a small amount) since I received it. My main concern was HOW MUCH it was eating. After multiple Google searches, I found threads of owners similar to myself, fretting about their tegus lack of appetite. Well, fear no more! It's okay! It's not the end of the world, and, if your tegu appears healthy in every other way (active, no signs of illness: nasal discharge lethargy, etc.) he should not starve himself to death. Though my tegu wasn't eating much, I now know I cannot complain, as some tegu owners don't get their babies to eat for weeks.

Threads about baby tegus not eating:
new baby tegu
new tegu not eating, hiding

I did learn an effective way to determine whether your tegu is full: See Post #3 by bubblz. According to bubblz, you can gauge the fullness of your tegu by the amount of folds present on it's side. Here are some fairly clear pictures of what she is explaining.

In this photo, you obviously see the skin fold on her Coronal (or frontal) plane.

If you still don't see it, look at the space between her hind and front legs. There is essentially what looks like loose skin forming on her body, creating a fold (click photo for a closer view).

In-shed tegu hatchling

After a small meal, this photo shows a very slight fold, indicating she is not at her fullest.

Tegu after first shed at new home

In this last photo, she has gorged on a large meal and refuses to eat any more. There is no fold present and her body appears plump.

Wheezy Bat Photos

I also learned the key to success was a varied diet. Initially, I attempted to offer her only a ground turkey mix and grapes. While she appeared to tolerate those foods, she did not eat them with the fervor I anticipated. This lasted for the first three days until I gave in and decided to offer a plethora of foods. The four foods that resulted with the best success were raw salmon ("fresh" from the grocery store), crickets, hornworms, and pinky mice. I have also offered other foods, such as scrambled eggs, kiwi, and duck heart with slightly less success. She refuses to touch mealworms. 

USPS. The Bad Guys?

After a restless night filled with relentless nightmares of all that could go wrong, I awoke at 7 AM with the anticipation that disaster would surely ensue. The previously evening, I received an e-mail from Johnny at TeguTerra informing me that my tegu should arrive promptly by 10:30 AM (CST). I still had three endless hours to wait. Well,

10:30 passed . . .
then 11:30 . . .
then 12:00 . . .

At this point, I began frantically (okay, okay.. I was doing this prior to this point anyway) tracking the package through the USPS tracking service.

"Out for Delivery     XXXXXX, TX 7XXXX     September 4, 2013 10:20 am"

I incessantly checked the front door for a package slip informing me the tegu was safely delivered to the front office. Nothing. I attempted to call the front office multiple times. No answer. In fear of missing the delivery, I continued to anxiously wait for a status change online while periodically calling the front office.

Finally, at 2 PM, my boyfriend arrived home and was swiftly (possibly aggressively at this point) ushered out the door to check the front office . . .

. . . and this is the doll he brought back!

New tegu hatchling

Thankfully my tegu arrived safe and mostly warm, albeit a couple hours late. Unfortunately, I did not get videos or pictures of the unboxing as I haphazardly decimated the box to reach my tegu. I *did* get a short video of her eating green seedless grapes, though, once I determined that she was alive and okay (I apologize for the poor quality - it was taken with my phone). Her legs currently look too large for her body, and she looks as if she may shed soon. This is true love.

This has been my first experience with shipping a live animal through USPS and will most likely be my last. I received no notification that she was delivered (no letter, no update through their tracking website until 5:30 PM, no knock on the door, etc.). She also arrived past their "guaranteed" delivery time. For those who expect to receive an animal through USPS, please make sure to check your door regularly, or your front office if you live in an apartment complex. Luckily, I live in Texas where it is relatively warm in September, but the situation could have been dire had I resided elsewhere. It is partially my fault for not familiarizing myself with their shipping policies, though I do believe quicker updates to their tracking service should be implemented and better notifications in general.

Duct Tape Wonderland

After multiple trips back and forth from Home Depot and Petsmart, mostly due to my indolence and unwillingness to create a simple list, I have finally set up the tegu's enclosure and completed tegu-proofing my living room, kitchen, dining room, and study. I now live in a duct tape wonderland, and any reminiscent of a hiding place once found by a friend's ferret has been annihilated.

Upon shopping for my tegu's new home, I encountered numerous conundrums: what type of enclosure, what is the cleanest and safest substrate, how do I want to control humidity, &c??

After much deliberation, pictured below is the current setup I decided create. There are still modifications that need to be done, though the foundation is essentially complete. Most changes will be depended on how the tegu interacts with her surroundings, and whether revisions will be imperative to her comfort.

40-gallon breeder tank for tegu hatchling

The terrarium is an Exo Terra Large/Wide (90 x 45 x 45 cm), equivalent to a 40-gallon breeder, with two doors that swing open from the front. I initially purchased two tanks, a standard aquarium requiring a top mesh lid and this Exo Terra. I wasn't confident that the Exo Terra, with front opening doors, was worth the additional hundred or so dollars (the 40-gallon aquarium was purchased during the $1 per gallon sale at Petco), but after many considerations it was indisputably the best choice for me.

My reasoning? Well, here it is: accessibility, accessibility, accessibility!

• Cleaning: I am a short, petite girl, and therefore the ability to clean the enclosure from the front is inexplicably amazing. Despite the fact that there is only substrate located in a single area of the enclosure, I am not so delusional to believe substrate will not end up all over the entirety of the tank. Removing substrate from a top-opening tank has proven difficult for me in the past.
• Lighting: Because this is an animal that requires regular handling and interactions from humans, I plan to be in and around the enclosure multiple times a day. Although UVB lighting should not be placed on top of a mesh screen (it impedes UVB rays and makes the bulb less effective for your reptile), having to deal with lighting fixtures when reaching in and out of the terrarium would become tedious. The Exo Terra allows permanent placement of a fixture (located in back left corner of tank) at a desirable angle, parallel to the floor.
• Handling: It is debatable whether or reaching downward into an enclosure inhibits the "taming" of a tegu hatchling, but I have found front doors permit quick access to any area of the terrarium, allowing swift removal of the tegu if ever needed. 
• Removal: Lastly, tegus are large lizards. Although this is tank is incapable of serving as a permanent housing unit for an adult tegu, it will be used for the first year of it's life. As it gains weight, removing a less-than-amenable lizard by lifting it out of the enclosure may become difficult. By placing the enclosure on, or close to, the ground, this would allow the lizard to merely saunter out of the terrarium on it's own. If physical removal were necessary, the doors would allow less lifting.

The flooring consists of Brazilian slate, purchased from Home Depot. The largest piece of slate is 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 in), and the others are 15 x 15 cm (6 X 6 in). I chose this particular tile type due to it's ability to retain heat (a temperature gun is highly recommended to check the surface heat of the slate on a regular basis). The lack of substrate will permit me to monitor the tegu's bowel movements, and easy collection of samples for veterinary examination. This is especially important, in my opinion, for young reptiles; early detection of illness or distress can potentially increase the chances for a positive outcome (signs of impaction may become more obvious, noticing loose stool may indicate parasites and allow quick treatment, etc.). This is not necessarily the ideal flooring for a tegu, but should not be problematic due to the presence of a dig box. Please view my other post, "Home, Sweet Home: Tegu Housing," for the generally accepted "ideal" tegu substrate.

Instead of a terrarium full of substrate, I provide a digging box - a box filled with Eco Earth loose coconut fiber substrate where my tegu can dig if desired. Regular misting of the substrate will allow my enclosure to maintain the proper humidity. Stairs or a ramp will also be added for easy access into the box, and the location of the box may be moved.

The only source of heat and light present in my tank comes from the UVB bulb. Currently, I have a PowerSun 100w Mercury bulb placed 30 cm (12 in), parallel to the floor (distance from the floor is dependent on the type of bulb). It will be kept on 12 hours of the day and is controlled by a Zilla Digital Timer Power Center. My ambient temperature drops to 24 C (75 F) at night and the cool side stays around 28 C or higher while the UVB bulb is on, therefore an additional heat source is not required. Avoid coil bulbs!

The hide is from Whole Foods, and is currently located on the cool side only. I may, or may not, provide a hide on the warm side, depending on how my tegu does with one hide. Many tegu owners find that their tegus do not ever come out if a hide is kept on the warm side of the enclosure, which makes taming and socialization more difficult. I will be providing tegu-safe cloth materials for it to bury in.

Temperature is monitored with an Acu-rite Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer. It can simultaneously monitor the temperature in two different locations: the hot side (basking) and the cool side. Humidity is also measured. 

I do intend to add branches to allow various distances from the UVB bulb, and possibly live plants. Once the tegu is acclimated and deemed healthy, I will most likely fill the enclosure with substrate throughout. 

Please view my other post, "Home, Sweet Home: Tegu Housing," for the generally accepted "ideal" tegu enclosure.