what is the real cost of owning a tegu?

[djsaltynuts]

how much money should i have saved up before buying a young tegu?

is the price of care different for columbian and argentine besides the price of the tegu itself?

 

[The Masked Shadow]

To answer your question simply, a lot.

my uncle has a 3-legged tegu, and he spends a lot of money for food, for housing, and for constant needs of Zeus.

Because Argentine are bigger than Columbian Tegu's, growing up to 20 pounds and 4.5 feet, they would obviously be more expensive.

 

[Jexnell]

I have considered getting a Tegu before. The thing that stopped me was the ground whole turkey part.
A portion of their diet requires whole ground turkey, bones, organs all of it. I couldn't find a butcher that would do anything less than a pallet (50) of turkeys. Where the heck am I going to store 50 ground turkeys in an apt....

Not my pic thank Google

But you can see, they probably put away a bird or two a week maybe...

But it's only half of the year that they are even awake, they brumate for 4 to 6 months of the year. Simular to hibernation but they can wake for water, can't feed them tho when they go back to sleep for a month that food will spoil in they belly.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Damascus had monitors and Tegus before.

 

[djsaltynuts]

I have considered getting a Tegu before. The thing that stopped me was the ground whole turkey part.
A portion of their diet requires whole ground turkey, bones, organs all of it. I couldn't find a butcher that would do anything less than a pallet (50) of turkeys. Where the heck am I going to store 50 ground turkeys in an apt....
View attachment 1460044
Not my pic thank Google

But you can see, they probably put away a bird or two a week maybe...

But it's only half of the year that they are even awake, they brumate for 4 to 6 months of the year. Simular to hibernation but they can wake for water, can't feed them tho when they go back to sleep for a month that food will spoil in they belly.

couldnt i feed it chicks or quail instead?

 

[ichthyogeek]

So...I don't keep herps. But I do follow a few yt channels. Wouldn't reptilinks work? They offer whole chicken and whole quail links, which, while not turkey, are still birds.

 

[Jexnell]

couldnt i feed it chicks or quail instead?

The ground turkey is half of the diet. Another 25% is fruits and vegetables
And final 25% is bugs

Yes you don't need much food if you buy a newborn. But by year one that 6in lizard is a foot and half. Year two its 3ft. Year three 4 to 4 and half feet depending on if male/female.

You can use thawed out frozen mice/rats ment for snakes as well. Chicken eggs as well shells included.
But the majority of their diet is non-flying ground birds in the wild.

They need an enclosure kept at 85° and 80% humidity, a basking spot of 110°
Come fall time they need a foot of substrate (cypress mulch) to burrow down into to brumate for 4 to 6 months.

Bathed daily especially during shedding
Can be trained to poo in the same area for easy cleaning.

 

[Jexnell]

Nearly forgot, they need UVA UVB lights if kept indoors or can't process certain needed vitamins.

 

[twentyleagues]

I've kept large monitor lizards before. Mice and rats along with chicks or chickens work well for feeding. I've seen canned diets for large reptiles on the market. As for cost I don't particularly remember exactly but honestly it wasn't all that much. I've not kept tegu because of the brumation period. The biggest issues I've had was dealing with some of their level of intelligence. I was used to keeping large constrictors and monitors are much smarter and way more ambitious. My black rough neck was probably the best reptile I've ever kept. In the wild the are also primarily bird hunters, I fed him rats mostly with small chickens once a month when I could get to a place in Detroit called eastern market. Eastern market is a shipping and receiving hub for produce. Live chickens and other game birds were available. I'd have the people dispatch a couple chickens for me. I want to say they were about $7 each. It was easier to buy a box of frozen rats mice and chicks from big apple herp to feed all our reptiles. A box was about $150 shipped and would last us a couple months. The good thing with large lizards is they don't care what size the food item is like snakes, to them food is food so frozen chicks would work well. Yes you'll need to feed the appropriate amount but it would be easier then finding someone that's going to process turkeys or you doing it yourself. I personally haven't heard tegu are all that hard to care for. One of the shops I used to go to had a black and white for many years as a store pet. Very chill, pretty sure they fed rats.

 

[Cich Mind]

Argentine Tegus can get very large. They require a good amount of food. They also need a very large enclosure. The main costs of owning a Tegu is the Tegu itself, they are quite expensive and sometimes hard to find. I think the other main cost is the large enclosure you would have to build (larger than a commercial aquarium). Another expense would be the food for a Tegu. They are very good eaters. They can also be dog tame which is cool. Just my 2 cents. GL djsaltynuts .