Care Sheets
This is my collection of care sheets, dedicated to the species that I own. I hope you enjoy them!
Please note that these care-sheets are my own creations, and should not take the place of proper vetinary advice.
They also should not form the bulk of your research into a particular species! Think of them more as a starting point :)
Argentine Tegu Care Sheet
(Tupinambis merianae & rufescens)
Monkey Tailed Skink Care Sheet
(Corucia zebrata)
(this caresheet is now housed at Jos Little World - link will open in new window)
Chuckwalla Care Sheet
(Sauromalus ater)
NEW - Jewelled Lacerta Care Sheet - IN PROGRESS!
(Timon lepidus)
Bearded Dragon Care Sheet
(Pogona vitticeps)
I have tried to list all of the sites that I have used for reference, or just found really useful when owning these animals...
Please check them out, you wont be disappointed!
Argentine Tegu Care Sheet
The Argentine Tegu as a Pet - a Brief Overview
The argentine tegu is a large, terrestrial lizard native to Eastern Argentina,
An argentine black and white tegu obtained at a young age will often tame down fairly readily with frequent handling, although they may remain skittish until they have reached full size - a baby tegu will make a good meal for many predators, whereas an adult can take pretty good care of itself! If they are treated well and not tormented by their owners, e.g. by excessive, stressful handling, they can make very interesting and possibly even affectionate pets, even to the extent of becoming housetrained. Its worth bearing in mind though that not all tegus may reach this level of "tameness" - large lizards are notoriously unpredictable, so if you aren't prepared to have a cantankerous 4-ft lizard in your house, it may be an idea to get something a bit smaller and more handlable. That being said though, argentine tegus enjoy one of the best reputations as a larger pet lizard than most other species including iguanas and monitors.
Things To Think About Before Buying Your Tegu
- Is there a reptile vet close by? Most reptiles will need to see a vet at some time or other, and regular vets don’t usually have a lot of expertise in exotics. Don’t just assume your tegu wont get sick; when it does, you may find yourself facing a 3-hour drive to the nearest reptile vet clinic.
- Can I afford to feed a lizard that eats like a bottomless pit? I find it amusing when someone tells me that their beardies eat them out of house and home - if only these people could see a baby tegu eat! Baby tegus will easily put away 5 or more tubs of crickets a week; as well as these, they will need mice, fruits, other inverts...they cost a fortune to feed while they grow up. Adults will generally eat every other day or every third day, and so you may find costs decrease slightly as your tegu reaches adulthood...but juveniles need plentiful supplies of food daily.
- Do I have the room to house a 5ft lizard? Tegus need a lot of space and mental stimulation, or they can become irritable and stressed.
- Have I got the time to spend taming my lizard? A tegu that is rarely handled and just has food thrown into the cage from time to time will be a difficult animal to manage in a pet situation when it gets older. The less time you spend with your tegu, the less likely it is to become "tame".
- What do I expect from a tegu? Many people read stories about "dog tame" tegus online, and assume that a tegu will be just that - like a dog, but a bit "cooler". While having a handlable adult tegu is certainly cool, a tegu is not a dog; they don’t live to please their owners. As a matter of fact, you may on occasion find that your tegus desires do not coincide with your own at all. Please don’t buy a tegu expecting it to behave like a dog; you will end up being disappointed.
- Do I mind feeding dead rodents and insects? Tegus need varied diets to thrive in captivity, and insects, frozen/thawed rodents and other prey items will form part of this diet. Don’t buy a tegu if you aren’t prepared to feed it correctly; the vet costs incurred and possible death of your pet will all be very costly and upsetting.
- What will happen to my tegu when I go on holiday? While many small reptile stores will take on smaller herps like bearded dragons and cornsnakes, some may not have the facilities to house adult tegus. Make sure that there is someone to take care of your tegu when you go on holiday.
- Do I mind owning a pet that can hibernate for 7 months of the year? In the wild, tegus can hibernate for long periods of time; while they don’t always do this in captivity where the photoperiod and temperatures remain reasonably constant, certain factors may encourage even captive tegus to enter hibernation. This can be disappointing for new tegu owners, who understandably want to interact with their new pets!
Housing your Tegu
The first thing to consider when looking at buying a tegu is whether or not you will have the space to house one of these lizards for the rest of its life. While a tiny 6" hatchling could easily fit in an aquarium, a 4.5ft adult is going to need a huge enclosure to contain it! As a general rule, the minimum housing for an adult tegu is 8'x4'x3; a baby can be kept in a 48"x24"x24 enclosure for the first few months of its life, but you will probably need a permanent adult cage by the time it reaches 12-14months of age. Some keepers dedicate entire rooms to their tegus! Baby tegus seem to enjoy climbing, and will appreciate branches reaching up into the upper part of the cage; adults are almost exclusively terrestrial and are very clumsy climbers. They may enjoy climbing well secured rocks or platforms, but wont generally use steep branches.
While aquaria can make suitable temporary housing, the opening at the top of the cage is not ideal; young tegus may be more afraid of a hand approaching from above than from the front. Vivaria with front-opening doors are usually a better choice for younger tegus.
A tegu cage should contain;
- Substrate.
- Water. A vessel large enough for the tegu to lie in is preferable, but bear in mind that many tegus will poo in the water so it has to be easy to remove and clean. Also be aware that some baby tegus have been lost by drowning in too deep a water crock, so make sure your water vessel is tailored to the animal (and/or has several large stones or slabs in it so that they can climb out easily). Water should always be available. Placing the water dish at the warmer end of the cage may aid humidity.
- Basking Spot. The basking spot is usually obtained using a lightbulb, although ceramic heaters and MVB bulbs are now very popular. Personally I like using floodlights in my cages; they brighten up the cage, encouraging activity. The basking spot should be between 105F-115F. NOTE - this should be the temperature of the surface of the substrate, not the air above it. Use a digital thermometer or - better still - a temperature gun to check the temperature exactly. The rest of the cage should be between 85-80 or slightly lower. You can experiment with different wattage bulbs, or by raising the basking spot up (e.g. by putting a rock/some wood underneath it) to get the right temperatures. We use 2 80W floodlights from B&Q in our cage - why pay more for a "reptile" lightbulb when they do the same thing as any other lightbulb? ;) Bear in mind though that this doesn’t apply to UVB bulbs - see below. Ensure that your tegu cant reach the lights to smash them, or burn themselves; a wire cage for the lights is useful in this scenario, particularly for baby tegus that will try to climb on everything in the cage. A reminder - the temperature in your house will escalate during summer, and will warm up your tegus cage; you may need to change the wattage of your bulbs when the weather gets hot to prevent your tegu from being cooked!
- UV Source. There's a lot of debate about using UVB lights in tegu cages, so what you will read here is just my opinion. I believe that all diurnal reptiles should have access to UVB; its important to their bodily processes. While you will no doubt encounter many people telling you that they don’t use it and have had no problems, you will also hopefully see the numerous threads about tegus suffering MBD and "muscle spasms" as well. It cant be anything but beneficial, and so I firmly believe that it should be included in the set up. ReptiSun and ReptiGlo are two of the more popular brands. Mercury Vapour Bulbs are also growing in popularity and have a high UVB output, but these generate a lot of heat so be careful not to bake your lizard with one. Running one of the tubes full length along the cage will also help to brighten it up and encourage your tegu to be more active. Bear in mind that these UVB sources are not the same thing as plant bulbs from garden centres, which primarily emit UVA; check your bulb to make sure it emits the correct rays.
- Cage Furniture. Tegus will appreciate cork bark, cleaned branches, fake and real plants (make sure they aren’t toxic first), rocks etc. They are very destructive however, and will probably destroy the less-robust items in time. They will also usually like a hide of some sort; our tegu will burrow underneath a sheet of cork bark to make his own hiding place. A tegu with a bare cage is a bored tegu that will probably devote more time to trying to escape.
- Digital Thermometers and Hygrometers. These are useful to check the ambient environment of the cage. We have one set into the middle of the cage that records temperature and humidity.
Position the cage against a wall in a quiet place where people spend a lot of time - the lounge is a good choice, so long as it is away from the TV, stereo, or other noisy equipment. If you are using an aquarium as a temporary cage, don’t put it in a place where people can walk all around it; this will stress the tegu out. Housing the tegu in a room where it can watch you will help it to become accustomed to you more easily; for this reason, its a good idea to temporarily place your tegu enclosure in a "people" space, even if you cant fit the adult cage into the room. The time spent with your tegu while it is young will still be extremely beneficial. Ideally, don’t place the cage on the floor; being at ground level with huge giants wandering around will scare your baby tegu. Don’t put the cage next to a window or radiator, or you wont have a tegu to worry about any more (though your tegu may appreciate being able to see out of a window from a distance).
The cage humidity should be quite high - between 50% and 80% - so regular spraying is usually important. Invest in a pump-up spray can, or a hose attachment for a nearby tap; this will speed things up infinitely. For this reason, its important not to have the top of your enclosure open, or just screened off (unless you live in a naturally humid area) - the humidity will simply rise up out of your cage and be lost. If you are using a tank, try putting a piece of plexiglas or something similar across half of the top of the cage to trap some humidity. Some herps can even suffer respiratory infections if the air they are breathing isn’t damp enough, so this is pretty important. Ideally, vents should be placed in the top corner of one side of the cage and the bottom corner of the other, or at the top and bottom of the sides of the cage; this will create airflow as the hot air leaves via the top vents and cool air is sucked in through the lower vent. This prevents the air in the cage from becoming stale.
As a general rule, it is usually cheaper to build your own adult tegu enclosures; large, built-to-order jobs will cost vast sums of money with most vivarium builders, far more than the cost of the tegu itself. While melamine-faced wood (or Contiboard) is usually a popular choice for the budding cage builder, it is not usually robust enough for tegus. As well as the risk of the laminate being damaged, the high humidity requirement for these lizards means that the chipboard beneath the surface is at great risk of rotting down; if any moisture finds its way under the waterproof coating, the cage will quickly become weakened. Couple this with the fact that laminate can be difficult for sealant to stick to, and you have a recipe for disaster if you use melamine-faced wood for your tegus cage! Try to also avoid using loose coatings, e.g. linoleum, as a method of sealing the cage - again, if water gets under this (linoleum especially doesn’t seem to fare well under the claws of large animals), it has nowhere to go but through your wooden structure. 1.8mm MDF coated with several layers of Blagdon pond Paint or a similar low VOC/water-based sealant is usually an effective method of keeping moisture out of the wood. Moulded plastic cages are usually good choices, but can be incredibly expensive.
Finally, doors; while most builders will automatically opt for sliding glass doors, these aren’t always a good choice for tegus, who are strong and can be very persistent. My oldest tegu, Big Teg, learnt that he could escape his cage easily by simply popping the sliding doors out of their tracks using his weight, even with a cabinet lock attached to them! For this reason, the cages are now fitted with hinged plexiglas doors set into timber frames (all coated with sealant), with sturdy bolts on them. Remember to take into account the arc of the doors if you decide to hinge them on the sides rather than the top or bottom; a 4ft door needs 4ft of free space to open easily!
Try, where possible, to let your tegu roam around - both in your house and outside, ideally. Tegus are intelligent creatures and can quickly become bored and irritable in an unstimulating environment. You can set up temporary basking areas for your tegu by putting a spotlight into a clip holder and fastening it to a chair or something similar, so your tegu can explore even longer. Giving your tegu things to do, such as digging, climbing and supervised exploring will allow you to see all of the different behaviours that these truly fascinating creatures possess; Im still enthralled when my tegu sits on his back legs to examine something above him!
Choosing Your Tegu
Once you have made up your mind that a tegu is for you, and that you will able to properly feed and house it as it grows into adulthood, its time to start looking for a suitable place to buy your new friend. Tegus are steadily becoming very popular pets, and are generally stocked fairly widely in reptile stores across the country. Before you buy your tegu (or even go to look at them - trust me, they can be very appealing!), make sure you have an enclosure set up with the correct lighting and heating (see "Housing your Tegu" for more information) so that you can bring him straight home to a ready cage; you don’t want your new purchase to sit around in his box waiting for you to get everything ready!
For a first-time larger lizard, a new owner should ideally look for a tegu at least 1-2 months old; at this age, they are not as delicate as a hatchling (although tegu babies are tougher than many other lizards), and are a good size to start the regular handling that will ensure your tegu becomes accustomed to humans. Quite often, slightly older juvenile tegus are available, of 5+ months of age; these tegus can make excellent choices if they have already been handled fairly consistently, and even those that are flighty will normally tame down fairly well. Tegus at this age that show extreme fear or aggression may be harder to turn around, however; bear this in mind when choosing your new pet. Older tegus are frequently available to buy as they outgrow their previous owners; while its always nice to think of oneself as a Samaritan, bear in mind that an adult tegu is a formidable force, and if it has been handled poorly in the past may be quick to defend itself - or even attack humans. Adult tegus that have been handled frequently are usually good pets, as they have lost their flightiness and are mellow and laid-back; they may however need coaxing to eat a good diet if they have been poorly fed. You may find that some of these older tegus have been kept in breeding situations in the past; these tegus may not be accustomed to humans, and may not make good pets. They may also be very difficult to persuade to break any difficult habits. For most people, a young tegu within its first year is usually the best bet.
The most common places to buy a tegu are dedicated reptile stores, breeders, pet shops or reptile shows. In most cases, the best place to go and look at babies are dedicated reptile stores, purely because there are very few breeders of Argentine tegus in the UK. Most stock will be CF, or captive-farmed; this takes place abroad in large breeding areas specifically to produce stock for the pet-trade and other commercial uses. This is not usually an issue, provided the animals have had some time to settle in and begin feeding properly; reputable stores will not sell this stock until it has been properly quarantined to determine the health of the specimens. CB, or captive-bred individuals, are also available generally (though may sometimes be mis-represented CF stock). WC, or wild caught, specimens should be avoided; WC Argentines are not often available, but WC Columbian/Golden Tegus (Tupinambis teguixin) are widely stocked. Stores don’t usually have a great deal of time to spend handling their stock, but stores that do handle the hatchlings can be found; these animals are usually calmer around humans and make good pets easily. Breeders may also spend more time with the babies; this can make the taming process a little easier. Pet shops and shows are generally not good places to buy a tegu; pet stores that don’t specialise in reptiles can make grievous errors in their care and maintenance that can severely affect the health of the animal, and specimens can be heavily stressed by transportation/displaying at shows.
When you arrive, evaluate the shop assistants; they should be willing to answer your questions in detail, and the information they give you should coincide to some extent to what you have read. A shop assistant that tells you that an Argentine tegu reaches a maximum length of 3ft and can be housed in an aquarium is not to be trusted! Examine the environment the tegus are being kept in; they should have places to hide and dig. A hatchling baby tegu will often have a green or green-hued head; this colour gradually fades with age. They should be active and alert once out of their burrow, scenting with their tongues and examining anything new. They should not have any discharge from nose, mouth or vent. Their eyes should be clear and observant; tegus are generally very curious, and keep a close eye on anything interesting that’s going on. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly find all eyes on you when you look into the cage! Check the skin for tiny white, dustlike specks; these may be indicative of mites (hopefully something that shouldn’t be encountered in a clean, well maintained shop). If possible, check the mouth; the gums should be clean and pink with no crustiness or jaundicing, and the jaws should meet neatly together with no gaps or sagging. There should be no bumps or protrusions on the body; the hip bones should not be evident through the skin. If not basking or being active, tegus will most often burrow and hide; a tegu that lies on the ground looking lethargic and shows no interest or reaction to its environment should be avoided. Try to see the tegus eat - most tegus are aggressive eaters, and should snap up any food with gusto. You will usually be allowed to handle the tegus; babies and juveniles may be flighty, but shouldn’t be overly aggressive at this stage. A tegu with a missing tail will usually regenerate it; it will rarely look the same as the original, but shouldn’t affect its health so long as there is no sign of infection or swelling at the stump. Some tegus may lose toes or tail tips to their clutch mates, or claws while climbing; so long as these have healed properly, they shouldn’t be a problem to the tegu later in life (one of my tegus lost a claw while scrambling in the sack we were given to take him home in - suffice to say, he hasn’t missed it, but we aren’t certainly glad that that’s one that cant scratch us!)
While tegus seem to be capable of breeding all year round in captivity, new babies seem to be available from Summer time onwards. Bear in mind that tegus will hibernate under normal circumstances for up to six months of the year, and younger animals may be hard to come by in the winter months. Most lizard stores seem to manage to keep their tegus from hibernating by maintaining fairly regular temperature and light however, and so these may be worth a try in these situations.
Prices for tegus vary greatly; due to their increasing popularity and suitability as a pet, many shops will charge a great deal of money for young tegus. Babies can be expected to sell between £80-£250; juveniles are usually towards the higher end of the range. While it can be tempting, don’t buy a tegu just because it appears to be a bargain; chances are that there is a reason it is so cheap. The most important thing to do is ensure that the tegu you have selected is healthy and alert - a cheaper tegu that is sickly will cost you easily more than the difference in vets bills. Make sure to get a written health guarantee from the store; most stores will offer between 48hours-1 week, with replacement or refund for an animal that dies during this time (accidental death, e.g. dropping your tegu, is usually not covered, and an autopsy may be necessary to determine cause of death). Once everything is sorted out, its time to take your new tegu home to its waiting cage! Don’t forget to buy some tegu food for your new pet before you leave though!
If planning to house more than one tegu in the same enclosure, ensure that you have enough space for both animals; cramped quarters can result in stress and bickering amongst captive reptiles. Its also a good idea to make sure that you have room for another enclosure in the event that your tegus decide that they simply WONT get along! Generally speaking, its advisable to allow younger tegus to grow up together to increase chances of incompatibility; if breeding is your intent however, it may be a better idea to buy two youngsters from different sources to ensure that you don’t accidentally end up with a related pair. Tegus aren't renowned for their aggressiveness towards one another, but adult males that are housed together may be more likely to fight, particularly during breeding season. Its generally not advised to house more than one male in an enclosure.
All new reptile acquisitions should be quarantined as standard for a bare minimum of 3 months before any interaction is allowed. This period should also include a fecal examination for parasites, and a thorough vetinary check as standard. Make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly, particularly if handling a new animal and then servicing your existing collection, or you may end up being the carrier of illness throughout your collection! As a general rule, the newest quarantined animals should be serviced last of all, and ideally should have easily disposable substrate/feed dishes etc. They should also (if space allows) be housed in a totally separate room from the rest of your collection until they have passed quarantine. These steps sound extreme, but it only takes one infected specimen to destroy an entire collection; for the sake of a few months, do right by your animals and make sure that all newbies are in perfect health before integrating.
Handling Your Tegu
After you have brought your new tegu home, give him a couple of days to settle in before you try and handle him; moving house is stressful for young tegus, and its not uncommon for them to hide for the first couple of days. Don’t offer food until the day after you have brought him home; the food will most likely be ignored, and crickets left in the cage can be stressful or even dangerous to small tegus. You may see your tegu exploring in these first couple of days, scenting things with his tongue - resist the temptation to grab him whenever you see him out and about! This is usually a good opportunity to get a better look at your tegu to ensure that everything is well. Its a good idea to house your new pet on newspaper for this first week or so, so that you can monitor his poos and overall behaviour. Young tegus also poo a great deal, so its handy for keeping things easy to clean!
Most young tegus will be a bit nervous and flighty - baby tegu is a perfect bite-sized morsel for most predators - and will often run away from their owners once they have settled into their new homes. Regular, non-threatening contact works to build up trust between you and your lizard. Initially, you can just put your hands in the cage and "do" things, like misting or moving the cage furniture around, so that your tegu becomes accustomed to your presence. Gradually move your hand closer to your tegu; tegus are naturally quite curious, and he may give you an experimental flick with his tongue. Eventually, you can try touching your lizard, or scooping him up (assuming he’s small enough still) in your hands. Most tegus seem to feel more comfortable if they can scent you with their tongues before you snatch at them. They may also struggle if you carry them with their feet dangling down; my tegu will relax in your arms, but panic if his feet aren’t against something solid. Persistence is important, but make sure you don’t stress your tegu out with too much handling.
When you move closer to your tegu, its not unusual for them to breathe heavily, or "huff" at you; this is a warning gesture, and shows that your tegu is wary but not actively afraid. Huffing is usually just that - a gesture - and wont go much further if you move slowly and are sensitive to your tegus instinctive behaviour. Grabbing at a tegu that’s huffing at you is not a good idea; you may get a quick whip with the tail to make it clearer that he wants you to back off!
Larger tegus may require a more thought-out approach when it comes to handling; put one hand under the chest between the front legs, securing the head and shoulders, and with the other scoop up under the tail and hips. Many tegus will try to scratch with their back legs in this position - and believe me, those claws can do some real damage! - so try to keep your hand and arm out of reach. Pin the tail under this arm. From this position I usually put the tegus body against my shoulder, which seems to relax him. Restraining tegus is usually stressful on the animal, and is not usually a good idea during the taming process (restraining animals in certain circumstances e.g. vet examinations may be unavoidable); its better to loosely hold your tegu. Bear in mind though that baby tegus can move very fast in the blink of an eye, and are at a real risk of falling from great height if not properly handled. Try to hold your baby tegu over a surface that it can land safely on if it decides to launch itself off your hand. Its also not a good idea to let your tegu sit on your shoulder; as well as the risk of being accidentally dislodged, some tegus like to migrate to the highest point available to them and your tegu may scratch your face if it decides to climb to the top of your head.
An alternative method that has seen a lot of success at www.thetegu.com is the T-Shirt method; placing a t-shirt that you have recently worn (and so smells of you) into the enclosure for your tegu to burrow into and play with. This will help your tegu become comfortable with you.
Spending time with your tegu is really the ultimate way to ensure that your new pet becomes accepting of you, and in turn becomes a pleasure rather than a chore to look after. The more time you spend letting your tegu learn that you are not a threat, and are actually a source of entertainment (my tegus will come over to the glass when I approach to see if I will let them out to explore), the more interest your tegu will invest in you. As well as working on your tegus socialisation, this time spent is pretty important in establishing that the cage door opening does not always mean that food is coming; tegus are smart, and will very quickly establish that certain sounds or gestures mean that food is around. This can be hazardous if you open the cage to put your hand in and your tegu bites you in anticipation of dinner! Opening the door several times throughout the day will ensure that your tegu doesn’t associate that sound with food.
Tegus have a few defensive (and occasionally offensive) tactics; they can bite, whip with their tails, and void (poo) on attackers. Watching your tegus body language can often save a lot of trouble; when my largest tegu is suspicious of something, he will arch his back, lift the base of his tail, and get ready to whip (though he never actually does). When agitated he will flex his tail back and forth slowly like a snake; when really agitated (when he was new to us I once lifted a piece of bark off him and startled him) he will vibrate it really quickly like a rattlesnake. He will also stop flicking his tongue. At these times we usually back up a bit, and re-approach from the front, holding out a flat hand to him; when he starts flicking his tongue again, we know we are safe. Tegu bites can be painful due to the strength of the jaws, but warning bites tend to be quick and to-the-point. Aggressive bites intended to do real harm are another question all together; there may be several bites in quick succession, and/or shaking of the head (imagine a dog savaging a toy by shaking it about and you get the picture) to maximise damage. While these bites can be extremely painful, an adult tegu that manages to lock onto a finger or toe may be able to sever the digit; care should be taken when handling adults known to be aggressive. Don’t be fooled by adult tegus relaxed gait either; they can run surprisingly fast over short distances, and a charge from one of these beasts can be very fearsome!
Never hold a tegu by the tail; the tail may break off, or even fracture close to the tegus body, as they are very powerful lizards and will put a lot of effort into getting away. A tail broken at the "fracture point" may eventually regenerate, although it rarely looks like the original tail. If the break was fairly clean, the new tail should look fairly normal; more awkward breaks can result in a lumpy appearance around the newly-regenerated area.
Voiding is an unpleasant process whereby your tegu may explosively defecate on you; this is usually (unsurprisingly!) a good deterrent in nature when a predator grabs hold of the lizard. Though rather disgusting, voiding is usually inconsequential. Avoid handling your tegu shortly after it has eaten; it may inadvertently void on you due to the pressure on its stomach and gut. Quite often, a tegu will choose to poo outside of its cage; this can be a nightmare when your tegu is free-roaming around the house. A good tactic to avoid this is to soak your tegu in a slightly warm bath for 10 minutes or so before letting it roam; this will usually stimulate the tegu to poo in the water, rather than on your carpet.
Some keepers have experimented successfully with toilet training their tegus; this usually involves a brightly coloured cat litter pan (distinctive colours like red seem preferable), which is partially filled with warm water and the tegu contained therein (ensure the water is not too deep that the tegu cannot stand on the bottom) until it defecates. The tegu is then rewarded with a treat. After several successful sessions, the water can be removed and replaced with paper, and the process repeated. Eventually, the tegu should associate the tray with excretion. The success of this technique may depend on the individual, with some tegus showing less promise than others. A word of warning though - the tegu may associate the colour of his litter tray with excretion no matter what the actual object is. Don’t leave anything similarly-coloured within reach, or you may find a tegu present on it!
There have been some successful reports of people clicker-training their tegus using the same devices utilised in dog-training; a similar method to the toilet-training is used, whereby the tegu is rewarded for returning to the trainer upon hearing the sound. Again, this may vary depending on the individual.
Feeding Your Tegu
Tegus are omnivorous, and will eat almost anything that they are offered. Our tegus will quite happily devour morioworms, butterworms, locusts, snails, cockroaches, chicks, mice, lean ground turkey, boiled eggs, fresh (human grade) fish, fruit (mostly papaya, mango, apple, banana, grapes and strawberries) and greens/vegetables (radicchio, escarole, frisee, collard greens, squash, carrot, broccoli, green beans, peas). They may also eat various flowers, such as dandelions and hibiscus - check that your flowers aren’t poisonous before offering! A variety of foods is the best way to ensure that your tegu is getting all of the nutrients it needs. You should still occasionally supplement the food with a vitamin/calcium mix, but obtaining these through natural sources of food is a far better way to keep your tegu in good shape.
Baby tegus should be fed at least once a day with crickets, locusts, morioworms, butterworms and other appropriately sized inverts, fruit and veg; hatchlings should be fed twice daily. They should be offered food at these times until they refuse to eat any more; this is often marked by the tegu wiping its face on the floor to clean it. Baby tegus seem more experimental than adults when it comes to eating new things, so its a good idea to introduce as many different foods (particularly fruits) to your tegu while it is young. When they are large enough, begin to incorporate appropriately-sized mice into the diet; most tegus of 12" or more will happily take a pinky mouse. Gradually increase the size of the mice until they are able to eat adults - these are nutritionally a good option, as they contain a plethora of vitamins and minerals in their fully-developed bones and organs. Do not feed live mice; as well as being inhumane (the argument that "it happens in the wild!" is old. This isn’t the wild.), your tegu may be injured by the desperate mouse as it tries to save its life. Rats especially can be extremely aggressive when cornered, and your tegu may lose an eye or end up with serious bite wounds. Save yourself and your tegu a lot of stress and feed defrosted mice or rats. Mix up the meals to keep your tegu interested; eating the same foods day in and day out is boring for a tegu, and can put them off their food. If you own a red tegu, its probably a good idea to note that poor skin condition and/or shedding has been possibly linked to poor diet in the past - specifically, lack of vitamin C from fresh fruits and vegetables. Its important to include these in your tegus diet.
Bear in mind that tegus have a very strong feeding response, and may rush to grab even frozen/thawed mice from their owners. This is not a sign of aggression, but rather a natural, insuppressible instinct, and many owners of "tame" tegus might experience an accidental bite from a tegu looking for food. Similarly, if you feed your tegu by hand, it may learn to associate your hand with food and snap at it (trust me, I speak from experience!). Try to feed your tegu out of the cage, or by placing its food in a distinctive dish, to avoid mishaps. This will also help to prevent your tegu from accidentally swallowing any substrate; generally tegus are quite good about spitting out anything that isn’t food, but the occasional accident may occur. Tegus may bury any leftover food, which may mean that they also bury their bowls! Finally, make sure to wash your hands before touching your tegu; as well as just being good hygienic practice, it will ensure that the smell of your pet hamster doesn’t get you bitten!
As a general rule, feed foods that are no wider than the width of your tegus head; while tegus possess an almost snakelike ability to swallow large prey items, there is less risk of impaction if slightly more conservative food items are offered. If given a prey item that is too large to attempt to swallow, tegus will actively bite chunks out of it - after shaking it about and breaking it up, of course. This can be rather messy to observe!
Ground turkey may be offered as a treat, perhaps with fruit rolled up inside it, but it isn't nutritionally sound enough to feed as a staple food.Fish is also useful to encourage fussy tegus to eat fruit; shredding it and mixing it up with chunks of fruit will usually result in the tegu eating everything, as it all smells like meat. These foods are occasionally seen as an easy way out of feeding a tegu what it should be eating, but they should not form the bulk of the diet; if you are unprepared to feed your tegu a good, varied diet, then its probably not a good idea to get one. Canned dog and cat foods should be avoided; they are fortified for cats and dogs, not lizards, are often too fatty for captive lizards.
Tegus that are to be hibernated should not be offered food in the two weeks or so before the heating is dropped, or the food will remain undigested in the stomach and eventually rot.
Occasionally a tegu can become very fussy about what it will or will not eat; this most commonly occurs when the tegu has been fed primarily mice or chicks. Since these items are high protein (and probably just taste a lot better than anything else!), the tegu will automatically favour these foods and may not bother with lower-protein items if it thinks it will get mice instead. Try to keep your feedings varied to stop this from happening; a tegu that will only eat mice as an adult will rapidly become obese and may suffer from numerous ailments. If your tegu begins to refuse anything but mice, cut down feedings of mice to once weekly and offer plenty of alternatives on the remaining days. Fish mixed with fruit has worked quite well for me in the past; I’ve also had some success defrosting mice in a small quantity of warm water and then pouring the water onto fruits (the mice were fed to another tegu). Egg, either cooked or raw, mixed with fruit can also be very tempting to tegus. A note on eggs though - raw eggs can prevent the absorption of Biotin, an important vitamin that is either ingested or synthesised by intestinal bacteria. Cooking the eggs can denature the protein Avidin that causes this. Don’t feed too many raw eggs!
Bear in mind though that baby tegus are rarely obese, as they metabolise their food so quickly - baby tegus should not be starved to change their diet.
Tegus need a readily available source of clean water, preferably large enough for the tegu to lie in to soak. Make sure that you don’t provide too deep a water dish, particularly for babies; if you use a large container for water, make sure there are plenty of rocks or other objects in it so that the tegu can get back out!
Sexing Your Tegu
As a general rule, the sex of young tegus bought from stores or breeders will be unknown; until they begin to develop sexual characteristics at around 16months of age, there are few ways to determine your tegus gender. Probing young tegus can be effective, but traumatic; manually everting hemipenes poses a similar risk of stress, and can even damage your tegu. The best bet is simply to wait until your tegu begins to show obvious signs of sexual dimorphism. If you’re looking to acquire a specific gender, it may be a good idea to look for a slightly older tegu that has ideally been handled quite frequently.
As your tegu matures, there are several characteristics that can give you a good idea as to your tegus sex. Males will develop very obvious enlarged jowls, which make their heads appear much wider than the neck. They also possess cloacal spurs - two small spots at either end of the vent, that feel like a small round pellet underneath the skin. As well as these clues, your tegu may evert its hemipenes while defecating; these appear as long pink protrusions emerging from the vent. This does not happen every time the tegu defecates (it can in fact be a sign that your tegu is constipated), but its a pretty certain sign that your tegu is male!
Female tegus conversely lack cloacal spurs, and do not develop enlarged jowls; when viewed from above, their heads will appear a similar size or marginally larger than the neck. Females may still appear to have folds of skin around the jaws, but they will not appear significantly larger than the neck.
Housing more than one tegu together can be problematic; adult males can become territorial and may fight (although they don’t always), females can become aggressive if they have eggs... as a general rule, males should be kept apart - certainly if there are any females to be housed with them. Females may get along with one another and males. Tegus should only be introduced if they are of a similar size - smaller tegus may be cannabalised. Careful observation should determine the compatibility of individuals; make the situation easier by introducing all tegus to live together at a young age, and on neutral ground. This can simply be a matter of removing all cage furniture and mulch from their home (if only one of the tegus has been housed there previously) and replacing it all so that the cage is "new" to all individuals; this way, there is no territory to protect and all of the tegus can establish their own space. Bear in mind that this kind of setup requires a LOT of space; remember, in the wild a tegu has the whole of the world to get away from other tegus! Keep an eye on them, and be ready to step in with some heavy duty gloves to break things up if it starts to get hairy. Some individuals may try to dominate others, and may prevent them from eating or basking; make sure that the cage has multiple basking spots and feeding areas. If one tegu still appears to be persecuted, he will have to be removed - being trapped in a situation where he cannot escape the wrath of another tegu will be incredibly stressful and can have severe consequences on his health.
Hibernating Your Tegus
In the wild, tegus will normally hibernate for up to 7 months of the year, entering hibernation in the autumn (around September, give or take a few weeks) and emerging in Spring (around March, give or a take a few weeks). In captivity, tegus may or may not hibernate; if their lighting and temperatures are kept constant, they may stay up through the winter months. However, there are some factors that can influence hibernation that you might not even think about. Firstly, the temperature of the room that your tegu is housed in is likely to drop when the weather cools; this fluctuation can affect the internal temperature of the cage, and cause your tegu to enter hibernation mode. Similarly, if your tegu is able to see out of a window, the naturally shorter winter photoperiod may be enough to set him off. Tegus are naturally wired to want to sleep through the colder months, so there are a lot of mental stimuli there that we may not even know about!
In order to hibernate, your tegu needs to be able to make a secure burrow. Increasing the amount of substrate and supplying more cage objects that can be used in burrow construction may encourage your tegu to bed down for the winter. Even if they do not fully hibernate, many tegus will begin to slow down during the cooler weather; they may spend more time sleeping in their burrows, although they may still emerge from time to time. If your tegu still appears to be active, even for shorter periods of the day, you can continue to feed and keep the temperatures and lights the same. If your tegu does not emerge for several days (remember that tegus may be active for short periods while you are at work etc), you should let them enter hibernation. Withhold feeding for two weeks or so before lowering temperatures; this should ensure that your tegu has time to digest and excrete any remaining food. Beware when hibernating your tegu - tegus have been known to die from rotting food left undigested in their gut when temperatures are dropped prematurely. After two weeks of normal lighting and temperatures, you can turn off these heat sources. Ideal hibernating temperatures should fall in the low to mid 50Fs; too high temps can stop the body from entering its almost stasis-like state, and result in it continuing to metabolise. This can be harmful to your tegu, who will believe that he is hibernating normally, but whose body will begin to waste. Do not disturb or handle your tegu in this time; forcibly waking up a tegu whose metabolism has dropped to hibernating level can cause illness. Do not offer food during the time; water should always be available however. Keep an eye on your tegu; if he continues to emerge, your temps may not be low enough, or he may be attempting to digest any remaining food. If this happens, you may have to increase the temperatures and start the process over. Commit to either hibernating or not hibernating your tegu - don’t let the temperatures drop and continue feeding! An important note - if your tegu begins to lose weight, bring temperatures and lights up to normal and resume feeding. It is not normal for a tegu to become skinny when hibernating.
Preventing a tegu from hibernating can be difficult due to the factors stated above; however, generally, an increase in temperatures, humidity, food availability and photoperiod can fool a tegu into thinking that its Spring. Increase the number of "day" hours your tegu has, keep the room he is in bright during the day, and possibly you will be able to bypass hibernation. Note though that there is no hard data to determine what long term impact lack of hibernation can have on a tegus health; also, hibernation is important in the preparation for breeding tegus.
Common Issues and Questions for Tegus
- My tegu's poo has half-digested crickets in it! Check your basking spot temperatures; they should be between 105-115F. Undigested food is usually down to lack of heat.
- Will some accidentally swallowed substrate/hair on the mice impact my tegu? If your basking spot temps are high enough, most tegus will pass these things with no issues. If your tegu has swallowed something accidentally, like a piece of substrate, you can feed them a moderate quantity of mineral oil or liquid paraffin (obtain from a chemist or vet) to help lube up the digestive tract. If the object is not excreted in a couple of days, or your tegu goes off its food, it will need to visit a vet. If your tegu has swallowed anything sharp, take it to a vet immediately.
- My tegu isn’t shedding properly! Tegus should shed in large sheets - usually head, body, legs and tail. If your tegu is shedding scale by scale, your humidity probably isn’t high enough. Humidity should be between 50-80%, with an increase while shedding. Spray the cage more frequently and/or provide a humid hide; I’ve seen enclosed cat litter boxes used for this. Keep an eye on the toes and tail; these are usually the last part of the body to shed, and the shed can become stuck, cutting off circulation. If necessary, soak the tegu in warm water and gently rub the shed to dislodge it. Don’t pull at shed that doesn’t come off easily. Don’t bathe the tegu too frequently, or the skin can actually become drier and stick even worse.
- Do tegus eat their shed? No, they just leave it lying all over the place.
- Something weird came out of my tegus vent while it was pooing! A pink fleshy organ coming out of your tegus vent is one sure-fire way of knowing that you have a male on your hands ;) Hemipenes are occasionally everted when a tegu has a to"push" a little harder than normal while defaecating - this shouldnt be happening all of the time, or your tegu may be constipated. Add more fruits and veg to the diet. Anything reddish or that appears bloody may hint at a rectal prolapse; this should be investigated immediately by a vet.
- My tegus hemipenes have everted, and they aren’t going back in! Prolapses can occur when a tegu has had to strain to defecate. Remove the tegu from its cage and take it to a vet. If the vet is not immediately available, remove substrate from the cage and clean the wound by soaking the tegu in warm water. Replace substrate with newspaper and get a vet appointment as soon as possible. Experienced herpers may be able to slip the hemipenes back in, but this should not be attempted by novices.
- My tegu has cut itself! Use a dilute mixture of Betadine (povodine-iodine) or similar disinfectant to clean the wound, and an antibiotic cream to stave off infection.
- My tegu has cut me! Use a disinfectant on it, such as dilute Betadine, and an antibiotic cream to stave off infection.
- My tegu has lost a nail - will it grow back? Nails generally don’t regrow, but wont be missed.
- My tegu has lost its tail - will it grow back? If the tail has broken cleanly, it should eventually regenerate. It probably wont look the same as the old tail.
- I dropped my tegu and it cant move properly! Your tegu needs to go to a vet immediately. There is nothing anyone on the internet can do to help you!
- My tegus jaw looks like its all soft and saggy, and/or my tegu is stumbling and shaking! These issues are usually related to calcium and its lack/excess thereof. Baby and juvenile tegus should have one feeding daily supplemented with pure calcium (not calcium/phosphorus), with a calcium/vitamin mix on two feeds per week. As well as this, they should have access to full spectrum lighting. If you are supplementing too much calcium, your tegu could suffer from calcification of its internal organs. If you are not supplying enough and/or not enough UVB, your tegu could be suffering MBD (metabolic bone disease). Both require vetinary treatment to assess the extent of the damage. Your vet may also give your tegu a calcium shot if its body is lacking in this important mineral.
- My tegu is sneezing/breathing heavily/has mucus coming out of its nose and mouth! Your tegu probably has a URI (upper respiratory infection). This can be caused by incorrect temperatures, too much standing water (your cage should be moist, not wet), or stress. Your tegu will need treatment by a vet (usually Baytril administered orally). This can be passed on to other reptiles, so ensure you do not transmit it! Don’t confuse your tegu "huffing" with the more raspy sound of laboured breathing.
- My tegus poo smells really bad (and I mean really bad) and/or is runny! Tegu poo doesn’t smell like roses, but it should not feel like your face is going to melt from the stench. Overly smelly and/or runny poo can be indicative of parasites. Your reptile vet will probably prescribe Baytril. Leaving parasitic infestation untreated can result in death for your tegu.
- Can I clip my tegus nails? Yes you can, although it may be a two-person job! Cat-claw clippers work well. You literally want to just take off the very tip of the claw; tegus nails are generally quite dark and it can be hard to see the quick, so don’t be tempted to take off more. If you do clip too far back and your tegus nail bleeds, use a styptic powder to stop the bleeding. Alternatively, some people just tap the end of the nail with a Dremel sander disc; this can be dangerous, and should only be attempted by experts.
- Can I house my tegu with other lizards? No. Aside from the fact that your tegu will either eat or be eaten by the other lizard, different species can harbour "good" bacteria in their bodies that is actually harmful to other lizards. Don’t mix and match.
- Can I take my tegu outside? Yes, tegus love being outdoors! Some keepers use leashes (either reptile/rabbit/cat etc "body" type harnesses) to take their tegus out and about. Bear in mind that adult tegus are very strong and babies are very agile - make sure your leash is secure while you are still indoors. Tegus should never be left unattended unless in secure outdoor enclosures; they can get into all kinds of mishaps in the blink of an eye. Please show courtesy towards other non-reptile keepers and do not take your tegu to public places without prior warning; some people are terrified of lizards, let alone hulks like adult tegus, and should not be forced to encounter them in public-access areas. This is the kind of behaviour that the antis will use against us - support the cause and keep your tegu on private property, regardless of how tempting it is to show them off to the world!
- My tegu went crazy when it went outside! There is a lot of new stimulation outside, and this can be quite terrifying for a tegu that is not used to new situations. It may take a couple of excursions before your tegu calms down enough to enjoy being outside. You could try setting up a pen with a hide in it so that your tegu can get used to it on his own terms; just remember to keep an eye on him while he’s in there, as tegus can dig and climb quite well!
- Should I feed rats? You can feed rats - as a matter of fact, you can feed many whole-prey items to your tegus, including quail, rabbits, gerbils etc...they aren’t fussy! I personally prefer to feed several adult mice as opposed to one large rat; that way, my tegus are getting the basic nutrients from multiple organs of multiple mice, rather than just one set from the rat.
- Can I feed my tegu cat/dog food? No, this stuff is meant for cats and dogs, and is too fatty for tegus. 100% meat (or at the absolute least additive-free and with no "animal derivatives") cat food may be offered as an occasional treat; it is not a great substitute though, and your tegu may make this obvious with a bout of the runs if it is fed too often.
- Where can I get cage plans? There are a few on the internet, but its really dead easy to plan one yourself - all it needs is a bit of thinking!
- Can I convert furniture into a cage? Generally yes, so long as the furniture you’ve picked is hardwearing and can take a waterproof coating.
- Can I use a household bulb to heat my tegu cage? Yes. Just make sure to get the right wattage! A tegu (like all basking lizards) should be able to warm all of its body at once in order to properly thermoregulate - you may want to look at broader-beamed bulbs rather than tight spot lights (which focus light in a tighter beam, and so create one very hot point and then a much cooler area around it) to get a wide basking spot. More than one bulb may be required.
- Can I use a plant bulb as a UV source? No. Use a specific reptile bulb.
- Can I put real plants in my tegu cage? Yes, so long as you ensure they aren’t toxic first. Check out one of the lists of poisonous plants online. Bear in mind though that tegus will probably destroy plants!
- Can I put wood from the woods into my tegu cage? Yes, so long as you ensure that it is well cleaned and disinfected - most people soak in a dilute bleach solution, then soak in two sets of clean water. Make sure the wood isn’t rotting or filled with fungus. Fresh branches from pine trees should not be used, although old, dry branches with no sap are fine. Remove bark from branches.
- There are little brown things crawling on my tegu! These are probably mites. You can use a proprietary mite treatment from a reptile vet or store (ensure it is safe to use with tegus) to treat the tegu; the cage will have to be stripped and totally disinfected, particularly if there are any crevices that the mites can hide in. Any bedding or wood should be destroyed. The whole treatment should be repeated after two weeks. Make sure to isolate any tegu or tegus that have been exposed to the mites!
- My tegus urates are very yellow and/or very hard! Your tegu may be dehydrated and/or suffering from a poor diet too high in proteins. Amend the diet and increase soakings and/or inject mice with a warm water/Reptoboost solution to rehydrate your tegu. Increase cage sprayings, and take to a vet if you are still concerned.
- My tegu is very fat! Adult tegus only need to be fed every other day or every third day, and shouldn’t eat vast quantities of meat or prey items. A fat tegu can suffer from fatty liver disease; don’t kill your tegu with kindness.
- Can I train my tegu to do tricks? Aside from clicker training to come on command and toilet training, I haven’t heard of any tegus actively learning to do tricks. However, they can associate different sounds with different things, so its possible to teach your tegu to come when you call it, I suppose. My adult tegu will come to investigate if he hears his bowl being tapped!
- Does it hurt when a tegu bites? It depends on your pain threshold. I was bitten by my juvenile tegu when I hand-fed him a locust (he bit at it and accidentally got my finger as well) - the pressure made it go numb almost immediately, so it didn’t really hurt until a while afterwards. It bled alot though! My adult tegus angry bites through a shoe were more painful as his jaw pressure is greater - I image that would hurt as much as any of the larger monitors on bare skin.
- How often should I feed my tegu? Hatchlings and babies should be fed twice a day. Juveniles over 4 months can be fed once a day. Adults over a year can be fed every other day. Tegus over two years can be fed every other day or every third day. This is just a rough guide.
- How much should my tegu eat? A meal is generally however much a tegu can eat in one go when the tegu is young - this can vary, but young tegus almost seem to inhale crickets and other inverts. Older tegus should have their portions monitored, although insects and fruit are generally not too risky to feed in large quantities. Large amounts of mice or chicks should be avoided.
- Loads of tiny flies/ants are taking over my house! The flying pests are usually peat flies, and can arrive in your bags of mulch. They don’t cause any harm, but are annoying. Letting the mulch dry out usually gets rid of the flies, as they need damp conditions to breed. You can remoisten the mulch when they are gone (regularly soaking your tegu during this time will help keep him hydrated). Fly strips outside the cage may help trap some of the pests. Ants can be very troublesome, and may require professional extermination if they set up camp in your house. Some people bake, microwave or cook mulch to get rid of pests.
- My tegu has escaped! The first thing to do is check any areas the tegu had access to, and make sure any others remain closed off. Tegus will normally find a warm, dark place and go to ground; they often turn up behind refrigerators and down the back of couches. They can manipulate themselves into the most bizarre of places, so leave no stone unturned! Bear in mind that if your tegu is small, he will be a fairly adept climber and could have climbed up the curtains or a bathrobe hanging on the back of a door. Occasionally (especially with older, larger tegus) you can follow the trail of destruction; tegus like to investigate things, and chances are your tegu will have knocked about objects in his path as he explores. You can also dust a thin line of flour along the bottom of each doorway that your tegu has access to - when he crosses the line, he will drag the flour about and give you a pointer as to which room he has moved into. Take care to isolate any other animals that might cause trouble, like dogs and cats! If you cant immediately find your tegu, try setting up a temporary basking spot with a clamp lamp and a dish of food to lure your tegu out.
- Why does my tegu bury his food? I honestly don’t know - Imp guessing its to store it, as my tegus all bury their food and dig it up again later.
- My tegu is eating snails from the garden! Is this ok? Generally speaking, its not a great idea to let your tegus eat snails (or any other bugs) from the garden, as you have no way of knowing what they have been exposed to. Even if you don’t use any poisons in your own garden, snails may carry parasites and traces of pesticides from other gardens. Having said that, my tegus frequently eat snails from the garden to no ill effect, but I wouldn’t advise it.
- Why does my tegu spend so long asleep? Tegus naturally spend a large portion of the day (particularly during the hottest part of the day) in their burrows. This is not unusual. Unfortunately, this usually means that their activity period usually falls during the hours that their owners are at work. You can amend this by changing your tegus photoperiod so that he wakes up later in the day, and will hopefully still be awake when you get home; however, the natural light in the room may still be enough to stop this from being effective. An alternative is to get your tegus used to being fed later on in the day; my tegus will emerge when I get home from work in the early afternoon to be fed.
- Is it ok to dig my tegu up out of his burrow? Generally no, you should not; this is stressful and disturbing for your tegu, and he is more likely to perceive you as a threat if you do this (particularly when he is new to you). Encouraging your tegu out with some gentle noise or movement of the cage substrate might get them to emerge.
- I just bought a new tegu - can it live with my other one? Tegus of similar size can usually be housed together without issues, providing there is enough space for the new inhabitant. The cage should also contain multiple basking and hide areas. You may want to introduce both tegus to a new cage at the same time so that neither has the opportunity to develop a territory. Adult males may potentially show aggression to one another, particularly if housed with females; its generally not advised to house "new" males together, although animals that have grown up together may be more tolerant. Note though that all new reptiles should be quarantined out of contact with animals already established in your collection for a bare minimum of 3 months. Some keepers quarantine for up to a year; this is advisable, especially where the origins of the animal aren’t clear.
- My baby tegu is very skittish! Will it always be this way? Argentine tegus will become more handlable with a combination of time and contact; regular contact with its owner will build trust, and time will see your tegu become huge and confident as he grows! Adult tegus are naturally less fearful than babies, so try not to be disheartened if your baby isnt living up to your expectations of a "tame" larger lizard.
- What do you think of those "dog tame" stories? I think they will be single reason that tegus will become the next iguanas - everyone buys them expecting them to be like a scaley dog, and I think the reality of the situation is that they simply AREN'T like that. Tegus can become very tame when they are regularly exposed to non-threatening human contact, that much can be seen; however, the domesticated dog is naturally wired to obey its human. A tegu isnt. If a tegu doesnt want to do something, all of the shouting and punishing in the world wont make the slightest bit of difference - as a matter of fact, the animal will probably take these gestures to mean that you are a threat and become even more wary of you. Im always quick to refute these stories, as I think they are misleading; its not to say that there arent some extraordinarily tame tegus out there, but I dont believe that buying a tegu will automatically mean that you will have a dog-like lizard to care for. Buy them for their own qualities, not the stories that people assign to them.
(c) Jo Ferguson
Last revised 12/2007
Please feel free to link to this caresheet on this site.
Chuckwalla Care Sheet
The Chuckwalla as a Pet: A Brief Overview
Chuckwallas are the second largest lizard native to the desert and rocky regions of
At first glance, chuckwallas may not be appealing to the average herper; for the most part, they lack the bright colours and unique body shapes that are popular amongst captive reptiles. However, the chuckwalla is a marvellous animal in its own right. Males can possess striking markings; while most can be described as a black body with white or grey flecks on the shoulders and back and a white tail, some specimens display bright red or orange colouration. Females for the most part are brownish, with dashes of darker and paler colour; some may possess irregular pale banding. Juveniles, however, are brightly coloured in yellow, black and grey, with broad banding and light bodies. Chuckwallas are also renowned for their ability to inflate their bodies in order to wedge themselves into crevices; this is so effective that chucks are known to be impossible to remove without dismantling the structure, or piercing the animals skin – as the Native Americans are reputed to have done in order to extract the lizard for cooking. That saggy, leathery skin is much more acceptable when one knows the role it plays in the life of this unusual little creature! These lizards are considered to be wholly herbivorous, and are particularly partial to Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) and Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), They will consume both leaves and flowers. On occasion they may eat insects when other foods are scarce; in captivity however it is recommended to offer only suitable foliage for consumption. Chuckwallas live in colonies in the wild with one dominant male (although lower-ranking males may still form part of the same colony). They will hibernate in their burrows during the cold winter months. They may live for up to 20 years.
Chuckwallas are generally quite laid-back little creatures once they have become accustomed to human contact. Captive-bred babies are the 
best purchase for any aspiring chuck-owner, as they are more likely to be parasite free and accustomed to a life in captivity. Wild-caught specimens can occasionally be found for sale; as the history and health of these individuals is unknown, its’ not generally recommended to purchase these animals. Any wild-caught animal should be treated for worms and other parasites, and have a thorough examination by a reptile vet. It is not advisable to take home wild chucks found in gardens or parks. Prices for chucks can vary from around £70 - £200 for a specimen. Chucks are not known biters and prefer to flee than confront; however, a chuck bite is said to be quite painful. It is recommended to make sure that any rocks with crevices in the cage be easily dismantled in case your animal has to be removed in a hurry; chucks may occasionally panic and lodge themselves into all manner of places! Chucks appreciate a humid hide in the cage, particularly if it can be burrowed into; however, the overall humidity of the cage should be very low to prevent respiratory infection. A strong source of UVB and a hot basking spot are all requirements of these little iguanids. Chucks may be kept in pairs in a cage approximately 4’x2’, or trios in 4’x3’. Only one male should be placed in an enclosure if females are present, or territorality issues will crop up. Males have been known to leave more peaceably together if there are no females present and plenty of food is available, but it is not recommended to place unfamiliar adult male chucks together.
Things to Think About Before Buying Your Chuckwalla Choosing your Chuckwalla When selecting a chuckwalla, common sense is usually a good guide; a healthy chuckwalla should look and act healthy. Chuckwallas should be rounded and plump in appearance, although they may appear a bit wrinkly around the edges; bones should not be visible through the skin. Examine the hips and spine; if you can see the outlines of these bones, the chuckwalla is underweight. Due to their diet, chuckwallas are almost impossible to make obese; however, they can easily become emaciated if not fed regularly enough. Individuals that are clearly very thin should be avoided; while its possible to very gradually “fatten up” a thin chuck, you will have no way of knowing if the chuck you are about to buy is parasitic, or underweight because of some other sinister reason. Avoid being a martyr and purchasing obviously sick animals from shops; at the end of the day, you’re supporting the perpetrator of the cruelty by giving them money for an animal they have neglected. It is far better to report unscrupulous shops and sellers to the appropriate governing body (the RSPCA in the If the chuckwalla appears in good physical condition, inspect the rest of the body. Scars, nipped toes and tails and other imperfections may be present on some animals; this would usually hint at older animals, or possibly long term captives (LTC – animals in captivity for several years, but originally taken from the wild). Ask the seller about the origin of the animal; sometimes wild-caught (WC) chuckwallas are offered. If these chuckwallas appear in otherwise good health, they may be considered for purchase. Bear in mind that all WC stock should be subjected to a fecal examination, as many are heavily parasitized either from the stress of transportation or the close contact with many other animals. They also do not often make good pets. If your heart is set on a handlable animal, avoid WC specimens. Missing toes or tail tips should not cause any problems providing they are well healed and there is no evidence of bleeding/weeping injuries. Inspect the rest of the body for any other marks or injuries; there should be no lumps or bumps. Do not purchase an animal that has open wounds or sores. Check the eyes and nose; these should be free of any mucous or crusting (occasionally salt crystals appear on the nostrils of desert animals during the night…these appear as small white particles around the nostril, and are nothing to be alarmed about). The eyes should be bright and clear, and alert to anything happening around them. Check the mouth; it should be a moderate pink colour with no crustiness. Pale gums can hint at health problems. Unless very afraid, chuckwallas will usually examine things with their tongue; again, this is normal behaviour. A chuckwalla that performs this action while being held is more relaxed in the company of humans, and may make a better candidate for a pet than one that is motionless when held. Examine the vent; it should be tight to the body and there should be no evidence of crusted feces or other debris. Watch the animal move. WC or otherwise untamed chuckwallas may become fearful in the presence of humans and immediately run for cover. Try to observe them from a distance; they should move purposefully and smoothly, usually examining things with the tongue as they go. A chuckwalla that lies listlessly in one place with half-closed eyes is obviously unwell (don’t confuse this for basking, when a chuckwalla will lie at the hottest part of the cage and soak up the heat). They should be interested and alerted by any movement. If you can, watch the animal eat; chucks tend to eat little-and-often, eating a few leaves and then leaving before coming back later to forage again. Its not unusual for chuckwallas to "head-bob" at one another; that is, jerk their heads up and down rapidly several times. This is a form of communication common amongst agamas, particularly dominant males; a particularly geared-up chuck may appear as though hes doing pushups at other cage mates! Only once you are satisfied that the animal is in good shape should you consider purchasing your chuckwalla. Generally, its preferable to take a new chuck home early in the morning so it has enough time to explore and become accustomed to its new home before nightfall; however, so long as leave the cage lighting on for a few hours so that your new charge can warm up and explore before bedtime, you shouldnt run into any problems. Take your animal home immediately; do not be tempted to leave your new pet chuck in the car while you do some other shopping! Place your new pet into his cage and leave him to settle for a day or two; your chuck probably wont mind someone sitting in the same room watching him, but will probably be heavily stressed out if his new owners insist on touching him and banging on the glass while hes trying to investigate his strange new cage!
Housing your Chuckwallas
A pair of chuckwallas can comfortably be housed in a 4’x2’x2’, well-ventilated vivarium that is kitted out with rocks for hiding and basking, and a covered, dampened sandy area for burrowing. A couple of fake plants and wood structures will also be appreciated by these active lizards; bear in mind though that chucks arent agile climbers, and while they will bound easily over rock faces they will struggle to grip branches. Make sure that any heavy items such as rocks are secured firmly and are placed directly on the cage floor, not onto the substrate; they may accidentally be dislodged and result in injury. Make sure that your rock structures can be dismantled if necessary; chucks can be very hard to remove if they jam themselves into a small space!
Chuckwallas are desert-dwelling lizards, and as such require high basking temperatures and UVB. A basking spot of approximately 120F can be provided safely; my chucks seem to enjoy sitting at the hottest part of the basking spot, which reads approximately 125F. General ambient temperatures should be in the mid to high 80s. A cooler end in the lower 80s gives your chucks somewhere to retreat to if they get too warm – but don’t expect this to happen too often! Create different basking spots by placing items of varying height under the basking spot – this way your lizards can choose exactly the temperature that they wish to sit at. All temperatures should be monitored regularly using a digital temperature gun, such as the Pro Exotics™ guns; this way you can immediately get a precise reading of your chucks environment, and can modify it as necessary. A digital thermometer placed in the middle of the cage is a piece of kit commonly used by reptile keepers to keep an eye on changes in background temperature.
A high UV source, such as a Mercury Vapour Bulb, is perfect for these lizards; follow the directions on the bulb to ensure it is hung at the correct distance. Higher 
percentage reptile UV tubes, such as ReptiSun™ 10.0, are an alternative; two of these tubes should ideally be utilised in the chuckwalla vivarium. We use an 80W outdoor floodlight for heat and a Megaray™ UV 100W Spotlight for UV; some higher-wattage MVB bulbs can be used on their own to create heat and UVB. In this scenario, you may wish to include a low-wattage “beauty” tube light to brighten up the rest of the enclosure. Chuckwallas are generally quite active during the day, although they frequently take breaks to bask on rocks and other vantage points where they can survey their surroundings. It is not unusual for chucks housed together to bask together, occasionally in large piles! Inactive chucks are liable to be too cold, sick, or not being stimulated because their cage is too dark. At night, supplemental heat may have to be used if your household temperatures drop below 60-65F; we have a heat mat in the vivarium to give a little more control over chilly night-time temps. Heat mats should always be connected to a suitable thermostat to prevent them from overheating your cage. Never use hot-rocks; chucks detect heat from above, and will accidentally burn themselves by staying on hot rocks for too long.
A water source can be placed at the cool end of the cage; however chucks are not big drinkers and will obtain most of their moisture from their diet. Monitor your humidity carefully; high humidity can cause respiratory infection in this species. Relative cage humidity should be below 50%. Hygrometers can be obtained relatively cheaply from hardware shops; digital ones are far better than the more inaccurate “dial” type. As the cage should not hold any moisture, many keepers opt for large ventilation panels, or even leave the top of the cage open, to allow good ventilation. If you choose to do this, bear in mind that chuckwallas can jump and climb very well!
Feeding Your Chuckwalla
Although baby chuckwallas may occasionally be offered appropriately-sized, gutloaded crickets, adult chuckwallas should be considered wholly herbivorous, and require a selection of greens and vegetables in their diet. Chuckwallas consume a great deal of food for their body size, and should be fed daily or, at the very least, every other day. My pair of chucks will happily devour a heaped dish of greens in a day! Gravid females require even more food, particularly after they have laid their eggs. Do not scrimp on greens; unlike many omnivorous and carnivorous herps that can easily become obese in captivity, chuckwallas are almost never overweight when fed a diet of greens. If your chuckwalla does not appear rounded, the chances are that he is underweight.
The following foods may be offered to your chuckwallas:
Greens
Collard (spring) greens, mustard greens, carrot and turnip leaves, kale, cress, spinach, romaine, escarole, frisee, raddichio and pak choi are just a few of the foods that can be offered to your chuckwallas; dark leafy greens like collard should make up the staple of the diet, with other leaves mixed in with moderation. Greens should make up around 80% of the diet. Finely chop your greens to provide mouth-sized pieces, or your chuckwallas will shake/scatter them about and make quite a mess! For a bit of enrichment, try securing whole leaves to an object in the cage so that your chucks can munch on it - collards are particularly good for this.
Vegetables
As well as their greens, chuckwallas may accept a small selection of vegetables; green beans, grated or cooked squash and pumpkin, cooked sweet potato, corn (both on the cob or cooked kernels), peas, grated carrots and broccoli are some examples of readily-accepted foods. Frozen and defrosted vegetables will also be eaten. Crushed alfalfa pellets or ground alfalfa hay can be sprinkled on top of the greens to add extra fibre and protein; dont use alfalfa sprouts, which are nutritionally very poor in comparison. Vegetables can make up to 10-15% of the diet.
Fruits
Chuckwallas are not generally huge fruit fans; however, small amounts of finely-chopped, brightly coloured fruits may be accepted as treats. Cantaloupe, mango, papaya, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi and banana can be offered from time to time.Yellow-coloured fruits appear to be the most appealing! Limit these sweet treats to around 5% of the diet.
Plants and Flowers
Finally, the leaves and flowers of some plants will be welcomed in the diet. Hibiscus, nasturtium, dandelion and ficus are all popular. Plants obtained from garden centres should be repotted and allowed to settle for 6 weeks to allow any pesticides to pass through. Yellow flowers are the most appealing to chuckwallas, any many will accept these from their owners hands!
Food is a good way to bond with your chuckwallas - even the most antisocial chucks can rarely resist a treat.
A small dish of water should be offered in a cool corner of the cage; chuckwallas will obtain nearly all of their moisture through their diet, but may occasionally drink from their dish. Ensure it is placed so that it doesnt evaporate and raise the cage humidity.
General Maintenance Summary
- For such small lizards, chuckwallas produce a great deal of feces - and are not fussy about where they drop them! You will undoubtely find poos all over the place if you keep more than one chuckwalla. Generally chuckwalla feces are relatively small and quite dry, and are fairly easy to spot-clean using a pair of plastic gloves or even just putting your hand inside a bag to pick them up. Quite often, you may find poos "cemented" onto cage furniture afer they have dried out in the warm conditions of the cage; a plastic cat-litter scoop or even a spatula or decorators' wallpaper scraper can be used to chisel these off. Replace the substrate as it becomes dirty; non-particulate substrate such as newspaper will require more frequent replacement. Use a reptile-friendly disinfectant such as those made by Beaphar to clean the cage before replacing substrate; you will usually have to remove your chuckwallas to perform these tasks, as they will more than likely cause trouble by trying to investigate your activity or by trying to escape; have a secure box such as a Really Useful Box with holes drilled into the sides handy to put your chucks in while their cage is being cleaned.
- Adult chucks should be fed at least every other day, and ideally daily; like all herbivores it is very hard for a chuckwalla to actually become obese on a good diet of greens and flowers! Suppliment your pets meals with a reptile multivitamin supplement like Nutrobal every two or three days; gravid females may require more frequent supplementation of pure calcium, such as Calypso Calcium, in order to produce healthy eggs. Baby chucks should be fed daily. Remove uneaten food after 1 day.
- Ensure that your moist hide area is kept damp with a spraying of warm water every couple of days.
- Replace water every 1-2 days, and disinfect bowls regularly. We use paper plates for food dishes to cut down on time.
- Check heating/lighting apparatus to ensure it is functioning correctly; particularly during extreme seasonal conditions, it may be necessary to change some of your equipment. Regular checks with a heat gun should ensure that you dont accidentally cook or freeze your pet. UVB bulbs will need replacing semi-frequently once their "useful" lifespan has been reached; check the manufacturers website for your particular brand of bulb. As a general rule, UVB fluorescent tubes will last approximately 6 months (depending on brand and output) before they have decayed too far to be useful for reptiles; MVB bulbs may last upwards of one year.
Handling your Chuckwalla
Captive-bred chuckwallas at an early age make the best candidate for handlable pets; regular interaction, such as handfeeding your chuck, putting your hand into the cage and "doing" things without actually touching the animal, and sitting near the cage will all allow your lizard to see that you are not to be feared. Dont be surprised if all new chuckwallas initially run for cover when approached! Chuckwallas only defence is to lodge themselves into gaps, and so they are heavily inclined to run for shadows and small spaces if they feel threatened. By spending time with your chuck, you will be able to minimise this behaviour. Some chuckwallas, particularly long-term captive and wild-caught specimens, may take longer to tame than others; some may never tame at all. Thankfully for the budding chuckwalla owner, chucks are relatively unlikely to bite; even if cornered most will simply try to escape. Occasionally an aggressive specimen may be encountered; take care when handling these animals, as their bites are reputed to be very powerful! Untame chucks may occasionally "whip" with their tails in the same manner as an iguana; coming from such a small animal, this is predominantly startling for the human on the receicing end rather than painful.
To pick up your chuckwalla, gently scoop up its body into your cupped hands while being careful to support the legs. Chuckwallas can startle easily, so take care that it does not attempt to leap from your hands. Chucks are generally small enough to support the entire body in an adult hand; children should be supervised when handling chucks to make sure that the body is being suitably supported, and to help out in case the chuck decides to struggle. Most chucks appear to become very still when being held; this may be perceived as "stress" behaviour, and shouldnt be mistaken for "tameness". Tame, mellow individuals will be curious about their surroundings when handled, and examing things by flicking their tongues; scared chucks will lie perfectly still, watching you unblinkingly. If your chuckwalla appears to be behaving like this, keep handling to very short sessions to avoid stressing your charge. It is not unusual for nervous chucks to inflate their bodies slightly when being held, particularly if you place one hand across your pets back while holding it, simulating a small nook or cave; this is harmless behaviour, although again you should be sensitive to the stress that your chuck is feeling to perform this behaviour. When inflating, chucks bodies can increase by three or four times their normal girth!
Sexing and Breeding Chuckwallas
Adult chuckwallas are sexually dimorphic - that is, they can be visually distinguished as male or female. Adult males (S.ater) are predominantly black in colour with flecks of colour on their backs - white, grey or beige are the most common, with some regions showing bright red and copper hues - and a solid tail colour (usually uniform with the markings on the body). They also have a very distinctive line of pores along the inside of each thigh; these are very marked, and almost appear as white spikes. Juvenile males may also have these pores, although they may not appear white until the chuckwalla has matured. Females are mostly brownish or blackish without bold markings, although they may show faint bands on their tails. They possess very undefined femoral pores. Baby chuckwallas are impossible to sex, and show bright sandy coloured stripes on a brown body; the tail is sandy white with black bands. These markings fade very slowly through to and beyond maturity at approximately 16+ months old.
Do not house more than one male together; males will clash for dominance over the group, and the defeated male will not be able to escape the wrath of the victor in the confines of the cage. Multiple females may be housed together, either as a single-gender group or with a male; they appear to be quite sociable towards one another, and fighting between females isnt common. When introducing a new animal to your group, ensure that it is quarantined for a bare minimum of 1-3 months, and a vetinary check and fecal examination performed before allowing the animals contact with one another. Reptiles (like many animals) are notorious for hiding signs of illness until they are very sick, by which time the rest of your collection might have already been exposed to infection. Protect your pets by always quarantining new arrivals until they have had the "all clear" from a reputable reptile vetinarian.
Mating in this species usually occurs after a period of two to three months of total hibernation, often late into Spring; in their natural habitat, they will emerge in February, with mating observed between April and June. You can simulate a cooling period in captivity by gradually reducing your cages photoperiod from a full 12-14 hours in summer down to 5-8 hours over winter. In the last couple of weeks before dropping the photoperiod completely, refrain from feeding your chuckwallas to prevent undigested food from rotting in the gut. When your photoperiod is at it shortest, you may turn off all heat sources providing the temperature does not fall below 60-65F; in this scenario, some form of low ambient background heat should be provided in the form of a heatmat set to 65F or something similar. When bringing your chuckwallas out of hibernation, very gradually increase photoperiod and temperatures over several weeks to allow your chucks metabolism to get into gear.
Mating can be extremely aggressive; do not be overly concerned unless your chuckwallas are actively attacking one another and drawing blood. It may be an idea to provide extra hiding places for your female at this time so that she can escape the attentions of the male if she desires; several tight-fitting stone nooks or hides will give her a place to get away. Do not attempt to breed females under 2 years of age; up until this time they are still growing, and may well be too small to successfully pass eggs. We had this problem with a female that we purchase that was already gravid; although she was provided with a laying area she was physically unable to pass the eggs (we observed her straining desperately to lay them) and became fatally eggbound.
When gravid, female chucks become very swollen in appearance; the outline of individual eggs may even be visible through their skin. Eggs are laid within weeks of copulation in warm, damp burrows; its important to keep a particular eye on the humidity and temperature of your hide area at this time, as a female may become eggbound if she is unable to find a suitable laying area. Placing a heatmat under part of the eggbox, or siting it close to the basking spot, will help maintain the temperature of the site. A female close to laying will begin to dig test areas around the cage until she has found a suitable place; it may be an idea to physically place your female into the eggbox at this time if you see her digging elsewhere, particularly if the eggbox has been only recently introduced to the cage.
Here is a quote taken from Kingsnake.com, which shows the advice given to me regarding egg-laying boxes:
"This has always workd for me. Get a large plastic box at least 6 inches deep. Other dimensions are not critical but I would go no smaller than 11 x 15. Fill it with damp play sand to the top on one end and slope it down to about an inch deep on the opposite end and pack it. Cut a piece of plywood about 2 inches short of the length of the plastic box leaving it short on the end with the 1 inch deep sand. Lay a rock on top to the plywood does not shift around and lean a rock up against it so the chuck has easy access to the top pf the box. Put it in a corner of the cage near the basking light so it stays nice and warm. Make it so the end with the deep sand is against a wal as it offers a little privacy. Some people say to use solid colored plastic boxes so it is dark but I have always used the translucent Sterilte boxes and have never had one refuse to lay. Temp is not critical but you don't want a amp cold area as they will avoid it. When I dampen the sand I usually use hot water to get it warm right off the bat. Once in the cage just slide the female in the open end and she will usually instantly investigate it. If she jusmps right back out do it again. You may even want to do it once the next day. This is enough to let her know it's there and she will do the rest. Sometimes they will keep digging around in the box. If this happens for more than a week repack the sand as mentioned above and add a little more hot water to make it more damp. Just be careful that it is not so much water that it puddles in the bottom of the container. Do not worry at all about humidity as chucks get way more humidity in their hides in the wild than you think, it will not bother them.
Pull the eggs after she has buried them and put them in the incubator with damp vermiculite. I soak it then squeeze out as much as I can. No scientific measuring and I have had almost a 100% hatch rate. Bury them about 2/3 to 3/4 into the vermiculite and keep the temp from 88 to 92. Again not that critical. I have had them fluctuate between 84 and 96 with no problems."
Following this advice, I had a female lay shortly after I received them; all eggs were laid in this box at the furthest corner from the opening, and were partially buried in sand. The eggs were removed and placed into a plastic tupperware box containing vermiculite as described above (soak it in warm water and squeeze it as hard as you can before placing into the box...some sites offer more specific water to vermiculite ratios, but this method seemed to work well); make a small depression in the vermiculite with your thumb and gently place an egg into it. You can then carefully push a little wall of vermiculite around each egg so that it is partially covered; aim to leave about 1/2 - 1/3 of the egg exposed. Do not turn the eggs while removing them and placing them into the box.
The tupperware box should have one or two holes in the ends to allow a small measure of air circulation, but not enough to allow all of the moisture from your vermiculite to escape; we drilled three holes approx 2-3mm in diameter into each end of the box, and this seemed to work quite well. I dont advise using cricket boxes unless you tape up nearly all of the holes; these lose humidity very quickly, and resulted in several of my eggs drying out. Before placing the box into the incubator, weigh it and keep a note of the weight; do the same every week and if the weight has dropped, put the equivalent amount of water for the difference into the box. This will ensure that your vermiculite stays consistently damp without becoming too dry or too wet. When "watering" your box, its important not to drip water directly onto the eggs; some sites suggest covering them loosely with paper towel or bottle tops while you spray the container.
Eggs should be incubated between 88-92F; at these temperatures, they should hatch at between 65-80 days - my first egg hatched at 78 days. Slight fluctuations in temperature are not too worrying, but try to avoid major shifts. Viable eggs should become very white and solid in appearance; they will also gradually become larger and larger. Occasionally, eggs may appear to be somewhat dented or sunken; this may be down to excessively moist substrate, or conversely overly dry substrate. Weigh the box and ammend as required. Eggs that are not viable will quickly begin to shrivel and discolour; they may also go mouldy. Occasionally mould may begin to develop on otherwise healthy eggs; this isnt necessarily a problem, and eggs should not be discarded purely because of mould. Chuckwalla hatchlings are approximately 4" total length when born.
It is believed that baby chuckwallas require an initial infusion of gut-flora from their parents in order to properly digest their herbivorous diet; its therefore important to provide fresh feces from the parents for the first few days in order to kickstart their digestive system. Very finely shredded greens, flowers and vegetables (such as very fine squash) should also be offered daily; it may take several days before the babies begin to eat these foods. They can be very fussy when they are first born; however, the remnants of their yolk sac will provide sustenance for several days. We had the most success with bright yellow petals, such as those of the Calendula spp. Marigolds (bear in mind that the Marigolds of the Tagetes spp. are poisonous!) - these were our hatchlings food of choice, and well-favoured over other greens and vegetables. Keep an eye on the babys weight; obvious weight loss, easily recognisable by the base of the tail becoming thin, indicates that your babies are not getting sufficient nutrition. Baby chuckwallas can be prone to dehydration in large, well-ventilated cages (due probably to the fact that their nests would be quite moist), and should be sprayed daily to aid hydration. They can be housed similarly to adults; it may be recommended however to house them on a non-particulate substrate such as newspaper or paper towel for the first few weeks to prevent accidental ingestion of the substrate. Babies are very flighty and can move very quickly; they seem to prefer having dark, snug-fitting hiding places to retreat to when startled. We used a very small terracotta plant pot dish, upturned and with a small hole broken into the lip to provide an entranceway (remember to grind off any rough edges with sandpaper or a chisel), which seemed to be popular; our baby also seemed to like hiding between sheets of paper, where presumably the contact both above and below provided a sense of security. A small, shallow water dish (another small plant pot saucer in our case) can be offered; make sure that it is very shallow, and that the sides are not so steep that your babies cant get out if they jump in.
Chuckwallas are very slow-growing animals, and may take up to two years to reach their adult size of around 18". Some websites suggest feeding small quantities of pinhead crickets to baby chucks; while it hasnt been proven how this affects the herbivorous chucks digestive system (excessive animal protein has been linked with gout in green iguanas), it may be safe to assume that babies with a lot of growing ahead of them might occasionally take live prey. Do not use these as regular food items!
References and Other Useful Links
Books & Magazines:
Chuckwalla: The Genus Sauromalus (with notes on keeping and breeding Sauromalus ater) by Harry Wolfel, "Reptilia" magazine no.48 (English edition) Oct 2006.
Websites:
www.anapsid.org - Melissa Kaplans site is one of few with concise Chuckwalla information, and has been invaluable in building my knowledge.
www.kingsnake.com - the Chuckwalla forums is a lurking ground of Tom Greb - a guy who has given me some amazing advice both when I received my chucks and back when they were but a far-off concept.
www.beautifuldragons.com - a list of edible plants and the nutritional content of various foods.
www.ameyzoo.co.uk - Mark has given me sound advice on the husbandry of both chucks and monkey tailed skinks, and is always a great help whenever I run into problems!
Jewelled Lacerta Care Sheet - IN PROGRESS!
The Jewelled Lacerta as a Pet – A Brief Species Overview
Jewelled lacertas (also known as Occelated/Eyed lizards), Timon lepidus (formerly Lacerta lepida)
Things to Think About before Buying a Jewelled Lacerta
· Is there a reptile vet close by? Most reptiles will need to see a vet at some time or other, and regular vets dont usually have a lot of expertise in exotics. Dont just assume your lacerta wont get sick; when they do, you may find yourself facing a 3-hour drive to the nearest reptile vet clinic.
· Can I obtain all of the foods these lizards need? Lacertas are omnivorous lizards and as such require a varied diet of insects and other invertebrates in order to stay healthy. Do you have a local store that can provide these foods? Many internet sites now sell livefoods that are sent out via the post, so this may be an alternative option if you don’t have a local reptile store…bear in mind though that livefood deliveries are prone to dying when shipped during extremes of weather, and there is no “emergency” service from internet sites if you accidentally run out of food! As well as these, soft, sweet fruits will be accepted by lacertas; are you prepared to spend time chopping and mashing foods for them?
· Do I mind handling insects and invertebrates? Some people are very squeamish about handling livefoods like crickets, locusts and mealworms; are you prepared to process these foods for your lacertas? Most fear of these creatures is irrational – locusts, mealworms, waxworms and crickets are totally harmless to humans. Morio (“Superworms”/Giant or King mealworms) are capable of giving a nip that can be felt by people, but again are not any threat. If you cannot overcome a fear of insects, lacertas are not the pet for you.
· Do I know whats involved in hibernating lacertas? Lacertas spend several months of the year hibernating in the wild; although some keepers bypass this by keeping temperatures and photoperiods constant throughout the year, its not evident what impact this will have on the long-term health of the lizards. It is certainly believed that a “cooling” period over the winter is a requirement to breeding. If you don’t have any experience of hibernating lizards, you will need to research and implement this from scratch for your lacertas.
· Can I provide the right environment? Lacertas are very active and need lots of space to move and burrow; rocks, plants, pieces of wood and humid earth are all a part of the lacerta lifestyle. They also require moderately cool but bright conditions and UVB supplementation; are you prepared to make sure that your lacerta husbandry is suitable?
· What do I expect from my lacerta? Most lacertas do not make great handlable pets; they are skitty, can move extremely fast, and can bite with great gusto. As they are long bodied, they can also writhe extremely well, and inflict painful scratches on their owners. They do not make great pets for children. If you wish to be able to handle your lacerta on a regular basis, a captive bred juvenile is probably your best bet; however, don’t expect a lacerta to sit calmly in your hands like a bearded dragon! As they are very food-oriented, its possible to win over even untame lacertas by offering food items on a pair of tongs; however, this is probably the extent of the contact your lacerta will want with you.
· What will happen to my lacerta when I go on holiday? Finding a reputable person to care for your lacerta is paramount. Some people might be a bit unwilling to feed your pet insects in your absence! If no-one is available to feed them in their own cages while you are away. Many reptile stores now offer boarding for peoples pets.
Choosing your Jewelled Lacerta
Housing your Jewelled Lacerta
- The Basics:- A pair or trio of jewelled lacertas can be housed in a bare minimum of a 4’x2’x2 vivarium kitted out with plenty of branches/roots, plants (fake plants or “safe” live plants…these may be dug up and destroyed), rocks etc to provide hiding places and climbing spots. Most store-bought vivaria should be suitable; however, as this species require a level of humidity, ensure the joints of vivariums are sealed to prevent water from dripping through. Some woods may require treatment before they are suitably protected against moisture; we use Blagdon Pond Paint ™ on our home-made vivariums, as it is waterbased and doesn’t emit any of the harmful fumes that varnishes do. A home-made vivarium can easily be constructed by the budding herper with a little carpentry knowhow – some people even convert old furniture! - and will be much cheaper than buying a vivarium from a store; the choice is entirely yours. Make sure however that whichever vivarium you chose to use is well ventilated; a humid cage with no ventilation will become a stagnant breeding ground for bacteria. Ventilation panels on the sides of the viv rather than the top will prevent too much moisture from escaping. A sand or sand/sterilised topsoil mix makes an excellent substrate. Ensure that any heavy objects are placed directly on the floor of the viv and not just on top of the substrate, or your lacerta may be squashed if it digs underneath. Lacertas are quite nimble climbers, although they are less adept at balancing on narrow branches; place larger rocks and stumps into the cage to provide climbing opportunities. A covered damp hide area will be appreciated by both male and gravid female lacertas; an enclosed wooden or plastic box with a small hole large enough for the lizards to enter and leave freely will suffice. Fill the box with several inches of sand/topsoil mix and/or sphagnum moss; this extra-humid area will aid shedding, and also give gravid females a secure place to lay eggs. A shallow water dish should be present at all times; bear in mind that lacertas are poor swimmers, and shouldn’t be offered any water crock too deep for them to stand upright in. Hatchlings will require an even shallower saucer of water. Place small rocks at the edge of the water bowl to allow lacertas to get in and out easily if the sides are smooth and steep.
- Lighting & Heating:- Lacertas require a basking spot of approximately 100-105F, with general ambient temps in the mid 80Fs. A cooler area in the mid to low 70s should also be offered to allow your lizard to properly thermoregulate. Experiment with different wattage heat sources to get the temperature right before your bring your lacerta home; placing objects directly under a heat source to create “steps” will allow your lizard to choose an exact level of heat to sit at. Heat sources come in many different forms, from expensive ceramic heaters and MVB bulbs to simple incandescent household lightbulbs; for a diurnal species like lacertas, a source that produces light as well as heat is infinitely preferable. If you opt not to use an all-in-one heat and UVB source such as a Mercury Vapour Bulb (MVB) such as MegaRay™ or PowerSun ™ (bear in mind that these can output a great deal of heat and cannot be thermostatted…do not use high wattage MVBs in a small vivarium like a 4’x2’x2’), you will acquire a UVB source in addition to your basking heat source. These usually come in the form of a fluorescent tube and starter unit; ZooMed Reptisun ™ and ExoTerra ReptiGlo ™ are two of the most common brands. One or more 5.0 or higher UVB tubes should be utilised in your lacerta viv in conjunction with a reflector; follow the manufacturers website or www.uvguide.co.uk to determine the correct distance to suspend your UVB equipment. UVB sources should be suspended directly overhead – NOT on a wall or vertically from the bottom to the top of the viv – and ideally sited close to the basking spot so that your lizard receives maximum UVB exposure at the hottest – or “sunniest” – part of the cage. Lighting and heating should be amended throughout the year; during the summer, aim to have your lighting on for 12-14 hours per day. During winter, this can be tailed off to 8-10 hours a day. A heatmat hooked to to a thermostat (don’t use heat mats on their own…they will just keep heating up and eventually overheat your vivarium) can be used to provide supplemental heat during the colder months. If you plan to hibernate your lacertas, all light sources should be switched off once the lizards have entered hibernation – see “Sexing & Breeding your Lacertas”.
- Humidity:- Lacertas require moderate humidity in their cage: this can be achieved through daily misting or spraying. Be careful when spraying water close to electric cables and bulbs!
Feeding your Jewelled Lacerta
Jewelled lacertas are voracious feeders and very much driven by their stomachs; therefore care must be taken that they not become too fat. Adults may be fed every other day for as much food as will be consumed within 5-10 minutes; babies should be fed daily.
Below is a list (not exhaustive) of foods that may be offered to your lacertas:
Invertebrates (“Livefood”):- Crickets, locusts (5ths are a good size for adult lacertas), waxworms, mealworms, silkworms, butterworms, cockroaches, snails and earthworms will all be readily accepted by this species. Ensure that all invertebrates are appropriately gutloaded (fed nutritious foods that will then be passed onto the lacerta when they are consumed) where necessary; waxworms, butterworms and earthworms are not possible to gutload. Adult lacertas should eat with great passion until they are satiated, after which they will often refuse any further foods. These invertebrates should form approximately 80% of the overall diet.
Fruits:- Soft, sweet fruits such as banana, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, kiwi, peaches, grapes and strawberries may be accepted by your lacertas. Chop or mash fruits into small pieces that can be easily eaten. Fruits may form approximately 10-15% of the diet.
Vertebrates:- Pinky mice may on occasion be offered to your lacerta; bear in mind that these are very fatty, and should be considered a treat for lacertas. They can be a nutritional boost for skinny skinks, or females that have just laid eggs. Do not feed these items regularly or your lacerta will quickly become obese. These treats can make up to 5% of the diet.
All livefoods should be supplemented regularly with vitamins and calcium to ensure that your lacertas get a balanced diet. Crickets should be regularly supplemented with pure calcium such as Calypso Calcium ™ to counteract their high phosphorus levels. Use a multivitamin such as Nutrobal™ once or twice a week. Adults can be supplemented on one or two feeds a week for calcium; gravid females and babies should be supplemented more often. To dust livefoods, place them into a small food bag, add a pinch of supplements, and shake the bag until all of the invertebrates are covered in a fine dusting of powder.
Fresh water should always be available in a shallow dish for this species.
Handling your Jewelled Lacerta
Sexing and Breeding Jewelled Lacertas
Adult jewelled lacertas are sexually dimorphic – that is, they can be visually disguished as being male or female. Adult males develop extremely large and powerful chunky heads with large jaws and jowls; they also have a slimmer overall build compared to females (unless overweight). Males will also have very prominent femoral pores, which almost appear as large spikes on the inside of each thigh. Female jewelled lacertas have relatively slender and delicate heads that are not significantly wider than the neck; they also have very reduced femoral pores, with no large protrusions. Both adult sexes and juveniles possess striking green and black bodies with blue spots on their sides; colour alone is not an accurate way to sex these lizards. Hatchlings are impossible to sex until they reach maturity.
Common Issues and Questions
- Why cant I place a UVB light vertically from the bottom to the top of my vivarium? Most UVB tubes emit very low levels of visible light, which means that lizards may inadvertently “stare” at them for long periods of time. It is not known what damage staring at these lights continually may cause. By placing the light above your lizard and close to a bright incandescent light, your lizard will not look directly at it (incandescents, with much higher levels of visible light, irritate the eye and stop the lizard from staring at it…try staring at a lit household bulb and you will see what I mean!)
Bearded Dragon Care Sheet
A Very Brief Species Overview
Bearded dragons are medium-sized lizards that originate from eastern Australia, usually inhabiting dry scrubland areas with a semi-desert climate. They can be fairly social in the wild, although species-aggression is fairly common in captive animals kept in too-small accomodation. They have short, squat bodies and blunt heads edged with sharp spikes; the scales of the rest of the body lie flat, although they can "puff up" their chins and extent the scales outwards into a prickly "beard", giving them their name. This is usually performed as a defensive gesture to ward off enemies, usually accompanied by flattening the body so that they appear larger than they really are. They are semi-aboreal, and enjoy climbing, although they will hunt insects and other prey on the ground; they are fast runners. They eat a variety of material, primarily insects and vegetation. They will quite often change colour according to their moods or environment; this can range to a subtle shift in shade to a completely different appearance. The beard in adult males will quite often turn black during periods of excitement or stress; females beards may also turn black, but not usually as markedly as that of the male. They live on average for 7-10 years in captivity. The most commonly available bearded dragon in captivity in the UK is the Inland Bearded Dragon, although the smaller Rankins Dragon is also sometimes available. Also now available is a hybrid of the two, known as a "Vittikins"; in my opinion, this procedure is unethical for both species and these lizards should not be bred or bought. Inland Beardeds grow on average to be between 18-24" in total length. Males are often a little larger, with a bigger head and darker beard, although this is not an accurate way to sex them. For the purposes of this caresheet I have focussed on the Inland dragon, the only one I have owned.
The Bearded Dragon as a Pet
Bearded Dragons, or "beardies" as they are often affectionately known, make one of the better reptile pets, particularly for a first lizard. While they are bigger and require a slightly more complicated setup than leopard geckos (only slightly :) ), they usually tolerate handling better and appear to generally be calmer than these popular lizards. With the correct set-up and a proper understanding of your reptiles needs, they usually thrive in captivity and don't seem to be phased by human contact. On the whole, they will tame down well in nearly all cases; although there are some reports of aggressive beardies out there, they are usually few and far between. The only problem here is that the beardie is usually so calm that a novice owner may not realise that they are stressing their charge through too much handling; for this reason, many beardies suffer parasitic infestations resulting from stress. Even though they are generally very handlable, its important to bear in mind that they are not kittens or hamsters, and shouldnt be held roughly or against their will. A well-cared for beardie in an interesting cage make a captivating pet to observe.
Choosing a Beardie
I know the feeling - baby beardies are usually so cute that its difficult to think about much other than how badly you want one when you go to the pet shop. There are a few things to consider however. Firstly, take a moment to check out the shop; if the animals look like they are well cared for, have interesting cages with places for them to hide from customers (the cage may be minimalistic, but there should still be a place to hide and something to climb), and the shop has knowledgeable staff that dont mind talking to you (and dont try to brush you off by telling you how easy it is to care for a reptile), then chances are its a reliable place. Try to visit more than once at different times to make sure the good care is consistent; some stores make a greater effort on busy days like Saturdays. Avoid places that keep more than one species of reptile in a cage; very few species are compatible, and many can spread harmful bacteria to other specimens.
A suitable baby beardie should look alert - it will probably observe you closely if you move a hand close to it, or make a quick movement away. It shouldnt have any visible lesions or injuries, and should have a clean vent with nothing stuck to it or protruding. It should not have any discharge from nose or mouth. Many baby beardies lose their toes and tail tips to other, hungry babies, or may lose claws while climbing; unless the beardie has obvious discomfort from these accidents, or they are bleeding or weepy-looking, these are usually nothing to worry about. Ages is missing the tips of 3 toes and the very tip of her tail, but none of these affect her activity level. Ideally try to see the baby feeding; this is usually when they are at their most active. A lethargic beardie that lies on the floor with its eyes closed and lets the others climb over it should be avoided. Also, dont buy a beardie under 3" in length; very young beardies are very susceptible to stress (even the stress of going to a new home can be too much for them) and illness, and shouldn't be taken on by a new reptile keeper. Try to look at a beardie at least 6" in length; these will be more robust and far less delicate than a hatchling.
Caging
As beardeds are active lizards, a large cage is important. 48x18x18 or 48x24x24 is a good size for one specimen, if it is decked out with plenty of interesting branches, rocks and other cage furniture. Store-bought vivariums are usually popular and effective, although they can be pricey; we made our own using melamine-faced chipboard from B&Q. Large fishtanks, such as 55Gal or 40Gal Breeders are usually quite popular as well. Beardies arent usually rough with the objects in their cage, but they will climb and dig against items, so make sure they cant fall and be damaged or squashed. Several items are important to the beardie set up;
- Substrate. Newspaper, kitchen towel or shelf/drawer-liners make good substrates for baby bearded dragons, while sub-adults and adults will appreciate clean childrens playsand (usually available at toyshops in the summer - dont use sand that has been left outsite, as theres a chance it could have been soiled by cats, the germs from which can kill your beardie). Avoid keeping babies on any particulate substrate like sand or wood chips - beardies dont generally chew their food well, and are liable to swallow bits of their substrate while eating. This can result in impaction, a condition in which the beardie's gut becomes blocked by an obstruction, which is often lethal unless promptly treated. Once they are 12" or greater in length, the risk of impaction from playsand is greatly reduced. Even so, many owners choose to feed their beardies in a separate container, like a large plastic storage box, to be on the safe side. Never use commercial calcium-based sands. The calcium content of these sands actually encourages the beardie to eat it; couple this with the fact that it is designed to "clump up when wet" to make cleaning up poo easier, and you have a recipe for disaster when you consider that the beardie's gut is full of moisture. Similarly, avoid woodchips and shavings; these may come from trees with oils that are toxic to beardies, and also cause an impaction risk. Soil should also be avoided, as it will increase the humidity of the cage (beardies prefer a drier atmosphere).
- Lighting. As a diurnal, semi-desert species, beardies naturally spend a lot of time in the sunlight, and require brightly lit enclosures to encourage activity. They also require full-spectrum lighting in order to refine various important vitamins and minerals. For this reason, a full spectrum reptile UVB light source, such as those by ReptiSun or ReptiGlo, should be incorporated into the enclosure; I personally use ReptiGlo 8.0, run the whole length of the enclosure. Failure to provide UVB will result in Metabolic Bone Disease, a weakening of the lizards bones. As well as this, as basking light should be offered. All reptiles require a gradient of heat in their cage; this is usually achieved by putting heating apparatus at one end of the cage, and leaving the other end empty. This gives a natural range of temperatures, from high at the "warm" end to low at the opposite side of the cage, and allows the lizard to adjust its body temperature as it needs to. Beardies naturally move towards the highest and brightest spot when looking for a place to bask, so place the basking light above a branch or other object. The basking spot should be around 100-110F, with the ambient temperatures ranging from 85 at the warm end to 80F or slightly lower at the cool end; this means you may need to do a bit of experimenting with different wattage light bulbs to get the right temperature (we use a 100W spotlight in Ages cage). These lights should be left on for at least 10 hours, increasing to 12 hours in the summer and reducing to around 8 in the winter if you want to simulate "real" seasons. All lights should be put out at night, although you can provide a "Moon" light at night if you wish. Night-time temp may be allowed to drop into the low 60Fs. If your house regularly gets colder than this at night, you may want to invest in a heat mat; this should be placed under the "hot" side of the cage, and should be plugged into a thermostat. This will allow you to regulate the temperature of the mat; without this, the mat will keep getting hotter and hotter until it poses a heating risk. Never use plug-in "heat rocks"; these are a great example of unregulated heating appliances, and many beardies (and other lizards) will often burn themselves on them. Beardies arent very good at detecting heat from below anyway (beardies use a sensor on the tops of their heads to detect heat - known as the parietal eye), and so wont be able to effectively thermoregulate with these items. Similarly, a heat mat alone is not sufficient to heat your beardies cage during the day. As an alternative to light bulbs, Mercury Vapour Bulbs (MVB) may be used; these will supply both UV and heat, but they are high wattage and will cook a beardie in anything lower than a 2ft high vivarium. Ceramic Heat Emitters (CHE) are another useful heating device; as these dont give out light, they are particularly useful at night. Like the heatmats, these should be used in conjunction with an appropriate thermostat. I personally like to know that my beardie is associating light with heat, and so I prefer to use light bulbs for daytime heat, but CHEs are used by many keepers with success.
- Cage Furniture. Branches, rocks, cork bark and fake plants are all popular with beardies, who will appreciate being able to climb and hide.
A source of water isn't essential, as long as the beardie is offered water daily through bathing or via an eyedropper or syringe; usually dripping water onto the end of their nose will stimulate a drinking response. Many beardies dont appear to recognise still bodies of water, like water in a dish, and so wont drink from it. It will also increase humidity in the enclosure, which can lead to respiratory problems in this species. Most beardies will obtain plenty of water through their food, though an occasional misting with a hand spray will allow them to lick additional moisture from the cage furniture. For comfort of mind though a small vessel can be left in the cage; be warned though that beardies arent the best swimmers, and especially in the case of small lizards, care should be taken that the animal cant fall into the water and be drowned.
Feeding
Beardies are voracious eaters and should be allowed to eat a great deal while they are growing; this should gradually be reduced as they grow older to provent obesity. Crickets are the most popular staple for babies to adults; these should be gutloaded (fed appropriate foods - such as the same greens you feed the beardie - so that they contain all the nutrients of their meal when they are fed to your lizard) and dusted with a vitamin supplement prior to feeding - we used Nutrobal twice a week, and pure calcium by T Rex daily, on one feeding per day. The crickets should be no larger than the space between your beardies eyes; any larger and they run the risk of impacting your beardie (since beardies dont really chew much, most food is just swallowed and can be difficult to pass if its too large). A baby beardie should be fed as many crickets as it will eat in 10-15 minutes at least twice a day; at 6 or 7 months feedings can be reduced to once a day, and at a year, to every other day or third day. Also offer dark, leafy greens such as collard greens, turnip and mustard greens, escarole, endive, frisee, bok choi, kale and raddichio - we use a mix called "Leafy Salad with Tatsoi" from Tesco, which has several of these in and "Spring Greens (ie collards)" - on a daily basis. Babies may not eat it readily, but most will pick at it between meals. This can be encouraged if you place a couple of wax worms or meal worms into the salad; they will usually eat the salad by accident while chasing the worms (please note - babies under 6 months shouldnt be fed mealworms on a regular basis). Appropriately sized locusts, cockroaches, morioworms, mealworms and waxworms can also be offered occasionally; be aware though that mealworms contain a lot of chitin which is hard to digest, and so shouldnt be offered to babies - and waxworms are very fattening but usually the greatest treat in the world to a beardie and its not uncommon for them to refuse all other foods if they have been spoilt on waxies.
Adult beardie's diet should consist primarily of greens; Ages is fed morioworms or crickets once a week and offered greens every other day now that she is an adult. Many beardies will refuse to eat the greens initially; it took several weeks before Ages gave in and started eating them willingly. Dont deprive growing babies of their proteins though to try and get them to eat their greens - they need all the energy they can get to power their enormous growth spurt!
Beardies should not be offered pinky mice as a general rule; as beardies dont chew, they are at risk of impaction from pinkies. Large adult beardies that are gravid may occasionally be offered them to help fatten them up for egg-laying, but they arent nutritionally high enough to offer to other beardies.
Handling
Most beardies don't seem too bothered by handling, particularly if they are handled fairly frequently from a young age. The usual way to pick up a bearded is to scoop up its front and back legs and support it from underneath; some beardies may become agitated if their feet are allowed to hang down. Beardies seem to like to move towards the highest possible spot, and will often climb their owners clothes to get onto their shoulders; care must be taken that they not be allowed to fall, as they can be easily damaged by tumbling from a height. Its worth remembering that they can run incredibly fast as well, usually in short bursts, and can easily be lost if they are allowed to roam around without careful supervision. Try not to handle a new beardie too much in its first couple of days in the home, particularly if it is very young.
Very few beardies will bite with aggression; usually, the most an owner will see is the flattening of the body and the puffing of the beard which indicates that thee lizard is agitated. If given a few minutes to calm down, the beardie should relax and allow itself to be picked up. A lizard that persistently bites may require handling with a glove until it has become accustomed to human contact. Beardies can also "pinch" with their tails; this occurs when an owner (or other perceived enemy) puts their hand at the base of the lizards tail, and the lizard traps it between the tail and their back legs. The spikes here are very sharp and point outwards, and in many cases this has been descibed as being more painful than a bite. Avoid this by always handling your lizard from the front, so that it can observe you. Never hold a beardie by the tail; it can easily be fractured or broken.
Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after handling your beardie or its cage furniture, especially if you have been handling other animals first.
Sexing
Its virtually impossible to tell the sex of a baby or juvenile beardie without it being probed by a vet, and so, in most cases, a new owner wont know what sex their new baby is. When they reach adulthood at around a year, its usually more clear; males generally have very large heads and a pronounced line of pores along the inside of their thighs, whereas females will have far less-obvious pores. Males will also have visible hemipenal bulges on the widest part of the tail just before the vent; these can be seen by gently lifting the tail upwards. Care should be taken not to lift the tail too high or over the back of the lizard or spinal injuries may occur. Males may also have very black beards.
A Note on Poo
A lot of people have complained in the past that their beardies poo is very smelly; the general consensus now appears to be that its just a fact of life. Thats not necessarily the case. Beardie poo (particularly young beardie poo) obviously doesnt smell too nice, but it shouldnt be melting the face of its owner. If you can smell your beardies poo clearly in the next room, chances are your beardie has a parasitic infestation. These usually occur during times of stress, when the bacteria occuring naturally in the beardies gut can be allowed to get out of control. This is normally very easily and quickly treated if caught early by a reptile vet, but can be fatal if allowed to continue. If you think your beardie's poo just shouldnt be that smelly, a trip to the vet should be in order.
Summary
Please note - this shouldnt take the place of "real" research into this species. Think of it as a very rough guide. 
- Difficulty to Keep as a Pet - Fairly Easy. With an understanding of their lighting and heating needs, coupled with a knowledge of their diet, and the general good-naturedness of the species, they make one of the best reptile pets around. Some owners may find feeding insects distateful.
- Expense - Medium. They will eat a lot when babies/juveniles, and the cost of a fairly large enclosure and the animal themselves will be quite high. Vet bills should also be taken into consideration, as lizards can get sick, and will usually cost more than dogs and cats for their specialised treatments.
- Noise Level - None. Ours sometimes scratches about her cage, but no vocalisations.
- Smell Level - Generally none, so long as cage is frequently cleaned. Strong smell can indicate parasitic infestation
- Temperament - Good. If handled a lot as a youngster they can make very reliable pets, although one should always be aware that they are not domesticated and dont always do what one would expect. They are usually good with children old enough to respect them, making them good family pets.
Please note - this care sheet reflects my opinions only, and should not take the place of professional advice from a veterinarian or similar body