Argentine Care Guide

Argentine tegus can be started out as a hatchling within a 40 gallon breeder tank for a couple of months, but we recommend a front opening 4x2x2 enclosure, which they can stay in for several months depending on how fast they grow. Babies should have at the very least two hides, a water dish big enough that they can soak, but not deep enough that they can drown, a basking spot, as well as a food dish and various decor to make them feel secure. They also need substrate deep enough that they can burrow in. 50% organic topsoil(no additives at all), 25% playsand, and 25% organic peat moss make a great substrate mixture and hold humidity and burrows very well.

The ambient of the enclosure should be 90-95F on the warm side and 75-80F on the cool side. Basking surface temperatures should range between 115-130F, but 120-125F is generally the sweet spot and what has worked out best for us. You measure heat with an infrared temp gun, and putting hydrometers on the shaded areas of the enclosures. You do not want them directly under the lights due to the fact that radiation will heat it up more than your enclosure actually is. You do not need supplemental heating at night unless the temperatures drop below 65. For heating, we suggest a strong incandescent light or a halogen. For proper IR-A and IR-B, incandescents or halogens must be used. For UVB, it will depend on the height of the enclosure, but most of the time you can use a 12% T5 Arcadia strip at 18 inches directly above the basking spot that overlaps with the basking light, it should take up half the length of the enclosure. You can measure this with a solar meter! The UVI measured should be 3.0 to 4.0 on the basking area. Do not EVER use colored lights! Red, purple, blue, etc. colored lights are very bad for reptiles, it can cause issues with their eyes, as well as not giving them an appropriate day and night cycle. It is like having a bright lightbulb on all day, and all night, and can cause color blindness. It causes unnecessary stress. Tegus should have a 12-hour day, and 12-hour night cycle.

Humidity should fluctuate between 50-70%. You can keep humidity in by using HVAC tape or plexiglass on mesh on top of your enclosure that is not covered. Please make sure that you have ventilation though! Using CPU fans or vents that circulate air is a must for proper respiratory health if you do not have much ventilation. Using a fogger or humidifier is very dangerous for reptiles due to bacteria build up, the actual vapors, as well as causing dangerous fluctuations on the bottom of the enclosure. We recommend mixing water directly into your deep substrate every few days. It should not be dripping or soaking wet, as that can cause scale rot and shedding issues. Make sure you mix all puddles thoroughly throughout the substrate! You can leave under the hides dry, just so they’re not sitting in wet substrate which can cause issues.

Once your tegu starts looking cramped in their juvenile enclosure, it is time to upgrade! The size of your enclosure depends on the size of your lizard. It should be twice the length of your lizard as a minimum, so, if your tegu is 3 foot long, it should be 6 foot as the minimum, and if it is 4 foot long the enclosure should be 8 feet long. Enclosures do not have to be four foot tall, as most adults will not utilize climbing space in our experience, hence a three foot tall enclosure will work just fine! If you would like to provide additional climbing space, please make sure anything that is available to climb is secured safely to the enclosure, and no significant drops to avoid injury and/or death. Tegus are very clumsy when it comes to climbing! No enclosure is too large, as long as you appropriately furnish the inside where the tegu feels safe and can keep temperatures adequate. Lots of hides and foliage can help them feel secure and safe in their enclosure.

When your tegu is a juvenile <1 year, their diet should mostly consist of lean protein--insects making up about 75% of that. You can also supplement insects with repashy grub pie, this is personally what we do, and feed gut-loaded insects about once or twice a week. They should have about an 80% protein, to 15% vegetables and 5% fruits. Do you have to measure this out? Absolutely not! The more variety the better, but it is important for them to have a very high protein diet as a juvenile up to a year old! The percentages listed is just what has worked out best for us! Using a meat grinder helps significantly with getting vegetables and fruit into them, it keeps them from picking out what they do and don't want to eat, but it is not a necessity. This is the meat grinder that we use! You will want to feed tegus every single day until they are no longer growing length wise! That is what has worked out best for us. Once they are just growing girthier, you will want to feed every other day, you can portion out their meals, and adequately feed them based off of how their lateral line--the wrinkly flap of skin on their side--looks, if it starts looking deflated, you can feed them more, and if it still looks filled out feed them less.

Once your tegu is a year old and so forth, you can start implementing more fruits and vegetables into their diets. We start offering 60% protein, to 30% fruits and 10% vegetables. Tegus eat almost every single day in the wild, so feeding them once or twice a week will not work, and they are often extremely reactive if they are not fed like they should be.