Missing information about Lizards

[stainthedane]

Just bought a young Argentina Black and White Tegu today. He's already proving to have a great personality and we're very happy with him.
I've been researching as much as I can about them the last month and now everything is just a broken record. But I'm noticing I can't find one thing:
What food's to AVOID feeding your tegu.
I know to avoid -dairy
-sugary foods
-chicken gizzards and hearts (they take away the calcium from the lizards nutrition)
-beef (beef is usually fatty)
And theres probably others I'm too tired to think of right now. But with other animals you hear all about how too much garlic is dangerous for dogs...oranges can lead to cancer in male rats... etc.

I'm still searching, but I'm only finding the typical food's people feed their tegu. I'll stick to those for now, but I still want to know.

[stainthedane]

I always get like, 0-1 replies on here. :confused:

[Julia423]

Sorry. I think we only have a couple of members who have/raise/breed lizards on the forum and they check in regularly, but maybe not as much as some.

I'd be the last person with any advice about lizards ;) I'm sorry to say.

[BRIZZY]

There is not many good sites for foods "not" to feed. They usually just give you basics as what to feed and care for.

Boiled chicken, Turkey, Hard boiled eggs(on occasion), fruits like strawberries, blueberries, mangos on ocassion, you can even feed at times leafy greens like collard, mustard, some will eat some will not. Dog food is ok as treats, mealies, crickets, dubias roaches. All are good to feed.

Stay away from really sugary things, acidic things, and beef yes is very fattyy but can be feed occasionally.

[Python]

All Tegus are carnivores as hatchlings, which means they only eat meat. Crickets dusted with vitamins dust , Captive raised roaches, Mealworms, Super mealworms, ground turkey dusted with vitamin dust, Pinkie mice and cooked egg (Not raw) scrambled or hard boiled.
Please remember to remove any food that is not eaten right after your tegu has eaten his/her fill. Insects are well known for stressing reptiles. This also will help keep their cage cleaner.
Adult tegus, For the Argentine Black and White and the Argentine red Tegu. They will take ground turkey, cooked egg (Not raw) scrambled or hard boiled, rodents, fresh fish (Not from a pet shop, due to the chemicals used in these tanks), baby chickens, grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, melons, and just about any other soft fruit. Bananas can be given as well, but not as a staple diet, only in moderation. This is due to the high content of potassium (Known for not binding with calcium). Not more than once every couple of weeks. They also tend to have a very high phosphorous levels.
The Blue Tegu, and the Colombian Black and White, or (Gold Tegu) will take all of the above, except fruit. Also I suggest feeding only killed rodents. Live rodents can bite your animal. Dead do not, it is just not worth the chance.
My choice of vitamin dust is Herpitive or Fluker's.
A side note on feeding: Tegus can get cage aggressive. They can get to where they will associate their keeper with food. There are a couple of ways to keep this from happening. The first is to feed your tegu in a separate cage or area than his home. Have the food there when you put him with it.
Another way, would be to feed him at night or when he is in his hide. Then he will not see you with food. The first suggestion is the best for a few reasons. One you handle him every day, which helps with the taming process. Another reason would be to remove all chances of him ingesting substrate. And last, but not least, the food would be fresher than feeding at night.