u/fallowdeer

Greetings from Sundog! Apologies for the corny art reference, but this is Reddit, after all…

from Sundog

from Sundog

At our house, the the two Cairn terriers and one tegu do not mix. That’s the rule, and we’ve made it clear to all.

They are, however, highly interested in one another and interact through the glass doors to the sunroom and sometimes on opposite sides of the fence in the backyard. No touching noses, no physical contact, at least, until now.

I was gone for the afternoon. Lizard had been walked and fed. Husband was napping on the sofa, terriers curled up next to him. All was peaceful, or so I thought.

I zoomed home later that evening to pick up husband to go to dinner. Terriers looked innocent. I didn’t check on Sundog.

Later that night, on our return, my husband went into our guest bathroom to pee and very calmly stated “There’s a big lizard in here”. Okay, this could’ve been a joke, ya’ll can interpret it anyway you want. But I thought “Uh oh, one of the geckos got out”. Because I was looking at the sunroom and both doors—the one going into our bedroom, and the one to the living room, were tightly shut. No way the lizard in question could be Sundog.

So I said “one of the geckos?” and he replied “Nope, a big blue lizard.” This could not be true, so I went in to see for myself, and sure enough, curled up on the bathroom floor, sound asleep, between the toilet and the shower was a four foot blue lizard. Dogs were acting all innocent and completely detached, which is suspicious in itself.

Again, I checked the doors to the sunroom. Fastened tightly. How in the hell did that lizard get out?? Magic?? A secret tunnel?? Had I somehow forgotten to put him away following our walk earlier?

Then we checked the video cams in the sunroom. Aha! Earlier in the day, while my husband was snoozing, our little girl terrier entered our bedroom (which is a no dog zone, BTW). Apparently the door to the sunroom was not secure (my fault) and she nudged it open and entered the sunroom. Several videos were recorded of both dogs entering and leaving multiple times, and finally, one of Sundog, following the dogs and exiting the sunroom!
So how did the door get fastened back???

Closer inspection revealed a circular series of rather dramatic claw marks on the wooden floor, directly in front of the door—indicating some sort of kerfuffle. Apparently there was a tegu/terrier scuffle resulting in one or both parties bumping the door hard enough to close it tightly shut, as video from the sunroom side, showed the door closing.

From that point on, we do not know what havoc ensued. But Sundog was locked out of the sunroom and roaming at large— and on some level engaged with the jail breakers.

No parties received any obvious injuries, though lizard poo was discovered in the living room. Was this a declaration of some sort?
We can only assume some agreement was met and the parties accepted each other’s company—or the whole thing was plotted and executed, with everyone’s knowledge that their behavior was not acceptable, and therefore kept secret.

We will never know.
Doors are now locked.

Pic provided of the individuals involved, during a previous encounter.

I tried sugar snap peas marinated in liver juice again today, but Sundog is on to me and was having none of it. Does he get his Tegu Lizard Card reinstated, u/Jaded_Status_1932 and Sammy?

So, for his dining pleasure today, Sundog was served a heaping plateful of Reptilinks, egg frittata, some sliced plum, and a chicken liver. For the heck of it, I threw in two pieces of sugar snap peas and a few chunks of yellow squash. I rolled the veggies around in the juice from the liver in case that might influence him, because he will never eat veggies and dismisses them as nonfood items. Today he ate all the good stuff and walked away, but came back after the sugar snap peas and squash had “marinated” in the liver sauce and ate them all! Ha! Veggie victory! Who knew the key was chicken liver?

There is only one place in the sunroom where I’ve tried to discourage Sundog from going. It is a very tight spot between the enclosure and permanently closed french door into my living room. Now that his body has expanded to large lizard size, it is quite the effort and creates chaos with the dogs watching through the glass, when he attempts to turn his butt around. Lots of clamoring, tail flopping, and amazingly loud noise, resulting in terrier intensity and reporting of the incidents to me (dogs are tattletales). I have tried every way to block the space—with heavy, plants, trash can, bricks, etc. But, oh no! The clever lizard has outwitted me at each turn, and is, at this very moment. ensconced in the forbidden corner. I’m patiently waiting for him to exit, so we can go on our daily walk, because if I try to drag him out, calamity results. Who is in charge here?

Service is horrible here. Why did no one refill the food bowl?

Happy ToT everyone. Hope you get a chance to love on your tegu today.

Though he truly lives under a rock much of the time, Sundog enjoys lounging on the beanbag chair.

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Palram Cornopia Greenhouse Tegu Enclosure

Several tegu enthusiasts on this list have asked about Sundog’s enclosure and construction costs. So, here you go!

I wanted an enclosure that would be central to activity in our home —to enjoy Sundog and engage him in daily life. I needed it to be an attractive feature and easy to maintain. Central to the concept was that it would be accessible and big enough for me to go inside for maintenance and to interact with my tegu. It was important that it hold heat and humidity well. A greenhouse seemed the perfect solution so I set about trying to find one that was pleasing in appearance and economical. I settled on this Palram Cornopia 6x6. Our sunroom is 10x30. If I could’ve made an 8x8 greenhouse work, I would have chosen it, but that was just slightly too big for our space.

We built this enclosure for Sundog on a heated floor (80 F) in our sunroom on interlocking foam mats. It holds humidity well, especially with plants hanging from the ceiling. My criticisms are 1. It’s a little noisy, as the polycarbonate panels rattle if you bump into it or open/close the door. 2. The panels are thin and once Sundog got big enough to think about it and push hard, he was able to pop them out at the bottom, spilling substrate and affecting temps and humidity. I thought about that on the front end and considered reinforcing with plexi panels along the bottom but didn’t do it and later retro-fitted it by adding 1/4 inch plexi panels to the bottom. This completely solved the problem. We also installed a hobbit door (inspired by Loki on Reddit) so he could come and go in the sunroom as he pleases. Sundog spends about 80% of his time in the enclosure and the rest roaming the sunroom. He always puts himself away. The good things: 1. I love that I can go inside the enclosure and sit with him 2. It’s easy to clean and maintain as I can stand up inside of it. 3. It’s attractive and is a feature in my home. Pic #1 is the finished enclosure viewed from my living room into the sunroom.

Note: Since greenhouses are designed for plants, not animals, there were some adaptations that had to be made for safety. We covered all sharp edges on braces with clear caulking tape and were careful to block angles where braces attached so he would not catch a leg in them.

Initial Build Costs:
Foam mats, interlocking $109, Amazon
Palram Cornopia Greenhouse, 6x6x7 tall $750, Home Depot
Plexi reinforcements for base $200, local glass shop
3 shelves, $150, Palram
Lighting $400, Lightyourreptiles.com
Chicken coop heater $55, Amazon
Large fake rock hide $75, Amazon
Reptichip $100, Amazon
Various plants $100?, Home Depot
Basking platform-ceramic tile/bricks $25, Home Depot
Extra heat panel $50, Amazon
Hobbit door for determined tegu $33, Amazon
Misc. hardware, calking tape, etc. $25, Home Depot
Beanbag chair $110 (for me), amazon
Originally, I put a humidifier inside but Sundog kept climbing on it and I was afraid he would hurt himself so I got rid of it and spray plants and substrate once a day—humidity stays at 80-98% in his rock hide as the Reptichip holds humidity really well

Cost in 2024: $2257

Technology:
Added 3 Ring cams at a later date (best purchase!)—though I think there are better ones for capturing small animal motion
4 Govee hygrometers w/ phone app
Kasa power strip that I manage with my phone-lights, supplemental heat

I don’t remember costs on the tech but it’s easy to look up

Images:
1 final enclosure result —turned out really well and is attractive
2 Sundog’s baby enclosure—2x2x4 only lasted about 5 months til he outgrew it
3 Selected this Palram greenhouse from Home Depot. Would recommend the 8x8 if you have room
4 Arrived in a zillion pieces. Was a bit of an assembly challenge and took several days, working as we had time
5 This is the greenhouse mostly assembled
6 Originally I put a sandbox for Sundog to dig in. This turned out to be unnecessary and I removed it a few months later to make a larger basking area
7 This fake rock is Sundog’s favorite place! We cut a hole in it for a door and have had to enlarge it as he grew
8 Sundog can come and go as he pleases using this little hobbit door. He can open it from either side, but refuses to close it
9 This is how the enclosure looks today
10 I think Sundog likes it

I inadvertently caused a problem with Sundog this past week and feel really bad about it.

I had decided he was getting a bit fat and began subtly reducing his daily food. We continued our walks and he was living life normally, except for being a bit more enthusiastic while eating and continuing to tongue flick rapidly after eating. He also began mouthing the water sprayer and paying a lot of attention to my feet—to the point I was concerned that he was considering biting me. But he did not.

Our daily routine involves him beginning the day basking, then I put him in his pet carrier with a grape and put the harness on. Then we go outside to walk and he will poo in the grass. Afterward, I bring him inside to eat his supper. Sometimes I’m running late and he will be waiting either by the door or in the pet carrier when I get to him.

On the day in question I found him in the carrier. So he was waiting for me. I reached down to put his harness on and he LEPT at me wildly, mouth wide open!!! I was completely surprised and yelled “NO” and swatted his butt. Well, he doubled down and leapt at me again, all teeth showing, while I said “NO! BAD LIZARD!!” I was shocked. He has never threatened me and not even a curiosity bite since he was a baby.

In retrospect, and in his defense, I want to point out that he didn’t actually bite me, but only did like a threat display. Still, I was completely taken aback and it was a little scary.

I know that sometimes tegus go through a guberty type thing and that many believe the associated behavior is really a cry from a growing lizard for more food. Some believe it is a combination of hormones and hunger. I think I’m going with that explanation.

I consulted an online friend of mine whose family imported tegus at one time and bred them for many years. He explained it to me like this:

“It’s hunger and the fact that it’s breeding season for them lol so he’s starting to mature and feel himself. You’ll notice if you give him some different stuffed animals they’ll sometimes bite them and try to mount them like they do in breeding. But yeah feed until he’s full because you don’t have the same problem as most people. People don’t exercise them no where near the amount that you do so he’ll be fine with the food. Also he may decide to brumate longer this year because after the first couple of years they will brumate longer so he’ll lose weight during brumation. He’s textbook perfect so nothing to worry about. As far as the breeding phase it can last 2 weeks or a little over a month but it will subside. You’ll notice him doing a lot of marking and dragging himself and his colors will brighten up also. It’s all part of the mating process that’s all. I’ve had males that during mating season would try to bite or pin down any human female that was around them during that time but with me zero lol. Only problem I had during that time was they hated to be held and wanted to constantly patrol around looking for females and marking. But like I said it’ll only last a couple of weeks if that. But yeah continue to handle him and interact with him but stay alert at all times until he gets it out of his system lol.”

I realized I had actually witnessed all of the behaviors described (except for the stuffed animal one) .So I followed his advice and bumped Sundog’s feed back up. He’s been pigging out and we’ve had no more issues.

Now I feel really bad because I caused this by restricting his diet— and think how frustrated he must have been. He had no way to tell me that I wasn’t feeding him enough and he stayed polite for a long time.

I apologized to him and I think he accepted it! At least he’s accepting the banquets I’m now providing. And yesterday he climbed up on the sofa and sat with me a few minutes. I believe we’re good.

Hope this helps someone with the same problem.

Faithfully submitted, Fallowdeer

Shortage of sausages! No amount of tongue flicks seem to help.

From Sundog, AKA Solar Puppy

This video is Sundog over a year ago first learning to open his “hobbit door” to the enclosure.

Tegus are often described as “dog-like” and though they are undoubtedly reptiles, they appear very smart, recognize people, and are good problem solvers. They also seem to behave affectionately at times to humans—all behaviors we ascribe to dogs, which is convenient, because most people are familiar with dogs.

I want to be fair to both tegus and dogs and not so much make a comparison between the two, but to share tegu behaviors that seem to indicate how smart they are.

In a thread from yesterday u/TearsInDrowned asked for some examples of Tegu intelligence and I became interested to learn what behaviors you have all witnessed.

I’ll start— early on,
*Sundog, as a juvenile could quickly solve dog puzzles for treats.
*Once he accepted wearing a harness and learned that it meant we could go outside, he began waiting for me by the door to the yard each day, so we could walk, explore, and he could poop outside.
* He quickly learned to identify me from other humans and will at times crawl onto my lap for pets. He will, on occasion, bolt when an unknown human visits—especially tall males.
* He will nudge me to ask me to move if I’m in his way.
*He knows, from the outside of my house, where the back door is to go inside and recently has learned how to lead me to the front door of our house. if there is a closed door in my house, he’ll scratch at it to get me to open it for him.
*He decided the greenhouse he lives in, in my sunroom, is not big enough and found multiple ways to pop out the panels so he could roam—eventually convincing me to install the hobbit door you see above so he can come and go as he pleases. Obviously, he understands doors completely!

What behaviors about tegus have impressed you all?
*

A visiting friend snapped this image of Sundog exiting his enclosure today. I love this lizard so much!

Happy Tongue out Tuesday from Sundog!

Sundog a year ago and now.

Sundog has been gazing at the mountains lately. Yesterday and today, instead of taking me on our normal walk around the house, under the tree, etc.—he struck out for the hills. I tried several times to redirect him but he was determined. Finally I had to pick him up and carry him to the house, with much flailing about and huffing and puffing. Nothing like an armful of squirmy tegu. haha. What a rascal.