This is a great story about a Argentine tegu.
Dog tame Argentine Black and White Tegu.
THIS WAS COPIED FROM: Agama international Great story! Bert Langerwerf, and Tim Baker get all credit.
One Man's Experience with an Argentine Black and White Tegu
I owned an Argentine Black & White Tegu for seven years back in the 70's. She was an absolutely wonderful pet. I got her when I was working in a zoo while I was in college. She was an unexpected extra that came in with a shipment of reptiles from South America. They didn't have a place to keep her, and had had some bad experiences with some Columbian tegus. So, because of her large size and lack of knowledge about the Argentine tegus, the full-time staff were afraid of her. I thought she was a cool looking lizard. The fellow who ran the place told me if I thought I could tame her, I could have her. I went that evening to the university library and read everything I could find about tegus. I found a couple of articles about the Black & White tegus that talked about their intelligence and how they were easily tamed. The next day, I took him up on his offer.
She turned out to be much easier to tame and take care of than I could ever have imagined. She was very responsive to handling and seemed to like attention. I named her "Skeezix". She was 4 ft. 9 in. long and weighed about six pounds. Her intelligence amazed me. She seemed to have about the same intelligence and similar disposition as a good cat. She learned her name and would come when you called her (if she thought there was something to gain from it). In just one afternoon, I taught her to walk on a leash. I would take her outside almost every afternoon and let her crawl around and explore. After a couple of months, I realized that she had housebroken herself, on her own. She would scratch on the door to be let out. She was very curious and would very often go to investigate a noise or something she saw, people included.
Because of her size, and being housebroken, I let her run loose in the house most of the time in warm weather. She would often crawl up in my lap and root under my hand, like a cat, wanting to be scratched and rubbed. She really loved to have the top of her head and her back rubbed. I had a cat then and they got to be pretty good friends, often sleeping on the sofa or in my Lazy Boy together. She was gentle and completely trustworthy and never snapped at or bit anyone. Several times, I was invited to bring her, and a boa constrictor I had, to local elementary schools and I would to talk give a talk to the kids about the value of reptiles in nature and debunk a lot of the myths about them. And I would let them look at and touch Skeezix and the boa. But, the favorite with the kids (and me also) was always the tegu.
She was very good to travel with. I took her with me to many different places. She liked to lay up on the dashboard and stretch out and look around. We got some funny and surprised looks from people at redlights, especially when Skeezix would stick her head out the window looking around while flipping her tongue out. However, almost everyone that met her would end up liking her when they saw how gentle, intelligent, clean and responsive she was. Sometimes I would take her places in a wicker basket similar to a picnic hamper. She never fussed or caused a ruckus when I put her in the basket.
Her varied diet was also a surprise to me. I knew that she would eat meat, eggs, bugs, mice and such, but I learned that she also liked fruit, vegetables (cooked and raw), dog or cat food, melted ice cream, and even bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. There were very few normal people foods that she wouldn't eat.
My experience with the Argentine Black & White tegu is that they make a fantastic pet and are a truly unique member of the reptile world. I am looking forward to owning another one (or two).
Written by Tim Baker, e-mail:
timbaker@hiwaay.net
Thanks Mr. Baker for sending us this email! To our readers:
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