{"id":73222,"date":"2024-08-21T03:53:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T08:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/?p=73222"},"modified":"2025-09-08T18:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:00:16","slug":"tegu-basic-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/tegu-basic-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Tegu Basic Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tegus are characterized by their large size, muscular limbs, spotted pattern and long, forked tongue. Tegus can thrive in captivity when provided with a proper diet and an enclosure that is designed to recreate the conditions that they would encounter in the wild. This client education handout reviews species commonly kept in captivity, housing, diet, and behavior. In the wild, tegus are mostly ground-dwelling, burrowing lizards. Originating from the tropical rainforests of South America, their humidity requirements are high. Most tegus are omnivores. These lizards are generalists that consume a wide variety of food items in the wild. Tegus are also curious, extremely intelligent lizards. Some individuals can be tamed and trained with regular handling, especially from an early age.<\/p>\n

\"Tegu<\/a><\/p>\n

Download the\u00a0PDF version<\/a> of this client handout, or modify the DOCX<\/a> version for your veterinary hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tegus are characterized by their large size, muscular limbs, spotted pattern, and long, forked tongue. Tegus can thrive in captivity when provided with a proper diet and an enclosure that is designed to recreate the conditions that they would encounter in the wild. This client education handout reviews species commonly kept in captivity, housing, diet, and behavior. In the wild, tegus are mostly ground-dwelling, burrowing lizards. Originating from the tropical rainforests of South America, their humidity requirements are high. Most tegus are omnivores. Most species are generalists that consume a wide variety of food items in the wild. Tegus are also curious, extremely intelligent lizards. Some individuals can be tamed and trained with regular handling, especially from an early age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23057,"featured_media":73334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[552,499,513,711,206],"class_list":["post-73222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cage","tag-humidity","tag-obesity","tag-omnivore","tag-temperature","content_types-client-education-handout","topics-behavior","topics-husbandry","species-lizard","species-reptiles-amphibians","channel-resources-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTegu Basic Care - LafeberVet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tegus are characterized by their large size, muscular limbs, spotted pattern, and long, forked tongue. Tegus can thrive in captivity when provided with a proper diet and an enclosure that is designed to recreate the conditions that they would encounter in the wild. This client education handout reviews species commonly kept in captivity, housing, diet, and behavior. In the wild, tegus are mostly ground-dwelling, burrowing lizards. Originating from the tropical rainforests of South America, their humidity requirements are high. Most tegus are omnivores. Most species are generalists that consume a wide variety of food items in the wild. Tegus are also curious, extremely intelligent lizards. Some individuals can be tamed and trained with regular handling, especially from an early age.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/tegu-basic-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tegu Basic Care - LafeberVet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tegus are characterized by their large size, muscular limbs, spotted pattern, and long, forked tongue. Tegus can thrive in captivity when provided with a proper diet and an enclosure that is designed to recreate the conditions that they would encounter in the wild. This client education handout reviews species commonly kept in captivity, housing, diet, and behavior. In the wild, tegus are mostly ground-dwelling, burrowing lizards. Originating from the tropical rainforests of South America, their humidity requirements are high. Most tegus are omnivores. Most species are generalists that consume a wide variety of food items in the wild. Tegus are also curious, extremely intelligent lizards. Some individuals can be tamed and trained with regular handling, especially from an early age.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/tegu-basic-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LafeberVet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-21T08:53:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-08T23:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/vet\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Tegu-gold-arwen_cz-FCC-cropped-square.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jay Johnson, DVM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jay Johnson, DVM\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jay Johnson, DVM\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/055b046a03cb23d97679add665d37562\"},\"headline\":\"Tegu Basic Care\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-21T08:53:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-08T23:00:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":140,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/Tegu-gold-arwen_cz-FCC-cropped-square.png\",\"keywords\":[\"cage\",\"humidity\",\"obesity\",\"omnivore\",\"temperature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tegu Basic Care - LafeberVet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/tegu-basic-care\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/Tegu-gold-arwen_cz-FCC-cropped-square.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-21T08:53:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-08T23:00:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/vet\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/055b046a03cb23d97679add665d37562\"},\"description\":\"Tegus are characterized by their large size, muscular limbs, spotted pattern, and long, forked tongue. 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