A little bit of background before I get to the baby Tegu:
I randomly ended up at a local reptile shop a few days ago and had a little bit of a disturbing experience. They had an enclosure with several baby savannah monitors (maybe 20 or so) and there were at least 2 or 3 dead and dried up ones, they had probably been dead for a few days they were so dry. Some of the live babies were chewing on them like they were starving. I immediately told the guy at the counter and he removed the dead ones and tossed in a bunch of crickets and the monitors went nuts! They must have been VERY hungry. The employee claimed that they beat each other up and that was why there were dead ones but I got the impression they may have been killed by the others because of hunger. Now I'm not one to want to get people in trouble but this incident left me wondering if I should take some sort of action towards this place? I used to go there a lot for feeder rats/mice when I lived closer and the employees are always very nice and helpful but the owner has some serious issues. One time I waited for 40 minutes! while he was in the back of the store screaming at somebody on the phone with nobody else working the front of the store. We could hear every word at the front of the store and he even went so far as to call whoever it was back after they hung up on him and continue on for another 20 minutes. He was very lucky he wasn't robbed! Very unprofessional...so now to the Tegu.
The same day as the savannah monitor incident I noticed a young Red Tegu in a small enclosure (maybe 12" x 8") the glass said " Red Tegu $149.99 (imperfect) " I could see his tail had several dents along it and he was not very big, maybe 16" long with tail at most and he looked underfed. ( I don't know the sex just referring to it as a he) When I inquired about him I learned he was also missing some toes and apparently they received him from someone who was not taking care of him, though I am skeptical.
My questions are, What do you think the chances are of me rehabilitating him to good health? He was probably only a few months old so I have hope he could still recover emotionally if worked with a lot. How old would he have to be for me to let him interact with my full grown black and white Tegu? How much money would a second tegu take? I would of course take him to a vet first to get him checked out.
Thank you for your input. Since I left the store I can't stop thinking about his little face in that tiny box with no one to love him!
I randomly ended up at a local reptile shop a few days ago and had a little bit of a disturbing experience. They had an enclosure with several baby savannah monitors (maybe 20 or so) and there were at least 2 or 3 dead and dried up ones, they had probably been dead for a few days they were so dry. Some of the live babies were chewing on them like they were starving. I immediately told the guy at the counter and he removed the dead ones and tossed in a bunch of crickets and the monitors went nuts! They must have been VERY hungry. The employee claimed that they beat each other up and that was why there were dead ones but I got the impression they may have been killed by the others because of hunger. Now I'm not one to want to get people in trouble but this incident left me wondering if I should take some sort of action towards this place? I used to go there a lot for feeder rats/mice when I lived closer and the employees are always very nice and helpful but the owner has some serious issues. One time I waited for 40 minutes! while he was in the back of the store screaming at somebody on the phone with nobody else working the front of the store. We could hear every word at the front of the store and he even went so far as to call whoever it was back after they hung up on him and continue on for another 20 minutes. He was very lucky he wasn't robbed! Very unprofessional...so now to the Tegu.
The same day as the savannah monitor incident I noticed a young Red Tegu in a small enclosure (maybe 12" x 8") the glass said " Red Tegu $149.99 (imperfect) " I could see his tail had several dents along it and he was not very big, maybe 16" long with tail at most and he looked underfed. ( I don't know the sex just referring to it as a he) When I inquired about him I learned he was also missing some toes and apparently they received him from someone who was not taking care of him, though I am skeptical.
My questions are, What do you think the chances are of me rehabilitating him to good health? He was probably only a few months old so I have hope he could still recover emotionally if worked with a lot. How old would he have to be for me to let him interact with my full grown black and white Tegu? How much money would a second tegu take? I would of course take him to a vet first to get him checked out.
Thank you for your input. Since I left the store I can't stop thinking about his little face in that tiny box with no one to love him!