Tegu-licious

We have pet reptiles, and no we’re not strange.

I’ll just go ahead and answer some of the most frequent questions I get when I come out of the closet as a reptile owner.

#1 No I do not consider myself a “reptile person”. No, I have not always had reptiles. I spent my whole life as a cat person, then I got married. Hubbin’ has severe allergies. To what? Yes. He’s had reptiles his whole life. Classics like bearded dragons, collared lizards, leopard geckos and so forth. About a year before I met Hubbin’ he began the search for a “serious” reptile. Several monitor lizards entered the running and eventually he settled on an “Argentinian Black and White

Tegu”. (which answers #2, no they’re not Iguanas. Iguanas get twice their size and enjoy vegetables)

We’ll call her “Princess” for the purpose of blogging. Why? Because she acts like a princess.

Princess quickly turned out to be his favorite pet EVER. She’s big and hearty so you can handle her. She’s tame so you can handle her. Most of the time she comes off as being quite intelligent. That said, she is a reptile and therefore a creature of instinct.

Enter new fiance (me).

I’ll admit, when I first met Princess I was afraid of her. It took me a long time to warm up, and she wasn’t even full grown.

#3. Yes, they’re very big. Princess measures in at just a shade over 3 feet long. When I tell people that their eyes get real big. Granted, more than half of that is her tail.

#4. No we don’t let them run around the house willy-nilly. They have tanks and they spend 95+% of their time in them. The biggest issue is they’re not house broken. ew. Princess gets to run around sometimes and if she hides and we can’t find her, she’ll reappear in a few days looking at you as if to say “Room service?”. #5. Does she know you? You open Princess’s tank and she looks up and thinks “Oh look! My humans are here!” She also has a sometimes surprising way of letting you know what she wants from you. (I guess not too surprising when they only have a few main desires in life : Food, Water, Heat, Sleep) But if you’ve let her run around and she’s done she will crawl directly to you, stand at your feet and look up.

Got more questions? Let ’em rip, I’m ready!