Argentine Black and White Tegu — Fact Sheet

Salvator merianae · Argentine Black and White Tegu

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Large male target: 300 x 150 x 150 cm; adult female about 240 x 120 x 120 cm
• Strong sealed walls, lockable doors, protected cables, and a secure shift box
• House singly; provide at least 30 cm of compactable substrate

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Full-body basking platform, cool hide, humid burrow, visual barriers, and robust logs
• Deep soil/sand/clay/leaf substrate that holds a tunnel without waterlogging
• No exposed foam, heat rocks, fragile decor, or collapse-prone tunnels

💡 Lighting

• High-output linear UVB plus broad bright visible lighting
• Ferguson Zone 3; target UVI about 3-4 at basking
• 12-14 h active-season photoperiod; guard every lamp

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking surface: 52-57°C
• Warm zone: 32-35 °C
• Cool retreat: 24-29°C
• Night: 20-23 °C

💧 Humidity & water

• Ambient 70-80%; humid burrow or hide 90-100%
• Heavy water tub for drinking and optional soaking; replace when fouled
• Keep the lower substrate moist but the surface ventilated

🍽️ Diet

Offer regularly:

• Whole prey, insects, snails, varied lean animal foods, leafy greens, squash, and green beans
• Adults usually twice weekly; juveniles and subadults more often

Use in moderation:

• Eggs, fruit, and fatty whole prey

Avoid:

• Hand-feeding, processed or seasoned meat, raw-mince-only diets, wild prey, chronic overfeeding

Supplements:

• Calcium on insects and boneless meats; controlled multivitamin; weigh monthly

🍂 Seasonal rhythm

• Cool-season dormancy is gradual and only for healthy animals after complete digestion
• Do not improvise brumation for first-year, ill, or unexplained weight-loss animals

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Soft jaw, limb weakness or tremors → metabolic bone disease
• Burns or repeated gaping → unsafe basking setup
• Breathing signs in cold wet housing → respiratory disease
• Straining, swelling or blood in stool → urgent veterinary assessment
• Persistent weight change → diet, parasites or systemic disease

Persistent or severe signs require a reptile- or exotic-animal veterinarian.