Ok, long story short, a friend of mine has a Red and Black Tegu that he has to get rid of since hes moving into a college dorm room and his parents refuse to take care of it. Hes kinda retarded when it comes to reptiles, he just saw it one day at a show I took him to and bought it. As far as herp experience, he has none. I have an assortment of smaller animals, my biggest reptile is a Uromastyx or a Bearded depending on what day you weigh them. I'm completely new to Monitor type lizards, and I have one real easy question, that I cannot seem to find the answer to after reading about Tegu's online. I know the big lizard types can have septic and deadly bites from eating carrion and raw meat. Do Tegu's carry the same risk? I know he feeds it raw chicken and stuff like that, and I know it has not, to date, bitten him. But before I take ownership of this thing, I want to know what I'm getting into as far as temper / danger. I've also heard they get very mean after puberty, so to speak, is there any truth to that?
Ok my tegu is a year old but shes kinda tiny and i have never heard anything as far as carrying any type of mouth bacteria although i know monitors, one great example of this being the komodo dragon, do carry bacteria like that but as far as tegus go ive read and heard they do get aggressive but mine is a sweet heart and hasnt bitten me for about 8 months and ive had her since she was extremely small
