Larger lizard enrichment ideas?
I am trying to think of new ideas to entertain my Tegu and thought other larger, active lizards might benefit from any ideas people can throw out there. i'm just randomly listing ideas or things that have worked for me and my lizards (Iguana as well) and wanted people to chip in with more ideas as she is an active and curious girl. The more ideas the better- lets entertain these lizards!
Shoes
I found the tegu loved shoes, the smell of them and trying to cram herself into them. Now that she's past 3 feet though, it's a bit hard to even shove her face into a size 7 shoe. Still, she tries! I've seen her even take a "smelly" shoe in her mouth and walk around with it. Under supervision I let her play with an old pair of shoes I was going to throw out, as she seems to like exploring them.
Burrowing
Goes without say really, but the more dirt the happier she is. She likes to move her cage around weekly, and if you dig in HER dirt, she chases whatever it was you used to dig thinking it might be prey. can be fun to take a long stick and dig, having her suddenly spring up and burrow after it looking for food. Treats afterwards make her think she found something yummy on her own as well and she seems to look so proud afterwards.
Windows
This was for the iguana, but Uba was very entertained when her cage was set in such a way that the top window (about 5 feet up in her cage) would look outside. She would climb up there every day just to watch what was going on, even choosing to stay there when I left her door open as she was comfy/entertained by birds outside.
Outside
I know that my iguana loved playing tag in large fields outside (she would run a bit, wait for me to "tag" her, run again, so on so forth - until she got bored and came back to me) and the tegu enjoys walking around out there. Supervised of course, and unless my front yard area I also use a harness just incase. Good interaction, and last summer I had a slowly growing mound of thrown dirt from the tegu trying to get around a bush.
Baths
Yes, my critters have large water dishes they can soak in, but I find the larger lizards love to stretch out in a nice warm bath where they have space to swim a bit. Water in general seems to be enriching and entertaining, as both the tegu and iguana loved being sprayed and drinking directly from the nozzle of the sprayer. Helps with shedding as well, so bonus!
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Ideas?
I've heard of people modifying wiffle-balls to be like those KONG dog toys where you put food in and watch them try to get it out for hours. Trying to find more on this, as I tried a KONG toy with some ground turkey and fish in it once but cleaning it after was a pain. (I think non-solid food wasn't meant to be in there for cleaning lol) Her long nose and tongue were shoved in that thing for a while though as she tried to dig out every last scrap. Ended up chewing on the toy as well. (Was pretty large, no way she could choke on something meant for large dogs!)
I have recently started taking my tegu outside and hiding pieces of meat, quail eggs, etc. around for her to find. I've only been doing it for a few weeks, and she gets so excited when she goes out now. She used to just lay around or stroll around the yard, but now she goes into "hunting mode" and is very active. She is learning the spots where I hide things. There is one large clump of grass where I always put something, and she will sneak up on it then sometimes take a full speed dive into it! I need to post a video. The reason I brought this up is because I know a lot of people just let thier animals stay cooped up and get fat and lazy. Take 'em out and let them have fun on a nice day!
I may try this some time, but the weather isn't always forgiving in this matter.
--THE HOBO--
2 Crested Geckos M/F, 3 Uromastyx M/F/F, 1 Corn snake M, 1 Leachie ?, 1 Rhino rat snake F, 1 B&W tegu F, 1 Great Plated Lizard F, 1 Norm. Ball python M, 1 Olive Python M, and 2 Cats M/F
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