# Tegu and Chameleon eat horn worms...



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

So yesterday I went to my buddy's place and had my little handheld Kodak Zi6 on me to take some videos of his animals. I did a couple short ones of his tegu and his chameleon chomping down on some horn worms I brought over.

Tegu: 




Chameleon:


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## Nick G (Jul 15, 2007)

cool vids! that tegu is a monster, how big was the worm?

haha i like your youtube profile name.


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## ICEE (Feb 3, 2007)

mettle. tell xenon to put html in the reptile section


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Both look happy and healthy. Nice!

That tegu appears to be an Argentine like mine. Is he currently free roaming his tank or does he bed down for periods? Lately, mine comes out to pigout then slumbers for a few days under the bedding only to pop out occasionally for a sunning period and a feeding if we catch each other at the right time.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I think this one is doing the same thing as yours and yes it is an Argentine. Nice animal. It's not THAT big yet. My buddy is hoping it will get much bigger. The horn worm wasn't huge, but it was a good size. The tegu got three of them in total. The chameleon got two. And his beardie got one but I didn't have time to film that part.

Nick - I've had that online name since forever and used to be known by it on non-animal forums. For some reason I changed to Mettle one day when I was registering (I think for this site) and thus have been Mettle ever since. AtariGangster is old school.


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Mettle said:


> I think this one is doing the same thing as yours and yes it is an Argentine. Nice animal. It's not THAT big yet. My buddy is hoping it will get much bigger. The horn worm wasn't huge, but it was a good size. The tegu got three of them in total. The chameleon got two. And his beardie got one but I didn't have time to film that part.
> 
> Nick - I've had that online name since forever and used to be known by it on non-animal forums. For some reason I changed to Mettle one day when I was registering (I think for this site) and thus have been Mettle ever since. AtariGangster is old school.:nod:


It will get bigger...HUGE is more like it. The Argentines are the biggest of the tegu bunch. But, hibernating, or semi-hibernating, will probably slow their growth down over the winter months.



> Nick - I've had that online name since forever and used to be known by it on non-animal forums. For some reason I changed to Mettle one day when I was registering (I think for this site) and thus have been Mettle ever since.


No shyte! Interesting..


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## nataz (Mar 31, 2006)

Great videos, your tegu looks like he is a beast come feeding time.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

SERRAPYGO said:


> Great videos, your tegu looks like he is a beast come feeding time.


Not mine - it's my buddy's. But yeah, he's a cool bugger.


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

> Haha, yes, no shyte. Why is that interesting?


Because it's my name.



> I actually saw a huge beefed up male at the Montreal Reptile Expo back in October. He was super cool and LOVED me. Extremely friendly and tried to walk off with me, haha. The owner, who was at a reptile society's educational table with him, was like, "I know he's normally nice and placid, that's why I brought him, but I've never seen him try and follow someone who was paying attention to him." I hope my buddy's gets just as big.










It's karma! You will one day own one.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

SERRAPYGO said:


> > I actually saw a huge beefed up male at the Montreal Reptile Expo back in October. He was super cool and LOVED me. Extremely friendly and tried to walk off with me, haha. The owner, who was at a reptile society's educational table with him, was like, "I know he's normally nice and placid, that's why I brought him, but I've never seen him try and follow someone who was paying attention to him." I hope my buddy's gets just as big.
> 
> 
> :laugh: It's karma! You will one day own one.


Hopefully!


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

> I was sitting here thinking.. "wtf?" But I see where the confusion came from. The online name I use isn't "Nick". I was replying to "Nick G" so I just kinda indicated him. The online sn he was referring to was Atarigangster. Now, that's not your name is it?


Oh...I see. I was like, WTF cause you were like, WTF. A simultaneous WTF!!!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

OH.

And I got html up in here now.









Behold!


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## Nick G (Jul 15, 2007)

SERRAPYGO, your name also Nick?


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## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Nick G said:


> SERRAPYGO, your name also Nick?


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## Nick G (Jul 15, 2007)

and you like mitch Hedberg as well!


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

where would someone get Horn worms? 
Is that what they are actually called?
I went to 4 different pet stores Not Petsmart and none of them had a clue what I was looking for


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I get my hornworms either from reptile expos or from the Petsmart beside my work. Hornworms are also available online through a variety of feeder distributers. They're also called "tomato hornworms" or "tobacco hornworms". It's very important that you only feed captive bred specimens though. The plants that the wild ones feed on are actually toxic to reptiles so you'll be poisoning your animals. Do a Google search to see what they look like - nice and green. The best part is they can grow huuuge. Hornworms are very nutritious for sure and feeding one of these is almost like feeding two to three dozen crickets.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

what about for P's?
Are they ok?
Petsmart-I can't believe you get them from there....they only sell crickets near me


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Well. We used to have this store called Super Pet. It was Canadian and partially owned by Hagen. But it got sold off to Petsmart and the locations here in my city converted. Now, at those former Super Pets, I can find more feeders than just crickets. I also get super worms, meal worms, wax worms, sometimes phoenix worms, sometimes wilk worm, sometimes hornworms. It all varies.

I don't see why a hornworm wouldn't be good for a piranha. I've fed them, along with crickets and silk worms, to my flowerhorn. Again, you want the captive bred ones... My only thought is that with something like a piranha it might make a mess. My flowerhorn swallows everything whole, heh.


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2008)

Great videos Mettle. I had no idea about the Hornworms. I looked them up and they are advertised as being very high in Calcium and very low in fat.
Link: http://www.greatlakeshornworm.com/
I may order some as a treat for my fish during the winter since I can't dig up worms.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

They make a fantastic feeder. You can also get them in different sizes and grow them to the size that you want.


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