# My Old Tegu Pen



## Tom




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## ZippyButter

Roachman26 said:


>



I really like the set up, especially the bench, you can relax and watch your pets or just sit there and read a favorite book. This is a little heaven for you, isn't it? Thanks for sharing.

Minh


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## Yvonne G

Oh my...a pen for old tegus!

Great zen garden.


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## ChiKat

That is amazing!!


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## dreadyA

Awesome. You got something new now??


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## Meg90

Got room for one more


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## Tom

Meg90 said:


> Got room for one more



Who? You or the tegu?

No, that one was at my old house. I'll have to build a new one in a couple of years when Ginger grows up. I don't have them any more. Its a long story, but basically you can't hibernate them outdoors in SoCal, because the intermittent winter warm spells cause them to dig out of their hibernation holes too early and then not dig back in deep enough. Bert Langerwerf used to hibernate his under the snow in Alabama, but it stayed consistently cold there, all winter long. Two died and I sent the sole survivor to a friend of a friend for breeding. If they hadn't died, they would have woken up that Spring, bred and given me fertile eggs that year. The day I found them dead was the most upset I have ever been over the loss of an animal and the day I decided to never hibernate anything outdoors, "naturally", ever again.

Sorry for the sad story, but hopefully somebody else can learn from it and not do the same thing.


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## Maggie Cummings

I absolutely agree with you Tom. I used to tag along with my sister when she'd go to tortoise club meetings and all I heard was talk about so and so didn't come up this year, or died soon after. So after hearing all that talk I have never not ever been interested in hibernation. I have one little T. ornata ornata female who came up blind after hibernating. She was given to me and I have never hibernated her.


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## Tom

maggie3fan said:


> I absolutely agree with you Tom. I used to tag along with my sister when she'd go to tortoise club meetings and all I heard was talk about so and so didn't come up this year, or died soon after. So after hearing all that talk I have never not ever been interested in hibernation. I have one little T. ornata ornata female who came up blind after hibernating. She was given to me and I have never hibernated her.



Thanks for the support Maggie.

I do still hibernate some animals some of the time, but I do it indoors, in controlled conditions. I've never had any problems doing it this way.

I'll just never do it outdoors again.


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## Meg90

I'm so sorry for you loss. Man, if you still had that, would you have room for Cleo and I? (btw---that's a LARGE log hide)





She's in tegu puberty right now. Just about to hit 9 mos so she's a total snot lately.


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## Tom

Meg90 said:


> I'm so sorry for you loss. Man, if you still had that, would you have room for Cleo and I? (btw---that's a LARGE log hide)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> She's in tegu puberty right now. Just about to hit 9 mos so she's a total snot lately.



Meg, that pen was only 17x 20'. Cleo would probably be fine, but it might be a little crowded for you AND Cleo. Plus that bench would be awfully hard to sleep on.


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