Your tegu can't tell you the basking zone has cooled or that it's sliding into brumation. baskr watches the pattern across your logs, temperature, humidity, weight and feeding, and shows you what needs attention before it becomes a problem.
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Doing okay
Argentine Black & White Tegu
Basking too cool
Surface averaged 47°C vs the 52–57°C a tegu needs. Check the basking bulbs.
Basking surface
52–57°C · 125–135°F
Humidity
75–90%
Adult size
1.1–1.4 m · 3.5–4.5 ft
Ideal ranges for Salvator merianae, the same targets baskr scores your logs against.
Basking and warm figures are surface temperatures at the spot; cool and ambient are air. Measure with a probe or infrared thermometer at the animal's height.
Diurnal
Active by day
Central South America
Wild climate. Warm, humid subtropical grassland and forest of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, with a cooler winter that triggers brumation.
Why the care is what it is. This is why baskr targets a hot 52 to 57°C basking surface, 75 to 90% humidity, deep substrate to burrow, an omnivore diet, and a normal winter brumation.
Logging is the input. The product is spotting when a single off reading becomes a pattern worth acting on.
A hot basking surface of 52–57°C (125–135°F)
Too cool and a big, active omnivore can't digest properly; tegus bask hard.
Warm side 32–35°C, cool side 24–29°C
No real gradient leaves a large lizard unable to regulate.
Deep, damp substrate holding a burrow, 75–90% humidity
Shallow or dry substrate blocks burrowing and causes poor sheds.
Steady; tegus can run to obesity on rich diets
A sharp gain on rodent-heavy feeding, or a real drop, both warrant a look.
A varied omnivore diet, calcium-dusted; measured for adults
Off food outside brumation can mean the basking surface is too cool, check heat first.
A seasonal winter slow-down in healthy adults
baskr separates a normal brumation dip from off-season decline you should act on.
Safe to include
Avoid
Tegus bulldoze and dig, so most keepers use a robust hardscape of deep substrate, cork and logs rather than a planted display.
Staples
Occasional / treats
Never feed
Supplements. Dust feeders with calcium and use a reptile multivitamin regularly, especially for growing juveniles.
Good to know. A true omnivore: mix insects and some whole prey with a real proportion of fruit and plants. Feed juveniles often; measure adults to avoid obesity.
The right kind of kit, pick brands you trust.
UVB lighting
A high-output 10–12% T5 HO tube (Ferguson zone 3) over the basking platform, replaced every 12 months.
Basking heat
A cluster of basking bulbs over stacked rock/platform to hit a 52–57°C surface, on a dimming thermostat.
Thermostat
A dimming or pulse thermostat to hold that hot basking zone safely.
IR/probe thermometer + hygrometer
A surface thermometer for the basking spot plus ambient and humidity tracking.
Deep substrate
25–30 cm+ of a soil and sand mix that packs and holds a burrow, kept damp underneath.
Custom enclosure
A large, robust, secure room-scale enclosure, an adult tegu is powerful and determined.
Grounded in your own logs and the ideal ranges above, plain language, never a diagnosis.
Basking surface has averaged 47°C this week, cool for a tegu (target 52–57°C). Check the basking bulbs, digestion depends on real heat.
Weight has climbed steadily on frequent rodent feeds. Shift toward insects, fruit and greens and space meals to avoid obesity.
Activity and appetite dropped as the season turned. If it's healthy and brumation-time, that's normal, baskr will flag if weight starts falling.
For the right, experienced keeper, yes, they're intelligent and can be genuinely tame. But they're large (3.5–4.5 ft), need a room-scale custom enclosure, deep substrate, a hot basking zone and high humidity, so they're an advanced, space-hungry commitment.
They're omnivores: insects and some whole prey (rodents, eggs) balanced with a real amount of fruit and plants. Avoid a fatty, rodent-only diet, which causes obesity and liver disease.
Yes. Healthy adults slow right down over winter, eating little and staying burrowed. That's normal brumation, not illness, as long as weight stays stable, which is worth tracking.
Big: around 8×4 ft of floor for an adult, with deep, dig-able substrate. Plan the full-size, escape-proof enclosure from the start, they're strong diggers.
Log your argentine black & white tegu's care in seconds and baskr does the watching. Free for your first 3 animals.
Start freeLast reviewed August 2026. General husbandry guidance, not veterinary advice, and ranges vary with age, morph, subspecies and setup. Confirm anything critical with an experienced keeper or an exotics vet.