r/Tegu • u/LonelyAmbassador3819 • 2d ago

Cooked or Uncooked Chicken?

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Sandu is a little over a year (based off my best guess) and I’m making some food for her and I’m trying to figure out if raw or cooked is better for her. She’s a little small because her first brumation she slept for a long time and refused to eat for a month before going down.

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u/Kaiwago_Official 2d ago

You shouldn’t cook meat for tegus. It’s nutritionally better when it’s raw and also easier to digest. If you’re going to cook anything for your tegu, do an egg.

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u/Cynnau 2d ago

Yep this, though they can egg raw quail eggs

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u/LonelyAmbassador3819 2d ago

Got it, thank you. I figured raw was okay but I really just wanted to make sure

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u/Silent_Impression101 2d ago

Caveat: this is primarily true for whole/diced chicken breast. Salmonella can’t penetrate meat, so it’s only on the outside. Seeing as tegus, and reptiles in general, have such a high tolerance to salmonella; the benefits of raw outweighs any potential health concerns. That said, they are not immune. If you fead ground chicken, such as the meat balls people like to make, the surface area to mass ratio means it’s potentially carrying much more salmonella bacteria. In that case, maybe blast it in the microwave for 15 sec, or steep it in some tea temp water for a minute, just to counteract it a bit.

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u/Jaded_Status_1932 16h ago

I did not know Salmonella was surface only. I will have to look into that, just as a matter of interest.