Although this forum has been extremely quiet for quite a while, hopefully someone will read this. I just checked on my 4 wild caught brumating chucks and I am so sad and angry at the same time. Both of the males are dead!! I can't believe it!! My kids (8,7 and 4) are going to be so upset when I tell them. They were looking forward to picking dandelions this spring.



The two females appear fine so I'm taking them out of brumation. Both males and one female were extremely calm. One male in particular had one of the best temperaments I've ever seen in a chuckwalla. He was also my most colorful one and the favorite of my family. Although he was from Box Canyon California (not being as colorful as say the males from Crater Range AZ) he had a very good amount of orange on him, as well as nice blacks, and was the best of a group of 20 or so that I had to choose from.



I had brumated these same chucks last winter and they made it through just fine. I can't think of anything I did differently. Anybody out there have a similar bad experience? Just trying to figure out what went wrong. I think I read that Eve checks her brumating animals once a week, something I didn't do last winter or this one. Not sure if that would have helped though because they all appear to have a good amount of fat reserves in their tails. If I would have checked on them within this last week, and they were looking as the females do now, I don't think I would have brought them out of brumation because as I mentioned, their tails look nice and full.



I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find another pretty male from Box Canyon that has a great temperament. Anyone that can get me one please let me know. The other male that died and one of the females (the only one of my four chucks that is skittish) was from an unknown locale in CA. What makes this even more disappointing is that I had high hopes of breeding them this year. Last year when I brought them out of brumation was the only time I witnessed regular attempts at mating. Prior to brumating him, he didn't even do pushups.



Bottom line, at least in my limited experience, is that I think brumation is helpful to induce breeding behavior, but I don't know about ever attempting it again unless I can figure out what I did wrong. Any suggestions or experiences that any of you experienced chuckers out there have would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

Perry

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