Hey yall,
I stumbled across something that I wanted to get your opinions on. Before I started keeping and rehabilitating chucks, I read everything that I could find on them, including the very best paper written on them by Richard Montanucci. I thought I had absorbed everything he had to say about diet and the excessive amount of water that captive chucks tend to get, particularly in store bought greens with high water content, like mustard and turnip greens. Those are very healthy greens, so I followed his advice and washed and dried my greens to the point of wilting before I fed them to the chucks. I also picked flowers for them until this past year when a developer bought the field behind my house and destroyed it to build a senior community.

Well, I did all of this and my chucks have been healthy, but they all had runny poop! I slipped into the mindset that this was just how their poop is until one that had unusually runny poop started losing weight this year. I talked to my good friend Maureen about it and our convos led me to revisit their diet, so I re read Richard's care sheet and found something that I had missed before. He suggests that dried alfalfa be added to the diet because it is high in fiber, which desert lizards need a lot of, and it helps absorb some of the moisture from the greens we feed them. So, I went out to buy alfalfa, and a few other things and I stumbled across Tortoise grassland pellets by zoo med on the reptile isle at the pet store. I read the ingredients and it has a ton of really great dried grasses and hays, so I took a jar home, put a handful in the coffee grinder, then sprinkled a moderate amount on their salad. I was worried that they wouldn't eat that day, but they did! They ate better than normal, in fact, so I have put this on their salad every day since and their stools are now droppings, they have more energy (that skinny guy has gone downright spastic with the head bobbing! LOL) and they are interested in breeding! It is quite obvious that they all feel better, as does the uro, the dipsos, the beardies, and even the collareds that get greens as well.

So, here is what I am talking about followed by the ingredient list. Do you think this is a good pellet to crush and sprinkle on their food, sort of as a supplement and source of fiber? I know the dryness and fiber have straightened out their guts, and some of these ingredients are great. I am just not sure about all of them for chucks.
http://www.reptilesupply.com/product.php?products_id=1881


INGREDIENTS:
Suncured Oat Hay, Suncured Timothy Hay, Soybean Hulls, Wheat Middlings, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Whole Ground Wheat, Escarole, Endive, Calcium Carbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Yeast Culture, Dandelion Greens (dried), Sodium Bicarbonate, Soy Lecithin, Direct-Fed Microorganisms (heat stable cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Enterococcus faecium, Aspergillus oryzae), Yeast Extract, Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate, Garlic Extract, Anise Extract, Cassia Extract (Chinese), Ginger Extract, Horseradish Extract, Juniper Extract, Natural Flavoring, Marigold (petal extract), Yucca schidigera (whole plant powder), L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of stabilized Vitamin C), Zinc Methionine Complex, Selenium Yeast, Vitamin E Supplement, Mixed Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Lecithin, Silicon Dioxide, Choline Chloride, Vitamin A Supplement (Retinyl Acetate), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate (source of Vitamin B5), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Tribasic Copper Chloride, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:
Crude Protein (Min) 9.0%
Crude Fat (Min) 2.0%
Crude Fiber (Max) 26.0%
Moisture (Max) 13.0%
Ash (Max) 10.0%
Calcium (Min) 0.9%
Calcium (Max) 1.3%
Phosphorus (Min) 0.4%
Sodium (Max) 0.3%

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