Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am going to be getting my first pair of chucks and just wanted to hear what everyone had to say about everything from lighting to substate, to food, and hibernation. Any and all advice would be helpful. Thanks

Let me start off with congratulations. If well cared for, chucks are great long-term pets. Okay, you asked about lighting. There is a debate about how much UV and what spectrum and the like that is needed. I have used a variety of UV lamps both florescent and mogul socket type. I prefer the heat/UV combination bulbs. Chucks need a basking spot that will provide a basking temp of 100 degrees of temp in order for them to be able to digest their food. Substrate is a matter of personal choice. I have kept chucks on substrate such as rabbit pellets, millet and sand. As for enclosure, the larger the better. My adults are in a 5'X 5'X 8' pen in my basement. The ambient temp is 80's during the day and 65 at night. In the winter I close the heat vent to that room and the temp gets down to 55 with a high of 70. I leave the chucks in the pens and drop the temp over a 2 week period. I still occasionally provide food for them. The normally don't eat for the winter months and then I do the reverse to bring them out of brumation. I have had bad luck placing chucks in a container and hibernating them so that is why I use this method now. They determine when it is time to go down and whether or not they want to be up. Those temps are close to the temps in AZ for the most part. I hope this helps and this is only my experience with keeping them.

Hahhahaaa, just messing with ya, must have a name besides new guy, anyway nice to have you with us. You will have to post your pair when they arrive, love those pics!

Chucks are pretty neat critters, personality and spunk, a funny attittude. With some handling they can become quite tame, if thats what you want.

Your question recieved a good answer already, so I wil just add some foods, greens, dandilion greens, and flowers collards, kale, turnip greens, most greens weeds/ clover shreaded carrots, squash, potato/white and sweet, radishes shreaded, snap peas .. apple.... and mine all love a banana chunk , go nuts over it.
Just try veggies and they love some flowers also rose pedals, day lilies, pansies, hybisus, and many things that grow wild, I think there are older posts down the page that list things (many things that grow) post is by dvl. (Check it out) awesome list.

Well can't wait to see your new chucks, hope you enjoy the forum. Nice to have a NEW CHUCKER
My Chucks

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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

My Chuck is slowing down on eating and it looks like her tail is starting to thin a bit, she is getting up latter and knocking out erler, shuold I be turning down the heat and let her sleep or is this not normal behavior

Thanks
Cecil
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1.1 Bearded Dragon (Drago,Medusa)
1.1 Desert Iguana(Dima, Dianne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Igor)
0.1.1 Chuckwalla (roxy,Little Chuckie)
1.3.5 Collared Lizard (Fred, Wilma, Betty, #1,2,3,4,5, KND)
1.1 Desert Leopard Lizard (Simba, Kimba)
0.1 Calif. Kingsnake (Keebler)
0.1 Hamster (Tofu)
1.1 Kids
0.1 Wife

Hi Cecil,
My baby Tiny is still eating great and has become quite pudgy. Also, he/she comes out from the rocks as soon as the light is turned on and will stay awake most nights until I turn the lights off. Even though ours are from the same clutch I would assume they could have totally different habits and personalities. I hope your baby is just trying to settle in and will be back to it's perky self soon.

I forgot you have two chucks. I'm not sure if you were talking about your adult or new baby. If it's your adult just ignore my post

It's the Aduld, The baby is full of sponk and will eat almost anything I give it, in the morning it seems to eat a little then bask a few sec. then eat then bask back and forth, it"s not sure if it wants to eat or warn up. I glad yours is still doing good

Cecil
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1.1 Bearded Dragon (Drago,Medusa)
1.1 Desert Iguana(Dima, Dianne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Igor)
0.1.1 Chuckwalla (roxy,Little Chuckie)
1.3.5 Collared Lizard (Fred, Wilma, Betty, #1,2,3,4,5, KND)
1.1 Desert Leopard Lizard (Simba, Kimba)
0.1 Calif. Kingsnake (Keebler)
0.1 Hamster (Tofu)
1.1 Kids
0.1 Wife

How do you have the adult set up? What you're going through with her sounds a bit like what I went through with Gracie when I was getting her acclimated. Do you know how long she was with her former owner, was she wild caught?

I keep mine up all winter. Gracie turned the corner for me when I moved her into a 100 gallon tank with lots of rocks and hiding places. I incorporated two basking sites with ground temps ranging from 100 to 120 (Gracie actually makes a lot of use of the hot site). I also got a Mercury vapor bulb to heat and light the hot basking site.

I covered the back, sides and about 7/8ths of the front of the tank and made sure that the food bowl was near a retreat. I refrained from handling her and introduced Rigel a cb baby.

If she ate something (dandelions made up almost 90% of her diet in the first months) I made sure that there was enough of it so that she could gorge herself. I also think that seeing Rigel dig in really stimulated her appetite (this was my primary motivation for purchasing Rigel).

Gracie's tail had thinned before I made these changes and her weight was in slow decline. After these changes were made, it took a good three months for her tail to fill back out and even longer before she started to graining size and weight.

I don't know how advisable it is to brumate an underweight lizard. To prevent brumation, I keep my lights on a 12 hour cycle during the winter and this seems to work. My chucks are showing no signs of slowing down.

You can also try offering things like mealworms and waxworms some chucks will take them and they can help you pack on weight fast (Rigel loves them, Gracie won't touch them). Bannanas, grated squashes, yams and sweet potatoes can also help them put on mass if they'll eat them. We have some fig trees in our backyard and my chucks have developed a real fondness for fresh figs this summer (Gracie even prefers them to dandelions).

I also refrained from dusting the food with vitamin supplements since these seemed to render the food unpalatable. Once Gracie was eating well, I started dusting the dandelions with T-rex iguana dust weekly (even dusted dadelions are irrresistable). This is the only supplement that they have both found palatable.

Hope your girl comes around!
Alice

Thanks Allice, She is wild cought And was with the other guy that i got her from for a while, I think it was for 6mon. to a year or so, she was kept with a male that didn't like having her there and would run her off, so he desided to get rid of her, she is in a 60gl tank with a 160w powersun and a 150w Zoo-Med basking spot light on the one basking spot on one side of the tank and a basking spot in the mid. of the tank with a 160 Powersun, she will pick at carrots, collard greens, yellow sqush and will eat flowers well, I have a C.B. baby but I wanted to wait for it to get some size before I put them together, there are two Desert Iguanas in there with her now and they are very good eaters

Thanks again
Cecil
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1.1 Bearded Dragon (Drago,Medusa)
1.1 Desert Iguana(Dima, Dianne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Igor)
0.1.1 Chuckwalla (roxy,Little Chuckie)
1.3.5 Collared Lizard (Fred, Wilma, Betty, #1,2,3,4,5, KND)
1.1 Desert Leopard Lizard (Simba, Kimba)
0.1 Calif. Kingsnake (Keebler)
0.1 Hamster (Tofu)
1.1 Kids
0.1 Wife

A 60 might be a bit crowded for four large lizards. If you can swing it, you might want to get the chucks their own tank. Having a tight retreat seems to be really important to chucks, a gap about 1/2-1" between two rocks (make sure they can't shift) makes an ideal sleeping place. Also make sure the food bowl is near a rocky retreat rather than out in the open. Covering the sides is also very important. It kind of sucks to set up this beautiful display tank and not be able to look in, but once she's putting on weight you can gradually start cutting away the paper on the front. The sides and back should be left covered.

The difference between cb and wc is night and day. When I put Gracie and Rigel together for the fist time, Rigel was less than 1/3rd Gracie's size. Now, Rigel is about twice as big as Gracie. She's growing but at a much slower pace, and she's still pretty skittish.

The fact that your girl is eating is really good. But the way you describe her going to a bowl and grabbing a mouthful and leaving rather than lounging around the bowl may indicate that she's not comfortable / doesn't feel secure there. I have my food bowl on a flat rock propped up on some smaller rocks so that the chucks can hide under it, on one side is a large cork bark tube they can dart under and on the other is a flat cork bark slab and some rocks they can hide under. This way, they don't have to feel vulnerable when they're sitting around the bowl.

-Alice

I found the trick, I'm not sure it's a good one, I talked to the guy I got her from and he was feeding her frozen vegie mix, so I went and got the same brand defrosted some and she eat up the whole bowl, I'm not sure this is the best thing but for now she's eating, after she eats for a week or so I'll start mixing in some Iguana powder and start mixing in some fresh stuff
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1.1 Bearded Dragon (Drago,Medusa)
1.1 Desert Iguana(Dima, Dianne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Igor)
0.1.1 Chuckwalla (roxy,Little Chuckie)
1.3.5 Collared Lizard (Fred, Wilma, Betty, #1,2,3,4,5, KND)
1.1 Desert Leopard Lizard (Simba, Kimba)
0.1 Calif. Kingsnake (Keebler)
0.1 Hamster (Tofu)
1.1 Kids
0.1 Wife

I also would not brumate an under weight animal. It will not hurt to keep her up all year. If you are not going to breed her then there is no reason for brumation. There is no problem with feeding mixed veggies either as long as she is offered a variety of fresh vegetables. I have not found a chuck yet that would not eat dandelion flowers and greens. It must taste like sugar to them because even the shy ones after a time will eat it from my hands. Natures instincts are pretty interesting!