Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a baby captive bred chuckwalla that is about two months old. It was eating real well but has become lethargic and won’t eat. I can feel a hard lump in its belly. I have been feeding him collared greens, kale and mustard greens with a mixture of yellow flowers like dandelions and hibiscus. The substrate is small alfalfa pellets. I am at a loss, and any advice from the collective wisdom of the forum would be great.
Thanks Cale

it is impacted. The alfalfa pellets are a no no with baby chucks. They will plug even an adult chuck up solid. I have had terrible results with this stuff. Try to get a ton of water in him and hope for the best. Baby chucks believe it or not are very prone to impaction and dehydration, especially when fed a diet very low in moisture content which I believe the pellets to be. They are probably only 7-13% moisture-look at the ingredients. Tom

Thanks for your help. I gave the little guy some water and he drank for about three minutes. Do you know of anything else that will help clean him out, and what do you recommend I use for a substrate rather than pellets.
Thanks again
Cale

Tom, those are really good odds ... lol
If I were a betting man I would take ya up on that
dollar to a dime but I happen to totally agree
with you.

Cale,
A good rule of thumb for most herbivore (chucks,
uros etc) at such a young age is to keep them on
paper or even nothing at all. The paper towels or
butcher paper is easy and quicker to change than
having to scrub the cage floor on a daily basis.
Matter of fact I usually keep them off the typical
substrates till they're at least six months old.

Go easy on the kale which has a high acidity level
and could cause a hatchling's digestive process to
become a bit irregular.

A warm shallow soak with a gentle belly massage
might do wonders in helping to break free any
intestinal back up.

John

.

I totally agree, I would ensure water is availble and continue with the baths. I keep mine on oolitic sand which is a form of aragonite. This sand is found around the great salt lake where I live. Basically it is very small micron size balls that are calcium based. I have not had any issues with this and it passes easily in their poop. The problem with regular sand is that it is silicate based which has micro sharp edges and very hard on their intestinal tract.

This is a handy and informative article done by a friend on impaction, it pertains to many lizards.

It's a very good sourse to have around for people new to lizards, or anyone who does not know what impaction is, and how to help their scaly friend if it does happen.

This is for those who do not have a Tom or John there to help ya out, hehehehee, LOL
Impaction in Reptiles

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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Thanks everyone for the helpful posts. I am going to apply this new info and see what happens, wish me luck.
Thanks Cale