Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, my CB Angel Island is on the way from Vegas now, overnight fedex express. It's supposed to be here by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. Needless to say I'm kinda anxious having never ordered an animal over the phone. Keep your fingers crossed that it arrives in good condition. Hopefully I can find him a girlfriend or two around the end of summer, they only had three males and they were all from the same clutch. I'll post pics tomorrow if anyone's interested to see them. I pray that they're pictures of a healthy plump baby boy. The pictures on the KS classified page from Exotic Pets looked pretty good as far as I could tell, anyone agree or disagree?
HH

Can't wait to see your new kid, I'm sure he will be a handsome youngster.
The pics from Exotic reptiles look very nice and healthy, best wishes that all goes well, and he is everything you wanted and more

Remember to post the pics, and welcome to the forum, glad your here, it was nice talking with you.
Suncharmers

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PHEve / Eve

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Thanks Eve. I've got a quick question for you since you have Uro's and Chuck's. Have you ever used Uro-dust? I'm wondering if it would be okay to supplement Chuck's with it also.
HH

I have never used anything but WASHED play sand. Or paper towels for youngsters.
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PHEve / Eve

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LOL....I guess that question is pretty vague unless you know what UroDust is, it's a nutritionally balanced powder that you shake with greens, they claim a Uro could live on iceburg lettuce if it was shaked in it. I'd obviously never try that out, but I'm guessing Chucks need about the same balance of nutrition. Here's a link to the UroDust, it's worth trying for $5. Deer Fern Farms talks about it on their site too.
HH

Dust

Yes, those pics looked very nice. I considered getting my chuck from them, but I found a different source. I got him about 3 months ago, and he is about 4 times larger than when I received him. One thing for you to know is that they have been advertising those animals for several months now using the same pictures, so the lizard you receive should be much larger than the ones they have pictured--unless they have had another clutch hatch and just never bothered to change the photos. I think those photos have been up for about 4 months now, unless my sense of time has deserted me. Good luck with the new lizard! And I would definitely like to see some pics when you get a chance.

Angus

Thanks for the reply, ordering animals over the phone like a pizza seems kind of sketchy to me from the getgo, so I hope this isn't a terrible experience. I guess I'll know in about 8 hours, I really can't sleep, feel like a kid on Christmas eve.
HH

YEP, thats it, everytime ya get a lizard in the mail, that excitmnet comes across you, until whats inside looks up at you, hahahhaaha, lol very COOL.

Next time you order online any critter, ALWAYS ask for a recent photo of the animal you are getting. ALWAYS.

They will try and say they don't have time, too many emails to send each a pic, tell them politely you are not interested unlesss you see the lizard first.
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PHEve / Eve

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He got here at 9:30 a.m. He looks good to me although I've never actually seen one in person until today. He was cold to the touch when I took him out, although he was awake and "seemed" rather alert. His name is......wait for it.....Bowser. I made an instant decision upon opening the tub that this will not be my last hispidus. He's awesome, let's see if I can post the pics. BTW I had recieved pictures of the three that they had, all of which looked bigger than the advertisement, I would guess he's 6 months old.



He appears to have a little unshed skin only around his mouth as pictured, I assume Chuck owners don't usually assist in shedding. He was clean, no scars, no missing pieces, no dried feces on him or anything like that; He sat under the basking spot for about 15 minutes before I put greens in with him, He attacked them, but didn't eat what I would consider a whole lot and went back to basking.
HH

He is very cute. You must be very excited. I love the close up photo.

Very stoked! He ate about half of the greens I gave him, I debated on whether or not to try and handle him today and finally decided to pick him up, he was very skittish. He's an amazingly good climber compared to Uro's even at less than half of their size. I figure I'll wait a few days until he figures out that I'm the one going to be feeding him before I try and handle him again. Please forgive me if anyone's not interested in a play by play, but I am a little excited to say the least.
HH

It's hard to resist the temptation. Babies are just adorable. Will he hand feed from you?

Good call on the hand feeding, I brought him a huge dandelion flower and he devoured it he certainly didn't mind being picked up after that.
HH

I like your new lil guy ! Looks good, he will get chubby soon as he starts to acclimate to his new home he will most likey begin to chow down

Very cute, glad you like him And as far as the play by play, thats fine here. It may be slow here and there, but the people are super nice, and like the play by play description. WE CARE about everybodys critters

Keep the pics coming
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PHEve / Eve

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That's good to hear, I've also come across alot of info on chuckwallas that I think the people here would find interesting like case studies from the early 1900's on S. varius and a guy who has bred them successfully in Germany for almost 7 years. I also found some info on varius/hispidus cross-breeds that were captured in the wild and are being studied at the University of Arizona. Anyway back to my new addition, everything is going well so far, he ate almost all of his food over about three hours. He's wedged in the slate hide piece that I made him. It's just stacked slate that slants down at alternating ends, it's like a modified Retes stack, but he can wedge himself as far and tight as he wants, and with the 2 hour 2-ton epoxy the slate isn't coming apart. One weird thing though maybe someone can shed some light on. He was literally trying to jump out of his tank for almost an hour today. He would go to the highest point at about ten inches and try and jump the other fourteen to get out. He didn't come dangerously close, but close enough for me to move the rock stack to the middle of the tank. I'm used to the "glass dance" with the Uro's but they can't/have never tried over and over again to jump out. He's pretty fast also he can make the 72" stretch in about a second and a half. Just wondering if anyone else has jumping chucks or any near escapes or anything.
HH

Can someone tell me where their chucks sleep? I've got rock crevices for him to hide and bask on, and I've made hides out of slate and two-ton epoxy. Do they usually sleep in the crevice-like structures or in a burrow-type hide? Just to be clear I've provided both, just wondering.
HH

and burrows as adults.

Mine sleeps in between the rock crevices. He likes tight spaces so as he has grown I have to adjust the rocks in his enclosure. As he gets bigger I have to make the spaces in between the rocks are bigger. Just make sure the rocks are sturdy so he won't get squished.

For the most part ater does use crevices for its entire life cycle but there are a couple instances where I have seen them use burrows instead. Hispidus are mostly burrowers as adults.