Reptile & Amphibian Forums

let me know if im set up right? also will they eat the ice plant and cactus? any help would be great. thanks.

JIM

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www.westernhognose.com

is this a baby? if so how old might it be?

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www.westernhognose.com

heres my set up here in So Cal.

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www.westernhognose.com

I would plant some alfalfa......and....add alot better stack of flat rocks that protrude into the ground for basking/hiding spots......Just my opinion

I would agree with adding some better hiding spots. A fairly easy way to do this requires digging and sinking a few large rocks leaving nice cracks in between them. Then pile some large rocks around the buried rocks to mimic a Chucks natural environment.The most important thing here, in my opinion, is to allow the Chuck to get below the ground at least 6 inches. This will provide him with the ability to properly thermoregulate.

Doing this will make it really hard to get a hold of the lizard, you'll have to catch him over and over if you want to handle him, but giving a cool secure place will ease his transition into captivity.

How hot do those metal walls get? I'd be afraid of BBQ'ing him depending on where you live. You might want to paint them to cut down the amount of relection given off.

Just my 2 or 3 cents!!
-Kory

I would be a little concerned about the corners where your metal meets, I would put a cap on all four corners, they can get their toes and feet in the corner and hoist themselves up, also I must assume you have that metal 12-18 inches in the ground as these lizards will ding down. If it was me I would consider taking a piece of 3/4 plywood and dig down in the ground and angles the plywood with some big rocks under it so it lays on the rocks and then cover the wood with your sunstrate so there is a crack in the ground and they can dif down, the other thing you need to conisder is wherever you live (I'm in texas and just got 8 inches of rain in 4 hours, so that set up would be deluged, do you live with htat possibility--if os you better re-engineer that, and I concur wioth the rest you need some bigger basking rocks, or a pile put together with silicon so they won't slip out of place and make that thing a little more chuck welcoming, plants some dandelions in a long bos and grow them up and put it in the cage, they also like sweet alysum you can get from the nursery and grow that up as well..........
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www.phrynosoma.org

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