Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I would be grateful for some advice on using substrate with a Chuck.

Is it better to use substrate or no substrate at all?

Or if substrate is recommended what is best to use to avoid impaction?

thanks,

apaquet

Hello,
I personally use play sand in most of my cages.
If I have young hatchings or smaller juveniles I
use nothing or paper until they become much
larger, then it's play sand for them as well.

I keep various chucks and play sand is the
substrate of choice as it's relatively easy to
keep clean. If it gets too old you can fertilize
the planters with it then replace the cages with
new fresh sand.

Never had a chuckwalla impacted by using
sand. Remember to feed in large feeding dishes
so that when they eat, most of the food remains
on the dish and doesn't end up being spilled out
and scattered onto the sand or what ever
substrate you may use.

The mainland chucks (S ater) eat a lot and
poop regularly and it always looks normal.
The S hispidus also eat lots and when they have
an urge can really dump a load as their "cow pie"
like piles are the farthest thing in appearance
from any kind of intestinal blockage or impaction.

John

Over the years I've kept Chucks on everything from Silica sand, to plain old dirt, to reptile carpet... Everything should work fine, but I like to try and recreate their naturally preferred stlye of living the best that I can.

The way that I set my cages up now, which seems to work really well is as follows.

Go to Home Depot and get some flat stones, they are usually about 14 or 15 inches by 14 or 15 inches. Buy enough to line the floor and make a few ledges and bridges in the cage. These are the "base" for the more decorative rocks. These flat stones are both heavy and strong!! They are also the perfect thickness to allow the chuck to get in between them and puff up!!

After you arrange the flat stones, leaving areas for the chuck to dig holes and tunnels, pour in some cleaned playground sand. This has almost no dust and fills in the cracks really well. Use just enough to fill the gaps!!

Next place a layer of more natural rocks. Keep in mind that you should use rocks that are too heavy for a chuck to move, and also are flat on the side that they will rest on. I usually try to mimic the area that I actually caught the lizard. Color and composition.

The most important thing is to make sure the rocks are stable !!
No rocking No pun intended

Once you are happy with the arrangement pour in a whole bunch more sand to kind of hide the base flat stones, and make the cage feel like you scooped up a rock outcropping and accidently caught a chuck!

I usually hand feed my chucks, but have also found that if I bunch the food up and clip it at the base, I can stick it into the rocks and they just seem to enjoy it like they would in the wild. I have a few large rocks that are kind of keyed together. I just rock one forward, place the food in the crack, then return the rock to it's resting place. This leaves the food standing up and drooping in a few spots around the basking site.

Hope this helps or inspires you, and I know... It's long winded, but what the heck, right??

-Kory

Kory, would you be able to post some pics? I'd like to copy your set up lol

thnx!

-Ryan

I will post some pics very soon. I've been extremely busy, and have not had the time... I also need to get a new wire to plug my camera into the computer!

I'm actually getting ready to split one of my cages for the winter.. Less heating. I'll try to take some pics while I am restacking the rocks etc.. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

-Kory