Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what months are baby chuckwallas most active? and, if i caught one(with a liscence) could it be housed in a 55 gallon terrarium(i think its 34" by 16" by 18" then moved up to a custom built cage? and how long if so could it live in the 55 gallon? thnx, nick.
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I caught mine in August, but she was the only one I ran into. I've seen a lot more during late May and June. I still wouldn't consider her acclimated.

She seems a lot happier now that she's in the 100 gal rather than the 77. I've also got the entire cage covered in wall paper except for a small window by the basking area, and I don't handle her. She might be exceptionally difficult though. The college I graduated from had a chuck collected at the same size as mine who has been housed in an uncovered 40 gallon tank. He's been there at least 12 years now and is still doing great (although he still hates people).

Here's a pic of mine the day after I caught her, so you can get an idea of size. If I could do it again / knew how much trouble acclimating her would be, I would have passed on her and waited until I could find a younger animal.

-Alice

THe question isn't so much the space, probably a year or more, but I like to see a 20 or 22 inch high cage with lots of stacked flag stone, shale or rocks of some type, and for one animal I would say 36" long is adequate but I would definately have the depth of the cage to be 22 to 24 inches wide. Tis gives plenty of run around room, probably want a Mercury vapor light shining down 160 watt and pssibly a 75 watt Zoomed bulb in the middle. The idea is to create an ambient temp on one side of 105-110 and 85 or so on the cool side of the cage so the animal can thermo regulate. It can be raisd on high grade astro turf which can be taken out and sprayed down every once in awhile..or home depot playsand, when they are young you can feed them occasional insects (wax worms, King mealworms, crickets) but for the most part veggies, including dandilion, rose pedals and hibiscus if you have any around your house that has not been sprayed with pesicides. THey live yellow mustard flowers as well. Be sure that your rock stacks are glued together with silicon or something similar so they won't fall on your lizard ro come apart and hurt him.her. Good luck....
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