Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I just got a cb adult male chuck from the pet store (it's reptile specialty and pretty good), and the guy told me he eats like a pig and within being in his 4 by 2 by 2 cage for about half and hour I offered him romaine lettuce and he ate all that I gave him no problem. So first off should I offer him more, he ate way more than my 100 gram uro ever eats already, and second off I should try to get collared greens and what else tomoro. Flowers aren't very common in syracuse NY this time of year so thats out of the question. My 6' by 4' by 4' cage is now almost up and running and he'll move in there when it is ready. I know you guys are way against 2 species in the same cage, and I usually am, but do you think that with such an amount of space I could house a few desert iguanas or collareds with my one, maybe 2 one day , chuck? Sorry for the many questions but I enjoy your guys advice.
thanks in advance,
Erik

First of all yeah you can give him all that he will eat. I would probably lay off the romaine and go to the various dark leafy greens such as collard, turnip, dandelion and mustard. You can supplement that with some grated winter squashes but be careful because with mine it usually came to the point where they would only eat the squash and leave the greens. Maybe make the squash about 10-20% of the diet. I really don't think that mixing species from the same geographical area is much of a problem, especially if they live in the same type enviroment. I have done it myself with pretty good success. I would be leary though about mixing with the uro. I had some hatchling desert iguanas in with some hatchling eagyptius uros at one point and the uros methodically ate away body parts of the dipsos. It started with the tails then limbs. Just a word of caution. I am not sure desease wise since they are all mostly cb. I am sure that chuck has been in a cage that something else was in at one time and it didn't seem to bother him but there is always the chance. I don't mix things up too much anymore and I definately don't do it when there is a large geographical difference. Good luck. Tom

harming the desert iggys. sorry to hear that. I am not surprised, as about 4 years ago, I had seen my large female egyptian take a large male saharan uro in her mouth and SHAKE him like a rag doll. That was the end of that Co-habitation !

Are you still working with the dispo's ? Just wonderding. My male Hershey is brumating. I may look into a mate this year for him???? Maybe
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Thanks Tom for the info I will get him some better greens and I don't plan to put the uro in with these guys. Also any lead on where I can get maybe a pair or trio (hopefully cb) of the desert igs and perhaps a female chuck. Thanks a bunch, oh and by the way if I see any problems with keeping the chucks and iggs together I can easily divide the community cage in half, seperating the two.
Erik