I just found a chuckwalla who was surely going to die because of how thin it was so I brought it home and I am in need of help on how to fatten it up!So any special foods or anything that could help.Any help is greatly apreciated.Thanks
-Skylar
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Help!!!!!!
snowfeet
Jan 23, 2009 08:48 PM
Replies (3)
NDokai
Jan 24, 2009 07:20 AM
You can feed it the normal diet of leafy greens/spring mix/bok choy, etc. You can add some thawed frozed veggie mix of peas, green beans, carrots, lima beans, and corn to the greens a few times a week. Make sure you dust it with a good calcium supplement with D3 like Miner-All.
A couple king meal worms every few days will also help fatten it up. You can look at Deerfern farms's website for a good list of foods that will work for chucks.
You should also be looking for signs of other problems. If you found a wild chuck that skinny, it may have other problems that are causing it to refuse food/or rapidly loose weight. A trip to the vet may not be a bad idea, if you know of one who is good with reptiles.
ksterry
Feb 01, 2009 08:49 PM
In addition to the previous excellent suggestions, dandelion flowers! As many as you can find that are 'safe' (not full of fertilizer or weed killer or other toxins). My chucks eat these until they look like they'll absolutely POP.
negatronix
Feb 10, 2009 08:47 PM
You can usually order dandelion greens at most grocery stores. There are some places on the net that offer some of the natural foods that chucks will consume in the wild. Turtlestuff.com has a great selection of prepared/dried food, and seeds to grow your own.
If the chuck is wild caught, and is a sub-adult to adult he will probably be pretty picky, and may only take dandelion flowers for a while. I used to ziptie bunches of weeds, and flowers together then "pinch" the bunching between a few rocks. This helped simulate how they would feed in the wild. I also rigged up a wire mesh that I could hang flowers on a vine/stem through. Make sure the ziptie is not in a place that the chuck can get to.
I've found that wild caught chucks seem to prefer a feeding location between a couple of high basking spots. When they go from rock to rock they might sneak a little nibble.
Good luck,
-Kory
