Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you who don't know, Gus Rentfro has great plans on his website for building lizard cages. Gus and I have been friends for a long time and he's one of the nicest and most knowledgeable reptile guys I know. A true naturalist!

A few weeks back I swang by Brownsville, TX to see him while herping the region. Seeing his outdoor caging spurred me into building some again (I've been saying I was gonna build some for the past few years). I ended up building a double cage.. both sections are 8' x 10' with rockpiles that go 1 1/2'- 2' into the ground. Tops will be made next.

I live in central Texas- our temps are pretty good. During the winter I'll cover the tops with plastic- keeping the chucks dry and a tad warmer. If needed I'm able to run power (for heat lamps) out there.

Natural Sunlight are great for lizards and can't be duplicated indoors!

The 1st cage is filled with 6 CB'12 & CB'11 Puerto Penasco, MX chuckwallas.

The follow up to this messages will have the rest of the pics!!!

Thanks,
Graham
Strange Cargo Exotics
www.scexotics.com

Enjoy!

-----

more pics...

-----

More pics...

-----

The last ones!

I believe Gus may have a few more of these AWESOME Puerto Penasco Chuckwallas for sale... why by wildcaught animals when you can get top notch 2nd and 3rd generation Captive Bred gems!

-----

In that last pic in this post?

Nawh, I had a few redear slider shells I found last season while herping laying around outside so I just tossed them in for asthetics... just one more little thing for the chucks to mess around on/in...
-----

Love the outdoor cages. I have been wanting to build some outside enclosures for years and I live in TX also. Are you going to leave your chucks outside year round or bring them in during cold temps and freezes?

Thanks so much. Yes, I live in zone 8b (1 1/2 hrs north west of Houston)... we only get a few freezes normally. I plan on covering the cages with thick plastic and possibly running a small heat lamp out there (its behind my snake building so running heat isn't an issue). This is the first year so we'll see how it goes!
-----

I've been collecting up rocks for the past 3 years... finally have cages to put them into. You might not be able to tell from the pics but the rockpile holes were filled with cinderblocks, bricks and rocks creating underground brumation areas... the bottom of the hole had a layer of gravel placed in it first...then once arranged I filled in the extra spaces with lava rock.

Years ago I had the same style cage outside in this area for chucks but I didn't have a cover... I would bring them indoors for the winter... With a top, not only will it protect 'em from predators but will allow them to stay outdoors all year (I feel better for the lizards).

I jumped up and down on the rock piles also before adding any animals-- they should be pretty stable. I'm happy with the overall outcome.

The 2nd cage still needs the corrageted plastic sides put on. I believe I have about $275-$300 in each completed cage buying everything. Not too bad.

-----

Sorry, this is a crappy resized cellphone pic. I can spot 4 babies in the pic... the others are probably down in the rockpile exploring! This picture was taken the day after they went in! All are eating and doing great!

I'm hoping to put together multiple locality matched breeding colonies. Chuckwallas are so underrated in the hobby. I breed mainly snakes (Colubrids & crotalids) but I've always had a soft spot for Chuckwallas.

Graham

-----

Those babies have a ton of growing room!

Thanks! I really think they'll be happy outside in cages like these. I've been reading alot about diet and am excited to start mixing in prickly pear fruit, young prickly pear pads, alfalpha, wildflowers, etc. We live in the country and have 3 acres. My other hobby is cacti (you could see my greenhouse in one of the pics) so our yard is planted with 4-5 different varieties of spineless opuntia!

Cheers,
Graham
-----

I have been researching diet as well, and I am trying to add most of what you mention to my herbivore diet, but my reading suggests that alfalfa might be too high in protein for herbivores that originate in grassy desert and semi desert environments. The grasses they eat in the wild are mostly low in protein and high in fiber, so even plant proteins can cause kidney issues if fed long term. They can develop kidney and bladder stones and full blown kidney disease from too much protein. Obviously, bugs should not be fed to them, but even too much plant protein might not be good for them long term.Better hays are Timothy and orchard grass hay.

I have also been grinding up these pellets and adding them to their salad. I am getting great results from doing this.
www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18443&cmpid=07csegb&ref=3312&subref=AA

There is also an Oxbow hay that is meant specifically for small herbivores. It is Timothy and orchard grass cut really fine so that it is easy to mix in with greens. Mine will eat this in small quantities, but they like the pellets better.
www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/products/type/detail?object=1532

Anyway, I bet those chucks think they died and went to heaven! lol

Thanks- I appreciate the info.

Yes, I read your posts further down the forum and just ordered a big can of the Grassland Tortise Food to grind up and mix in (kinda drying out the store veggies... and adding fibre...).

I appreciate everything!

Graham
-----

Parsnips have a lot of fiber, too, and very nutritious... So is asparagus, coming in a close second to parsnips as being the most nutritious veggie in the world.

anybody think parsnips and asparagus are good choices for these guys?

Certainly not as a staple because they are moderately high in oxalates which interfere with calcium absorption, they have somewhat high sugar content, and they are 80% water. They do have a good amount of fiber and are low in protein, but the grass hays are better for adding fiber on a daily basis. So occasionally at best.

Pound for pound i think they may contain a lot of protein, too, like alfalfa. the green tends to have a lot of water compared to hard veggies, so the parsnips are more nutritious than all the available greens by weight. But I guess it is too sugary like you said. What kind of problems do associate with food that are too high in sugar?

that's why when we do calculation we need to do it on dry matter basis... Otherwise, it makes no sense when you compare.

According to this guy:
www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/webdiet.htm

His mantra in this article is if you would never find a food item in the natural environment of a tortoise, then you need to exclude or limit that food item in the captive diet. I think that is great advice about all herbivores. Now there are some things we can substitute for things we can't get for our captive lizards, but staples should be low in sugar, low in protein, low in oxalates,and lower in water content than most of the greens sold at super markets, and they should be high in fiber.

On the sugar, I think it causes diarrhea in herbivores, but I don't have time right now to look that up. You might find the answer in the link I posted above.

I am not going to respond to questions about diet again in this thread because it is really an enclosure thread. We can start another to discuss diet.

Thank you for the link. I love these guys so much and hope to own one or two someday. They are so underrated, but I think they are a lot of fun.

If you have wild dandelion growing in those fields, that would be a great staple food for them too.

I really am jealous! lol! One of these days I will be able to give my chucks a chuck mansion like that. One of these days . . .

Earlier this year I spotted some fields by our house that were covered in dandalions...I said to myself---"Man I wish I had some chuckwallas-they'd be in heaven"....then a few months later I dive back into chucks. Next year when they bloom I'll go on a picking spree and freeze the flowers to use all year.

Our land was blanketed with coreopsis sp. flowers this season. I see Gus using those a lot in his chuck pictures.

Thanks!
Graham
-----