Chuckwalla

[xp29]

I was back in the reptile store today. They still have the Chuckwalla. I inquired as to what their plans are for this hadsome dude since they can't sell him. I was told they are going to give him away. Sadly someone has already offered to take him. I told them if she backed out that I was very interested in taking him home and that I had been researching them so I knew the basics of his care, pending talking Christina in to another big lizard. He isn't in great shape, (he isn't at critical mass yet either) he is going to need some effort to get him back up to par. He was wild caught and brought to the reptile store because he was in a parking lot and the captor was afraid he'd get ran over. I dunno why he didn't just take him someplace safe and release him. Him looking poor may play to my advantage though. If Christina isn't anything else she is soft hearted. If I talk it up that likely no one else will put the effort into him and he is going to suffer UNLESS I get involved she might not make me sleep with him out in the garage . If by some miracle I get to bring him home, I may fatten him up and get him checked out by a vet then release him back into his natural environment. If he seems like he is ok living with us I may let him (but don't tell Christina that )

 

[NickAVD]

It looks like he is not in the best shape and needs help and care. I am sure that you would be the best option to save him! I will hope that he will get to you. What did the store say about when they want to give him away?

 

[ChileanTaco]

It looks like he is not in the best shape and needs help and care. I am sure that you would be the best option to save him! I will hope that he will get to you.

Agree on this very much!
And find it always sad when people just pick animals from the wild who initially might have been fine - like:

dunno why he didn't just take him someplace safe and release him.

Exactly. If in a parking lot - I had just grabbed him (which the person who brought him to the pet store must have done, too) and released him in the wild.
Sadly, people do this often. My mother in law fosters wildlife - the worst are the fawns, people see them and pick them up (for those not familiar with this: fawns are left alone by their mother for most of the day, and often people assume they don't have a mother anymore, then pick them up, but from them on the mother won't take them back). Also fledgelings, young birds out of the nest and not independent yet - people often take them with them.

 

[NickAVD]

Exactly. If in a parking lot - I had just grabbed him (which the person who brought him to the pet store must have done, too) and released him in the wild.

Sometimes animals come to people for help. Maybe he was found in a parking lot and brought to the store because he looked bad and needed vet help.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Sometimes animals come to people for help. Maybe he was found in a parking lot and brought to the store because he looked bad and needed vet help.

This is of course possible and I've seen such situations myself. (Animals searching out people, or in many cases more likely places where there is easily accessible food, maybe food left outdoors for pets or from the garbage bin, which brings them closer to people, when in need.)
So I don't want to judge somebody I don't know and a situation I haven't seen (we have no information on how this animal looked when found). For all the cases - also the fawns and fledgelings - I assume: good intentions, empathy, just lack of information.
So I just wanted to highlight the general situation: Often animals who are not in need are taken in by people who want to be helpful but just don't know what is needed, and are then brought to somebody to foster. In certain cases, this makes the situation worse as then an animal who would have been fine is made a foster animal who now really needs help because of: stressed as of the transition to living with people, getting (more) ill as people can't care appropriate for it. Often then animals who would usually make it in the wild will have a hard time at a person's home.

 

[xp29]

It looks like he is not in the best shape and needs help and care. I am sure that you would be the best option to save him! I will hope that he will get to you. What did the store say about when they want to give him away?

She said she was supposed to deliver him but had been lazy, she didn't really give a time frame. I did ask her about how they are caring for him. They have the food and uvb correct but I don't think they have his basking hot enoug. I'm planning to stop back in tomorrow or Saturday. Maybe if I'm persistent they'll go on and let me bring him home

 

[xp29]

Agree on this very much!
And find it always sad when people just pick animals from the wild who initially might have been fine - like:

Exactly. If in a parking lot - I had just grabbed him (which the person who brought him to the pet store must have done, too) and released him in the wild.
Sadly, people do this often. My mother in law fosters wildlife - the worst are the fawns, people see them and pick them up (for those not familiar with this: fawns are left alone by their mother for most of the day, and often people assume they don't have a mother anymore, then pick them up, but from them on the mother won't take them back). Also fledgelings, young birds out of the nest and not independent yet - people often take them with them.

Yup. The fawns are left alone so the mother can distract predators. Their natural camouflage is sufficient to hidecthem till they are strong enough to evade the predators.

 

[xp29]

Sometimes animals come to people for help. Maybe he was found in a parking lot and brought to the store because he looked bad and needed vet help.

He wasn't kept be the person that picked him up as far as I know. They brought him straight to the reptile store. That being said, he must have looked bad when found, so that might be why they didn't just relocate him.
From what I could see of him in the cage he doesn't look ill so much as malnourished. If that's truely the case then getting him back to 100% will just require time and food. That is my hope. I know some places here that will have an adequate food source and is safely away from people if I indeed can release him after getting him in better condition. That's one advantage of my life style I spend a lot time in some very remote places. Places other people just don't know about.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Yup. The fawns are left alone so the mother can distract predators. Their natural camouflage is sufficient to hidecthem till they are strong enough to evade the predators.

Exactly. Normally people living there should know it - it's also told in biology class. It's told on the radio each spring. But still people fall for them and bring them in

Same is, btw. with the fledgelings and (don't know the English word, in German it's "Ästling", meaning "little one sitting on a twig" - birds not able to fly yet but sitting on twigs): Out of the nest and spread out
as soon as possible so they are harder to spot for predators and if attacked, likely not more than one will be eaten.

From what I could see of him in the cage he doesn't look ill so much as malnourished. If that's truely the case then getting him back to 100% will just require time and food. That is my hope. I know some places here that will have an adequate food source and is safely away from people if I indeed can release him after getting him in better condition. That's one advantage of my life style I spend a lot time in some very remote places. Places other people just don't know about.

Looks to me the same from the picture. What we don't know, of course, is if this happened after he was caught or before. Parasites that made him malnourished initially? Or not accepting food that way in an enclosure?
But I can really think, like you, he can be brought back to 100%. With the right conditions (i.e. UV, basking temp) and patience (also gives the animal time to adapt to his living circumstances of being somewhat a pet) it should work.
Also like your plan to release him at an appropriate place When I was younger, I had sometimes some reptiles/herps to foster (all of them injured, often by lawn mowers which was better survived by the reptiles than the amphibians as at least I could keep them dry and somewhat sterile more easily) and I did the same. Not just "back into the woods" but to places where they really belong and away from roads, or from people who might catch a smaller animal "to keep it in a shoe box".

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I just wanted to comment on how handsome he was!
Are you going to keep him for awhile & eventually release him, or have you totally decided yet?
I agree, I think he should be able to fully recover with proper care. Good luck with him.

Tracie

 

[xp29]

Hello,

I just wanted to comment on how handsome he was!
Are you going to keep him for awhile & eventually release him, or have you totally decided yet?
I agree, I think he should be able to fully recover with proper care. Good luck with him.

Tracie

They still haven't said if the other person is for sure going to take him. I'm going back today to try to talk them into just letting me go ahead and bring him home.
As far as to keep or to release, he wasn't born into captivity so to me it seems like that would be like being put in jail for no reason. He was born free so if I can get him and get him healthy, I'll find him a location he can thrive and release him.
I know some places around that will have adequate food sources and cover for him. I'll keep interaction with him to a bare minimum so as not to tame him to much.

 

[ChileanTaco]

As far as to keep or to release, he wasn't born into captivity so to me it seems like that would be like being put in jail for no reason.

I'll keep interaction with him to a bare minimum so as not to tame him to much.

That's exactly the right approach.

I hope you can give him a temporary home!

 

[xp29]

That's exactly the right approach.

I hope you can give him a temporary home!

Me to

 

[NickAVD]

They still haven't said if the other person is for sure going to take him. I'm going back today to try to talk them into just letting me go ahead and bring him home.

Please keep this thread updated, we all feel bad for this guy.

I'll keep interaction with him to a bare minimum so as not to tame him to much.

It won't be easy because he's too cute.

 

[xp29]

Please keep this thread updated, we all feel bad for this guy.


It won't be easy because he's too cute.

I will, and I agree lol. I'm secretly hoping that if I can get him and eventually return to nature that maybe Christina will be open to a captive bread one