Uromastyx.org

hi, i would really appreciate some reassurance!

the underbelly of my hatchling chuckwallas has toughened up a bit. their undersides have a very slight sheen to them but its not that visably different though can feel the skin is a little thicker.
of course i went into panic mode and thought that they must be burnt from the heat of the slate on the basking site, the temp of main bask is about 120f
and the slate does feel very warm to the touch but its not burning hot. i left my hand it on for a while and checked it throughout the day and it never got so hot it was uncomfortable, just hot like the steering wheel of your car can get on a very hot day, maybe a little hotter.

from what ive been told chucks like to bask on very very hot rocks, hot to the point it would be uncomfortable to hold a hand to it. the IR temp gun reading is what i go on mostly and the min/max thermometers are there which take the surface temps, which are always lower than the gun reading.

the boys seem to move around on the slate too, almost seeking that extra heat from areas they havnt laid on yet. they have cooler basking spots but always tend to use the hottest most.

i checked the temperature of my females basking slate and it was even hotter but her stomach doesnt have the slighty tough feeling like the boys from memory but im still not handling her so cant make a direct comparison.

should i change to another type of rock from slate as the slate really does absorb the heat? i originally thought this would be great for them but now im not sure. i wouldnt want them to get burnt

please advise....i really worry!

im actually looking up thermal burns now and the sheen on the stomach of one of the chucks makes me think they could have minor thermal burns. there is no discolouration of the skin as i said, just a shine. i think im going to get another type of rock to use instead of slate for the main basking sites :S

LMS -
I have limestone in excess of 125 degrees and my chuck enclosure as well as my collared and horned lizard's enclosure and everybody is fine. Can you you shoot us a picture of your enclosure...

From what you have shared on the forum - they are eating well and doing fine. Do you see any signs of discomfort? Please tell me you are not using heated rocks...

What do you mean heated rocks? Like fake ones with heaters in? NO WAY! Lol
I can't send pictures at the moment as I am on my mobile but certainly will later. I have a piece of slate as their basking platforms and the slate is getting pretty hot. They seem fine. No changes to eating or behaviour. The little guy sol hasn't been all that active the last couple of days but he's started shedding so that's normal for them two.

Its just their under sides have got a bit of a sheen on them like burns have. And it feels a bit more leather like than it was before. There's no change to the colour though and their set ups havnt changed so maybe its just a normal hatchling growing up thing. Loki the larger male has more of it than the little one. And its on the insides of his legs to and under his neck that feels different but only the shine on his tummy.
They both lay really flat against the slate and being that slate is black it will attract more heat than limestone.
I'm a bit confused to be honest. I'm going to try have a better look tomorrow and I think I will change over to limestone just to be on the safe side. I can keep the slate on the cooler basks but on that hot one I think its likely that they may have very minor thermal burns.
Does the lime stone get hot to the touch?
Sometimes thermal burns don't show up straight away if they are minor and its been really hot here the last couple of days so maybe that's added to it as well.

I do worry about them! Lea seems fine though. No shine on her tummy or anything.

I will post some pictures of the boys, Lea and how fat she's gotten and the enclosures when I can. The slate is quite thin too so also makes me think it would heat up a lot. Whatever it is it doesn't seem bad but I guess I've had such success so far I'm worried something is going to go terribly wrong for me.

I guess I'm just lacking in confidence as their really are very few keepers in the UK and even less of those keepers have hatchlings.

I don't doubt their over all health though. They are both fat and eat all day everyday. Both growing and shedding well. Both poo big healthy looking poos and urates look as they should.

I will update you in the morning. Which for you will prob be about early evening as its the early hours of the morning here.

If anyone has had a rep with burns on its underside it would be great to see what they look like. I know they go brown and the scales can become lifted away from the skin. There's certainly no signs of that. But I won't feel better until they are up in the morning and I can have a look over them again. I've been going through a lot of personal issues too so my judgements and emotions are a bit off at the moment which doesn't help. But as they say, if in doubt, get it out! Lol.

... I've tried posting this 3 times... UGH!!!


Most definitely! My Chucks have a bit of a mite problem, so one of the things that I am doing is baking all rocks at 450 for at least 45 mins. The rocks come out of the oven hot and pink.
I'll say it again - they seem to be doing fine. Are they paying special attention to their tummies? Are they sitting directly in the hot spot of the light? Are your lights flood or spot?

I'm using arcadia halogens for my main bask and it gives oFf a massive area of light and heat about the size of an a4 page. So I would say flood but in the UK all basking bulbs are known as spot lights as far as I'm away.

The heat produced is pretty equal everywhere within the large spot and varies to maybe two degrees f at most.
So the heat is not localised to a specific area.

They are not paying any attention to their tummies and are behaving as normal. They seem to really want to get as hot as possible so yes they are directly under the light when basking. And there is quite a distance between the bulb and the slate but as anyone will know halogens get especially hot.