Some Food Preferences of Captive Sauromalus obesus
Mayhew WW. 1963. Some Food Preferences of Captive Sauromalus obesus. Herpetologica. 19(1):10-16
The chuckwalla, Sauromalus obesus, is considered to be a strict vegetarian by most investigators. However, Oliver (1955) stated that these lizards will eat some insects, and Attsatt(1939) said the sunning areas used by these lizards might be used for catching butterflies. Three immature captive Sauromalus obesus showed a definite preference for yellow Gazania petals when given the choice of the following items ' yellow, orange, bronze, and white Gazania petals, and yellow Hypericum petals. The Hypericum petals were the same shade of yellow as the Gazania petals, but had a waxy texture. The white petals were least desirable of all. One of the lizards is eating Tenebrio molitor larvae almost exclusively, after paying no attention to them the previous year of it captivity. During the slightly more than two months it has been eating Tenebrio larvae, this animal has increased its snout-vent length by 20 per cent and more than doubled its weight. Other types of insect food have been ignored by all the captives.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Mayhew, Wilbur
- Units
- ORPI
- Keywords
- Lizards