Pixel Dreams Groundhogs (Woodchucks) and The Pet Groundhog of Bob Lutz

presents...

The Pet Groundhog of Bob Lutz

Home || After Dark Screen Savers|| 3rd party AfterDark ScreenSavers || Windows 95 Screen Savers || 3rd party Win95 ScreenSavers || Screen Savers system requirements || Screen Saver Programming || Groundhog Heaven || The saga of Chew and Chomp || Cool Links || My Awards || Twilight Dreams || Music || Photographs || Songs || Java Applets

Back to Groundhog Heaven (Woodchuck Heaven).

Back to the Pixel Dreams Screen Savers home page.

First, some photographs of Bob Lutz and his Pet Groundhog
(Shadow, but he calls him Snip )

Photo #1 (33K)

Photo #2 (29K)

Photo #3 (27K)

This is the story of Bob Lutz and his Pet Groundhog!

Jim...

Thanks for dropping me a note. I'll try to answer all your questions the best I can, but we are still pretty new at this groundhog thing and a lot of the things we have learned have been through trial and error. Like I said in my original message, they are NOT VERY SOCIABLE. The first two weeks I had him, he was all claws and teeth, and I could have sworn he was a badger, rather than a groundhog! He growled, snorted and clicked his teeth loudly. I soon learned that they bite HARD and FAST and have no mercy for the hand that feeds them, at least not at first. You have to earn their trust, and that takes time. Some two months later things are much better. I can pick him up like a big ol puddy cat, but still have to watch his mood swings. If he starts clicking his teeth, it's a warning to bug off! His regular diet includes Science Diet cat food, apples, and pears. After trying several things, we discovered his favorite goodies are dried banana chips and strawberry & cheese rice cakes!.

As far as his potty habits go, he is kind of like a cat. He usually picks a corner in his cage to "go" in and covers it up quite nicely. It never smells. For about an hour a day, we let him run around the house (in fact he's in my office sniffing the carpet right now) and in the short time we have had him, we have been able to litter box train him by filling a cat box with cedar chips and putting him in it over and over. For the most part, we keep him in a large tempered glass cage with partially open upper and lower corners (for air) and a stainless steel pan underneath. (We designed the cage and had it built at a local glass shop not knowing how it would work, but so far, it works great). Groundhogs can indeed climb, so our decision to put a hinged lid on the cage proved to be a good one. After trying out different types of bedding, we have found that a mix of shredded paper, cedar chips, and straw work best. He usually makes a nest, surrounding himself with the material, but actually sleeps on the cool, stainless pan as he really seems to like cool temperatures. In fact, this past summer, he loved to sit on the air conditioned vents in the floor and when the air turned off, he clicked his teeth in anger because he wanted more cool air! It was quite humorous.

He tries to dig in his cage a little, but it really hasn't been a real problem. He has adapted well to the hard surface. As far as hibernation goes, we don't know what will happen yet since he is kept inside under controlled conditions. He has literally doubled his weight since we got him in August and now tips the scales at 16 lbs! He may reach 24 lbs before it is all said and done. He sleeps about 23 hours a day now, so hibernation may be close at hand. If he goes down, we will put his cage in the cool basement, and wake him up in late January, just in time for, you guessed it, GROUNDHOG DAY. His "stage" name is Shadow, but we call him Snip here at home. We got the groundhog as a mascot for a specially designed weather watcher mobile van that we built this past summer. As a broadcast climatologist here in Spokane, I always wanted to get my own groundhog since becoming interested in the weather some 25 years ago. Since they are known as the "weather animal", it seemed only logical to finally get a real life groundhog for our unique project. It was quite the ordeal to locate a groundhog since you just can't go and buy them at your local pet store. In any event, after months of searching we finally found our "hog" in Punxsutawney, PA. He was donated to our project by Bill Deeley who is Punxsutawney PHIL'S caretaker!!! Getting him shipped across county was another nightmare. Nobody had ever shipped a groundhog before, so we had to design a special shipping cage and wait for the weather to cool down enough to get him shipped. I'm here to say, persistence pays off... After months of work, we finally received our groundhog August 25th.

We are using our mobile weather van (which is literally a mobile weather station) to teach elementary school kids the five basic elements of weather. So far, the groundhog has been great around the kids, but I'm not yet comfortable about letting them touch him. I do however take him out and hold him so the kids can see how big he is. I am hoping that with time, he will become even more domesticated but I think we will always have that "instinct" thing to get around. Sorry, didn't mean to write a book, but you get me started on the groundhog, and it's hard to shut me up. They are pretty cool! I better close for now and get this inquisitive beast back in his cage before he chews a piece of our furniture. If you have any other questions, please feel free to drop me a line. If you want pictures, let me know. We have plenty of them! I hope to be putting together a video soon so that if he does hibernate, I will have something to show the kids.

Take Care... Sincerely... Bob Lutz

Pixel Dreams Groundhog Heaven

is created by James V. Signorile