My First Lizard- Tips Please!

[Cutlass]

Should I be worried about them trying to get into places they won't fit into? I remember having hampsters that almost exploded their eyes trying to do so quite often...

 

[cheesy feet]

Make sure you dont feed them wax worms as a staple diet, as they will become hooked ont eh high fat diet and not want to eat anything else.

Absolutely right, at one point my water dragon got hooked on morio mealworms, was a disaster trying to get him back onto his normal diet.

 

[kribensis12]

Make sure you dont feed them wax worms as a staple diet, as they will become hooked ont eh high fat diet and not want to eat anything else.

Absolutely right, at one point my water dragon got hooked on morio mealworms, was a disaster trying to get him back onto his normal diet.

Thanks, i have had a female( i think, not sure of it's sex), die becasue i feed it mealworms for a few wekks( had over a 1000 from farming them, and had to find somewhere to put them!), so finally, i thought that i should feed him/her some crickets, put some in there, no reaction, tried them for weeks, she just got skinnier adn skinnier, adn finally died( i ahd already got rid them). As far as getting into places they dont need to be, not really, they can take care of themselves. I have noticed, that they seem to get out of any place they get themselves into.

 

[slakey]

a good forum for reptiles is: www.reptilerooms.com

thats where i went when i kept lizards, it's very good there and loads of people with great knowledge and experience to help you

 

[kribensis12]

So have you decided what kinda lizard you are going get?

 

[Cutlass]

At this point I'm set on an Anole. Now I know I can handle it; and it seems like a great pet to me- researching the other lizards available at my local pet shop this one appeals to me most. (for some reason there are no leopard gheckos available here right now that would have been my second choice)

 

[kribensis12]

You might want to aim for 2, as they do get lonely( in my experience). Do not get 2 males! I male and 1 female, or 2 females.

 

[Cutlass]

Ah yes, loneliness. One of my cats refuses to eat unless there's two other cats around to fight for it >.> I didn't originally want 3 cats but I wouldn't mind 2 lizards.

If I get 1 male and 1 female, would they breed in a regular terrarium? Or would they need special conditions? I'd rather not have to deal with baby lizards...

 

[kribensis12]

Well yesterday i got rid of my wild caught female anole, adn my wild female house gecko. When i first got then, around 3 weeks later, the female gecko layed 2 eggs, which were going to hatch, but didnt due to the fact i had to get rid of them. But yesterday, when catching the lizards, i found 2 almost full developed eggs from the anole!!!!!! They were also going to hatch, btu i couldnt keep them, so i got rid of them.

 

[Cutlass]

Something just occured to me! What can I do with crickets that grow too big to be eaten? (and no I can't release them because they're not native to my area)

 

[Pimp]

eat them

 

[kribensis12]

Something just occured to me! What can I do with crickets that grow too big to be eaten? (and no I can't release them because they're not native to my area)

You should eb aiming for small sized crickets, but the anoles being greedy little things, will eat the big ones to( i doubt there will be anything left to get to big for them!). You could eat them, try making a cricket taco:
Taco seasoning
Crickets
Empty Stomach
Or you could make choclate coverd crickets!:
Crickets
Cochlate
Foundue Pot
Empty stomach

Back to normal again( sorry couldnt resist those 2 recipes). When you get them, post pic's!

 

[Cutlass]

I don't think I could make myself eat a cricket

I know if you think about it there's nothing gross in the idea, but I just can't. XD But I'll try!


I might set up my terrarium this weekend but I'll probably wait until next week to get the monster ^.^

 

[kribensis12]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure you post pic's!

 

[Cutlass]

I haven't been able to get on the internet for a couple of days, but I got my terrarium set up! Anoles being treeclimbers, I decided on a tall terrarium. It's 15" x 15" x 20" with removable screen lid and front glass doors with tight locks. It came with a "natural rock backdrop" which is just styrofoam but it looks nice anyway
Soil & bark chip substrate with a thin layer of moss(I know it looks like a lot in the picture but it's really just a handfull stretched out)
A jungle vine for climbing on; I stuck bits of moss into the vine and the cracks in the rock to help with humidity
The water dish has very low heat conductivity to keep the water cool- the reason there's moss in that is because water tends to evaporate rather quickly in my room and the moss holds moisture for a long time
The plant is some kind of Aralia, it's in a poor state at the moment but I'm trying to revive it
The heat pad is installed, and dual thermometers in the two temperature zones
The heat lamp is coming soon

As you can see I misted the terrarium just before taking the picture; even though i'm not getting the lizard right away I thought it would be a good idea to start building humidity now.
Please tell me if there is anything wrong with my setup! Some specific questions as well;
1) Can I give the plant some Miracle Gro?
2) Should I take the moss out of the water dish?
3) What temperatures should I try to be making in the two zones? (the guy at the shop said around 90F for the hot zone)
4) I was a little iffy on the lack of floorspace; should I make up for it with more stuff to climb on?
5) Is the terrarium altogether too small? (I doubt any more than one lizard would be a good idea, maybe I'm wrong?) Or is it just plain overcrowded?