My First Lizard- Tips Please!

[Cutlass]

good news Frodo ate 3 crickets today! I even got to see it myself; and she did it upside down! These lizards are amazing!

I know that my store isn't exactly the best when it comes to reptiles, but unfortunately there is only one pet store in town (unless you count Wal-Mart, which only has diseased goldfish and a few supplies) and the nearest city is a good 3 hour drive; plenty of time for a tropical lizard to freeze to death in my crap car Do you have any suggestions for warmth during transport(for fish too) because if you do I would really much rather go to Lloydminster or Edmonton for pets...

 

[kribensis12]

Use a Stryrofoam pack. And try to heat water as hot as possible and put it in there, keep's it warm on the ride there, and back.

 

[slakey]

hey Cutlass a good place which I use for lizard information is www.reptilerooms.com the forum is great and the same with the chatroom

I'm currently in the process of setting up my 48" x 18" x 18" viv for a bearded dragon and loads of people on the chatroom have helped me before I bought the viv and now as I'm setting it up

I'd advise you to join the site.

 

[kribensis12]

Reptilerooms.com is where i alot of information when i first got lizards a few years ago. Very good site!

 

[Cutlass]

Aw man, this is too much; another dead Anole

Frodo's been perfectly fine! Always bright green, no dark spots, always alert and eating 2-4 crickets each day! And yet she started getting really skinny...Last night when I went to mist the terrarium again she was still perfectly fine and ran away from the spray just like always, but I did notice that the patches behind her eyes were dark black and they hadn't been earlier that day. I had something important to do so I had to leave right away or else I would have investigated; and when I came home two hours later she was dead! Her body was shriveled a bit; it was narrower than her head, and her eyes were sunken so far into her skull that at first glance I thought they had been eaten out by crickets or something!
One thing that I've observed in Frodo occasionally is a heaving motion like a cat trying to puke up a stubborn hairball. I thought nothing of it; I've always owned cats and learned to recognize this as being a natural attempt to get rid of something that would otherwise just clog the digestive system(in this case maybe an empty cricket shell or a bit of moss?) I've seen other animals do this, successfully or not, and still be perfectly fine in the long run despite some short-term constipation; I was probably being naive in assuming the same for a lizard...

 

[kribensis12]

Are they the big cricket's? Or the small? THe big one's are hard for them to keep down, and maybe this one got stuck in her mouth, preventing her breathing. This could also be because of malnutrition, which i highly doubt. Try to pick up somewingless fruit fly's( they come in a vial) and dump a few in by the lizard. Hope the nex tone lives, if you get any more!

 

[Cutlass]

I've been getting quite small crickets; but there have been a couple rather large ones(comparatively; but they're nowhere near the size of the large crickets they have!) My store doesn't have fruitflies(even though they spawn like mosquitoes at the schools!) Crickets and meal worms are all that are available to me; and I can't get any local insects due to the obstacle of 4 feet of snow...But I saw something(for the birds, maybe?) called "Super Worms" that looked like a cross between maggots and centipedes(eww) which I'm sure would be too fatty for an Anole but I'm curious as to what they are? Do you know?
Bo insisted that I take a third lizard for free. I chose an older one that would have a stronger immune system(and I felt sorry for it because he was there for a long time and cramped in that 20-gallon with loads of babies getting sold and replaced all the time) Because of his size he was a lot easier to sex; the postanal scales were quite obvious.

I didn't want to name him just in case; but I started calling him "Monster" and that became his name Not sure about his age; he's about 5 or 6 inches long. I don't know for sure whether or not he's been eating because I accidentally ended up dumping around a dozen crickets into the terrium and can't count them because they always move(dusted; I accidentally caught too many in the tube and didn't have the time to sort it out)

Monster's rather fat and seems to be happy, but he hates people(probably because of how long he's lived without direct human contact) I only managed to escape being bitten because of Steve Irwin's brilliant lizard-handling advice(RIP, by the way)

 

[kribensis12]

I almost cried when i found abotu Steve! Superworms are just really big mealworm,'s. They are deffintaley fatty and they will become addicted. Anoles dont like to be handled. They arent that type of lizard's. Im glad you got another. Would love pic's! If he is fat, he is eating. If he is 5-6 inches i would go with a little over 2 years. I just corner then and grab, or let them crawl into my hand and close it so they cant get out. I tried Steve's Advice, but it doidnt work, even my breeding anoles were to tiny!

 

[Cutlass]

I reintroduced the water dish as an experiment(got the leak fixed up) and no crickets have been dumb enough to drown! But something has spawned in it!!!! Little black wormie-like larvae of some kind. They sort of resemble coffee grounds at first until they start moving....whenever I disturb the water and scatter them they always get huddled into little groups that eventually becomes one big group. I've seen cricket hatchlings(they're white, no?) and this is definitely not crickets. I'm not sure what to do...Monster jumped in the pool and had some squirming on his tail(I washed it off for him)

I took the dish out but i'm not sure what to do now...I'd like to find out what's spawned here! I can't imagine what they're living off of....there's not really any sort of food source in that little dish...

 

[kribensis12]

Yeah, the thing sin the water probably are swome kinda mite larva. Baby crickets are white and dont live underwater. Would love to see pic's of monster and the lil black thing's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kribensis12]

Yeah, the thing sin the water probably are swome kinda mite larva. Baby crickets are white and dont live underwater. Would love to see pic's of monster and the lil black thing's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kribensis12]

Yeah, the thing sin the water probably are swome kinda mite larva. Baby crickets are white and dont live underwater. Would love to see pic's of monster and the lil black thing's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[guppy fan]

Where are you from again? What type of insects do you normaly see in your house? If it is currently hot where you live they could be mosquito larva, they spawn in water. They're probubly not maggots......shudders.........I've seen them too many times. They are quite large, whitish, and they spawn in wrotting things. Damsle flys possibly. I think they spawn in water too. I hope you find out what they are. I hope this helps.

 

[Cutlass]

I live in Canada and in my region the temperatures get as low as -53 C (which, I THINK is also below -20F!) And as far as I know the only bugs that live through winter are ladybugs(haven't a clue why)

All I've ever seen inside is ants, spiders, and centipedes, and only during the summer. Moths get in occasionally in autumn but by this time of year its too cold even for moths. I'll see if I can get any fair quality pics of these things for you.

EDIT: I tried, and failed, to get pics of my intruders. Apparently my camera would rather render random blue splotches than take pictures of things in shallow water >.>

I managed a fair pic of Monster for you, though! What a fatty. This camera really likes to mess with colour; both Monster and the pillow are bright green here. (haven't a clue why his tail looks so brown; it was green too, though duller)

This picture really does him no justice. He really blended into the pillow quite well, can't imagine how he got there though. Somebody left the terrarium unlocked.

 

[kribensis12]

If his tail look's distorted or off color then his tail probalby fell off, and is now regrowing. Also, he look's like he is healthy. I've seen some even bigger than him! He was 4 inches wide! Ate 3 large crickets a day, he was my cousin's. Lokk's nice though!