This is what I sometimes get upset with, that a vendor who knows better sells an animal to a novice that should be informed well before they take on such an animal. It seeems clear to me that you didn't know the committment involved here to raise one of these healthy. These lizards are in need of an ant diet in order to maintain good health. They need a UVB bulb and I would recommend a 40 gal. cage for two but people keep them in smaller caging. Temps need to be proper for digestion, you can buy ants which run around 10-15 dollars for 500 at a time. These lizards can eat 100 at a sitting, you will need to occassionally suplement these with small crickets 1/4" or so and perhaps mini mealworms or wax worms to vary the diet - but these are primarily ant eaters. IF you were to go to the HL sites on the internet yo would get a lot of info and understand the need for a commitment and expense to raise these. While it is not an easy animal to take care of long term it can be done, but you need to decide to committ financially to these animals or as Fireside above recomended that maybe giving them to a good home or someone who knows these would be a good idea. We are now approaching the winter months when these animals go down for the winter and hibernate, my concern is that if they are not healthy they may not do well hibernating this winter, so there are many factors. I am not writing this to scare you off, nor to criticize because its clear too me that the vendor should not be selling these lizards in that way first of all. They at the very least should have a care sheet out front that covers some or all of the specifics of husbandry for these animals so newbies can indeed determine if this is a good choice or not. If you could post a picture on the web-site here then we might be able to look at the body and see what kind of fat reserves the animals are carrying and maybe also determine just how healthy of an animal you have purchased. Let us know what you think and whats going on. Certianly I am not being critical of you personally, but there are many of these lizards year after year being sold by what I consider to be unscrupulous sellers of reptiles that know better and for greed sell these lizards to anyone with little information and the results often end in distaster. So I hope you understand the vain in which this advice is being given and I am sure the same is true of the gentlemen above, please read some of the horned lizard sites on the internet and get yourself familiarised with the committment you need to have in caging, lighting, and food in order to maintain a healthy phrynosoma (horned lizard). Cheers!
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Phrynosoma.org

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