Started out with an HL when I was a kid, a few years ago.like almost 40 years.Lots of info here and Marks site, and was looking to teach/connect in a positive way with my son.Read all I could and talked to a few.Glad I connected with mark, hes knowledgeable, and considerate, helped me a lot.
We started out with a corn , then as I felt more confident, aquired two solare from mark, they were small, grew fast, and were really nice HL's.The one female now is so large, I am afraid that she might start to consider some of the other Hl's for food, sorta.Eats everything, to the point I have to sometimes take her out to let the others eat.Picked up a female herandesi, she was so small, but she has tripled her size and the male now is almost as large.
A few did not hibernate last winter, and I purchased some ants and then three kinds of roaches to raise, some proved to be a bit of a challenge.But , I did find that , HL's like a varied diet, today its ants, tomorrow roaches, and maybe a certain kind, or a cricket.But haveing a varied diet available seemed to really work well.I found an ant specie here, the mounds are large, and found that using a 12volt car vac and gel cell in a backpack was the best way to harvest the ants.It was easy to vacuum up 2 or 3 thousand in an 1/2 and hour or less.And, I was surprised to find that I could throw in a few harvesters and the modestum, and herandesi would run, but if I threw in a few of our "local" ants, they would actually pick our ants from among the harvesters, and leave the harvesters for the corn or solare to eat, but our local ants where more acceptable than the harvesters, and by the large fat reserves that the HL's started to take on, it was apparent that they were eating there fill.The ants were volital, the fumes, well, lets just say, I needed to drive with the windows down, as the fumes coming off the ants would knock you silly, if you got a full lung full.My son does not look at our HL's as pets, more of a serious project so to speak.He takes care of them as diligently as I do, and when his friends come over, especially a new one , I will often find him in front of there enclosure explaining to his new friend the specie, pointing to a laminated sheet of them, and explaining the different qualities of this one or that.We like the idea of actually raising some and returning them to mark for release, and once I thought maybe I would give one to our nephew, then I rethought that, not responsible enough. Oh no, now who am I sounding like.
My son and I would like to head out to marks place to see what the country there is like, see a few HL's running through there natural environment.Some shouldn't forget there kindness so easily.
We had two clutches of eggs, one from the modestum and one from the solare, and I have no doubt that If i had had a male hern, would have had a few more to deal with.
I have some documentation of the hern attacking the others, had to isolate it for a while, got some footage, as well, also picts of damage caused to a male solares horns.Mark has found them to be very interesting, as aggression I guess of that nature is very unusual, and sometimes, the hern would exhibit wierd mouth posture, 1/8" open and looking around, odd.And it was properly hydrated and not overheated, just like it was looking for someone else to pick on.It has subsided as of a few days ago.But , now the two solares are together, and happier that way, so maybe its a hern/solare vendetta.As far as Hl's having "friends" to play with, I have seen much interaction between the ones in the enclosure,to the point of almost a greeting to one another now and then.They taste there food, then eat it, or each other and ,"oh yea, it's you".Maybe that's not exactly it, but it seems that way.They lick the sand for some calcium and will eagerly take roaches with calcium/vitamin dust.
Herns need a lot of water, and varied diet.
Corns some water also, and varied diet is better.
solare benefit from some water, and ants are fine, but roaches help them greatly also.
Modestum, hate water, seems like it, and love roaches and our ants.
Eating style, solare have trouble with other than ants, it's there nature to lick and pull it in, all the others are better and grabbing and devouring.Even the little modestum can open it's mouth twice as wide as the solare, and I have seen the little modestum walk up to a roach, as large as itself, and swollow the whole thing.I was shocked.
I believe that if your very attentive,observant and adaptable, Hl's will not be as challenging as some make them.Some are a lot harder than others.Its a dedication thing, if you don't have the time or interest, then its not the thing to do.
I try to take notice of the local Pet shops and see if they ever have any HL's, and find a few platys now and then, but that's usually it, but if I ask "do you ever have any Horned toads?". Just to see what they say, I get the response, " we can get them".I wonder If I was restricted from getting mine, would someone have been able to benefit from something that we learned, or maybe all this is just old stuff. scott

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