It all depends on care/ hardiness, so many factors, but I have a long time wc now that is going into his 11th year, his mate died at 10 years. My KONG, who recently died this year was way up there in age also a wild caught. My opinion is if you can get a freshly wild caught over that initial hump, and I feel thats a good year or so before you really know if they are thriving, than you have a shot at a healthy animal for a good many years.

BUT....... I will also add this, I can say from all my experience over a good many years that captive breds are much hardier from the get go. You loose alot of wc's due to parasites, internal and external, crazy virus's all kinds of weird things. I will also note that although I love these lizards, I feel they are much more fragile than people think, and when they do fall ill to any number of things, they go down hill quite fast.

I am seeing that you have to pay a great deal of attention to these guys, not a type of lizard you can toss in a tank and just feed and forget. They need maintence to keep them healthy.
And as far as wild caughts, bringing them in puts your existing pets in jeopardy even if seperated. I have taken many chances along the way trying to establish certain groups of different locales, and the only way is to bring in wc's at first.
My goal is to eventually breed ALL my own captive breds, which is begining to happen, so that only a small number have to be taken from the wild, on ocassion for new blood. OR swap with others to get new blood.

Also in losing some wc's over the years , I have learned many things to look for and immediately correct when they first arrive, that I never knew before. So hopefully they can have a better chance to become HARDY from the get go and live longer. It takes alot of time, patience, at times much frustration and sometimes sadness, but if you love something enough you have to always give it everything you have and then some.



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PHEve / Eve

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