Nate you seem a littel authoritive with your challenge, you can do what ever you want and if that works I am happy for you. Please take some time to read our web-site at Phrynosma.com. You will find the results of some studys on horned lizards and a table that sets out more or less what has been discovered about the eating requirements of horned lizards. all horned lizards eat ants as a staple, not because it's easy to get, some horned lizards not fed ants will die because of the amino acids in the ants that are necessary for good health. It is a fact that some short horns eat less ants. This may be true with yours, however if I was you I would consider getting a "bugnapper" or at least vary the diet more than just two insects. Alos there have been horned lizards that have died due to poorly run cricket farms passing on disease. So I never make a habit of making crickets a staple, also mini mealworms are good, and was worms. Also you may try the small snails that are indigious to your area, as they will eat them as well. SO many people have spent more hours than you can think of observinbg horned lizards in the field in their natural envirionment, and while they do eat bees and grasshoppers and various beetles they as a whole seem to go for ants. ANother thing you might do is if your out in the field and can find scat, break it open and see whats in it. Scat anaylysis again shows that horned lizards ususally and often prefer ants as one of their "mainstay" food items. O.k.?



The UVB is part of the suns spectrum, and thousands of lizard breeders with thousands of hours of experience and investment as a general rule use either a flourescent or a mercury vapor. I use 7% UVB Desert bulb as standard fair for my inside lizards. LIke humans not being exposed to UVB can seriously affect lizards. SO Nate if you think all the people that have had serious study as thier jobs and thesis etc. are wrong please give me a compeling reason why we are all wrong? The burden of proof is on you not me for that one. Sounds like you have the basking set up properly, and I assume the cage from your description sounds good. Do you feed your horned lizards with a water dropper, spray the cage, or have a water bowl. These lizards are known to take in more water than others, and usually found in a damper cooler climate. I have captured these up in Rioduso as they are very common up there. Anyway I challenge you to read the site and take in the info as much as you can, and this site is not the meanderings of a few peoples opinins, but represents information across the board to help people with real husbandry issues. There is a committment to taking care of these while D3 is helpful, what would be better is if it's still warm, exposing them to real sunlight for an hour a day if you not going to use a UVB bulb. I think you may not understand the importance based on you research of complaints and differing opinions about the subject. What happens is the lizards look nice and fat and healthy but their arms and hands begin to become rubbery. While I have not worked extensively with short horns, most of the people I know that have them do use a bulb or keep them ouitside. I don't think there is much more that I could say to convince you that to have a long relationship with your lizards, the UVB one way or another is something you should consider. I leave it up to your own "research" to determine you are doing everything that needs to be done, because they are nice and fat.....Cheers I am happy for you, and by the way, I am not a GURU of horned lizards but have studied them since 1972 and have kept many different species and know a lot of people that have them and are successfully taking care of these and breeding them, and I believe the information "I" have given you is accurate and is the accepted methodology,,,I hope this answers your questions. Cheers!!!
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Phrynosoma.com



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