Posted by:
reptoman
at Fri Sep 16 14:58:09 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by reptoman ]
NAte-with respect to water, often you can get them to actually drink from a small dropper, you migh try it, hydration seems to be an important issue ion these. Also my last comment on the horned lizards--someone on the forum reminded me that SHL's usually need between 15-30 percent ants in their diet, this is lower than many others, but here is the issue, if yo had an animal that feeds on a certian variety of insects, and due to good scat anylisis this is a known fact, why would you in the interest of the reptile deviate and experiment with not including an important part pof the lizards health and wellfare by feeding it ants. Are the ants in your area the black ants? These are the ones I have found the shls in Ruidoso eating. I have heard of people raising some species of Hl's with no ants, I hope in the interest of your lizards you consider feeding them ants as part of their regimium. Please do get the UVB lighting for your guys, just a little more expense and you'll have a good set up going. You might consier a 7% UVB flourescent bulb, or a mercury vapor bulb maybe a 100watt since these lizards do not need the high temps that others require. I would in a 55 gallon cage keep a 100watt mercury vapor and a 75 watt flood just down from that mercury vapor JUst slightly before the middle to produce a hot end, if that makes the heat more than the lower 90's then maybe change the flood to a 50 watt. This would or should give you a good gradiant for the lizards to thermoregulate. If you use a flourescent you'll need to have a basking bulb as well, I think the mercury vapor is the cheapest and best way to go....Cheers! ----- Phrynosoma.com
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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]
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