Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. I'm really new to this anole thing. I already killed the eggs from my previous post.. and I think my female is about to join them. I've done everything... After I brought her home, she had to live in a very small carrying container. She was stressed a few times... but I believe this to be done by the male anole.. Anyways. Eventually I got them into a large terrainium. But ever since I put them in the terrainium.. she has been stressed. Brown as could be. I have lots of plants and the temp is 80 right now and I've never seen it below 79. The humidity is good. There is a fountain in there and I spray it very often. Now.. I thought she wasn't eating.. but as I wrote this, she ate a cricket. So she is in fact eating. My boyfriend seems to think that she does not like the fountain.. Could this be true? It's a very small fountain that sits to the corner out of the basking area. Not only that... I'm noticing that she is breathing very heavily.. and when she breathes.. her whole chest sinks into her body. I can't tell if she is sick, stressed, dieing.. or what is going on... I've read this whole site inside out looking for answers and haven't found any, so I decided to post... someone please help :-

try getting rid of the fountain and see if she is any less stressed. then, try making the basking spot higher than 80 degrees. she might just be cold. i dont know how long you have had her but let her acclimate a bit. its pretty trial and error but good luck.

*sighs* people what are you doing with this heavy misting. Lets talk about florida since yall dont live in the way you talk about misting these reptiles. It rains in fl alot but it rains a few days and then stops for weeks. I have been around anoles over 23 years. I have them all over my yard.. the green and also the cuban brown. AS i said it goes weeks with out rain.. these lizards drink out of leaves and standing water... none sprays these anoles everyday. My point is what do you do when you spray water into a cage that is 80 degrees? you create a wet hot mugy enviorment perfect for mold and mold has mold spores. Your killing these lizards by sparying them!!!! Its called upper respitaory infection!!!!! the only reptiles that should be misted daily are chameleons. Now lets get back to florida, yes it gets humid out here .. but thats not EVER day... today its nice and warm and a bit sunny with a cool breeze and the anoles are out, breeding and eating and some basking and the babies are everywhere. Yesterday it was hot just dry hot... then day beofre it poured same with the former week. Now we should go through a drought. Anoles dont do well being moist all the time or having a wet cage thats just asking for them to die. When i kept my anoles ( i do in the winter so they dont freeze ) i dont think i ever misted them, they dont like to get wet. when it rains they hide. they had a dish of water and they drank from that, sometimes i turn on my dripper to fill the dish but they werent impressed. Point is its not wet in florida all the time and if you dont have them where you live then that means you dont know how they live excatly. They will find their water in a dish and if you worried there not turn a dripper that will drip into the dish. mist the tank once a week. and that is fine. My knights anoles dont get misted either they sit atop the shower once a week. they are perfectly healty as all my repties are. Heres a pic of a female i had for a few years then let her go after our last winter was over. Hope this helps, if you have any questions you can email me xoxwickedonexox@aol.com

Thanks for the post reptilelover. Its been very helpful. The thing is why peolple probably mist their anoles tank every day is probably because in just about every source on keeping these in captivity it says to mist them at least once a day. And that the humidity should be between 60 and 80%.
I was wondering how cold the winter gets in Florida? And do the anoles hibernate there, or what do they do?

Thanks for taking the time to read and understand my post.
Well the anoles her in the winter usually hide in places to stay out of the frost it got down to 19 degrees here this winter. In the winter I spend at least 2 hours looking for anoles and bring them in to keep them warm and feed them. Around house's they go underneath them where the are warm or into pump houses. They sleep most of the times ( expect when they are inside) and come out to bask in the daylight and to eat. But most of them sleep for long periods of time, having eaten well and fatend up before it gets cold so they can live off the fat stored in their tails, only having to come out when its warm to feed. Some times the winters are harsh and sometimes they are cold enough to kill the misqutoes and ticks. Toads and skinks bury deep in the ground and sleep. But I hate seeing cold anoles so I rescue as many as I can in the winter, but the ones I cant find do well. As long as they dont get wet they will survive. The anoles and other reptiles in florida have ajusted really well to our "mood swings of winter". Misting anoles is a very find line between creating mold in a humid glass tank and for them to be healhty. I didnt mist mine unless I had plants. I use screen cages ( herpsupplies.com) They bask in the lamps during the day and have no lights at night the house getting no lower then 50. if they dont get cold at night they have trouble adjusting to when its winter time and wont eat as much and have a tendacy to under eat and loose weight. Then its harder to get rid of them in summer. They dont want to leave the cage at all its hard to kick them out. Thanks for reading my post and not jumping to conculsions about what I have said, I hope this helps

Jen
ps heres a baby that I hatched out

Ok, I agree with most of your post, but you're making some generalizations there!

First off, I'm in Miami and I lived in Daytona and there's a HUGE difference between the two, temp- and humidity-wise. And, not surprisingly, brown anoles don't really live there.

Anyway, where I live, the humidity is usually 80-85%. Sometimes it's 70%, sometimes it's 95% without rain. The winter isn't in the lower range of that, obviously. Also, it does rain a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot here. Daytona was very dry, but Miami is not. We did have a drought three years ago, but that's not common. And it doesn't get into the teens here. It hasn't been under 38-40*F for about fifteen years. In Daytona, though, it was 13*F at a couple points this past winter. But not here, and this is where the Cuban/Bahaman brown anoles THRIVE. Plus, if they're from Cuba and nearby islands, these are the environments we must strive to reproduce--not Central Florida's.

HOWEVER, there is no glass bubble around S. Florida and south of us, so it's NOT like a tank. You should not mist so much, because there will be like one big, sleepy mouth. Bacteria and fungi galore! Plus, these are arboreal and semi-arboreal animals that live where there are breezes and such. So the humidity being high does NOT mean that it will grow bacteria the same way your tank will at that same humidity. Be wise of this! Plus, a mesh or wire cage is what you should use--not a tank. And don't make the substrate soggy, because lizards do not stay in the ground when it rains. They climb up and under leaves to stay dry.

Green anoles thrive in colder and drier areas, although they're very common down here, also. But, in general, one from a pet store won't like humidity above 70-80% or so. So don't over mist, as it will only bring disease and respitory problems.

Daily misting isn't bad for the lizards as long as you keep the enclosure very clean.

The same goes for aquariums for anoles: Aquariums work fine as long as you have a screen top, the enclosure isn't in direct sunlight, and you remove feces and dead insects as soon as they're there.

You made a valid point saying that high humidity can contribute to bacterial growth in the terrarium... But as long as it's clean- even if it's humid (just not so humid that the anoles can't breathe)- the chances of a respiratory infection are slim.

-----
Christina Miller
Herptiles.org

--------------------
1.0 Iguana iguana - Draco
1.0 Anolis carolinensis - Duke
0.1 Eublepharis macularis - Ocelot
1.0 Cosymbotus platyurus - Baron
1.0 Cynops orientalis - Hyper
1.0 Leiocephalus schreibersi - Turbo

Depends where you live, too! A screen cage is appropriate for your anoles if where you live is already hot and humid. But, in places where it's either cooler or drier, aquariums or even wooden enclosures may be better for the lizards (wood is better at retaining heat than glass).
-----
Christina Miller
Herptiles.org

--------------------
1.0 Iguana iguana - Draco
1.0 Anolis carolinensis - Duke
0.1 Eublepharis macularis - Ocelot
1.0 Cosymbotus platyurus - Baron
1.0 Cynops orientalis - Hyper
1.0 Leiocephalus schreibersi - Turbo

Hmmm but my point is.. you dont keep your reptiles outside do you.. of course not.. we are talking about your house.. my house is 78 in the summer and 60 at night in the winter as im sure most people keep your houses.. unless as i said up in the post you live out side in a box.

Yes, you're very, VERY right in this case, then. I wasn't aware that you were talking about people who keep their anoles in outdoor enclosures.

No animal should EVER be kept outside in a glass aquarium, even in the shade! It can cook them to death, and it's not good for micro-organism growth, either, like you said.
-----
Christina Miller
Herptiles.org

--------------------
1.0 Iguana iguana - Draco
1.0 Anolis carolinensis - Duke
0.1 Eublepharis macularis - Ocelot
1.0 Cosymbotus platyurus - Baron
1.0 Cynops orientalis - Hyper
1.0 Leiocephalus schreibersi - Turbo