Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum, but I have looooong experience with green iguanas and various Ctenosaurae.

Well I recently acquired 1.1 Jewelled Lacertas. I've had them for about six weeks. I have them on newspaper and glass in a large tank. Their SVL is about 3 inches. The have a lot of room in their habitat. I feed them 3/8 crickets, and they do hunt them down. I've often seen them go to their water saucer and bend their heads down to drink. They have a warm end of their tank where the newspaper reads about 140 F., and a cool end that I keep at a steady 80 F. using Spyder Robotics thermostats, and a heating pad under that end set on low. They have hides and a couple of toilet paper rolls. They use all of them, and they walk all around the tank, and even spend some time in the warm spot, which is a refief to me. They seem to favor the mid region of the tank, which iw probably about 100 F., but they do walk around, and even spend time, in all the regions of the habitat.

That's background, this is my question. They have not shed since i've had them. They are extremely tiny, and I assumed that one of the things I would see would be almost constant shedding as they steadily grew. But the way i see it now, I assume they are not growing. If they were, they would be shedding. If there is something I should be doing, I have no idea what it is.

Any suggestions?

Roger

Hello Roger long times no see!

First let me say I only keep galotia eisentrauti witch is some kind of lacerta (I presume?), they are from the Canary Islands, most peoples keep them to hot just like jewel lacertas. It appears to me your lizards are fighting dehydration, there system is running in high gear, therefore all food is absorbed as immediate energy consumption, reptiles need some stored energy to allow growth or egg production.

Use lower wattage bulbs and if needed shut the heat pad, all my lizards grow very fast with 25w bulbs, I simply lower or elevate basking to achieve a nice 130f. I like these lower wattage bulbs because they are safe even if the lizards make contact with them.

My lizards grow faster when allowed temps from 75f-130f at these temps they feed less and grow faster because they preserve energy.
Rgds

The concept of lower energy bulb is to avoid the vacuum effect in your cage, hot air raises fast and draws humidity out of your cage, simple physic the more heat = more vacuum.
Use a humidity gage and you will immediately see the difference.
Rgds