Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

New to this forum but not to herps or KS in general. I do not have chucks, but I recently purchased a pair of side-blotched lizards and find minimal info on captive care. Eve suggested I post to this forum saying that many desert lizards are discussed.

I have them in a 10 gal, reptisun 5.0 and basking light - I keep chams, beardie, tarantulas and have had geckos, anoles and others in the past so I know the "basics." She said a 10.0 might be necessary?

At this point my biggest question is about my gravid girl. I have seen them mate several times and she is looking lumpy. I know they lay in sand and Eve suggested keeping it slightly moist. My male burrows in sand at night though my girl does not seem to. Will she lay in their "bed" sand or does she need a separate laying area. Does anyone know the gestation time b/t mating and laying and what the incubation requirements are - can I leave them in the tank or setup something different.

I am not into breeding, but understand these have a pretty short life span and can also be communal so in time I might upgrade to a larger enclosure (have a 30gal available). I would sell/give away some and keep some.

I would love to see setups that anyone has to get ideas. I will upload and post pics later.

thanks so much!

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

I do not keep them myself at the moment but I see them quite frequently. In lieu of a care sheet for Side-Blotched Lizards you could probably do ok with a care sheet for Western Fence or Spiny Lizards. It will at least get you started. Side-Blotched Lizards do seem to come from a variety of habitats and climates from low desert to all but the higher elevations so I would aim for a good average unless you have details of where yours came from.
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Randy Hallman

Hi Randy,

thanks. From my online research there does seem to be wide variation so I guess I will have to do some photo comparison to determine. I live in NH and got them at a show (I NEVER do impulse buys at shows! All my herp friends are shocked - I even got an earful from the 12 year old down the street! lol!!) and don't recall which vendor I got them from - shame on me :-O

I came upon a funny description of their sexuality:
the sexuality of these lizards goes like this. there are three kinds of males. in descending order of aggressiveness and ascending order of intelligence they are orange males, blue males, and yellow males. oranges keep large harems. blues keep small harems. and yellows impersonate females to sneak into the harems for a quickie. the dumb oranges fall for this trick but the blues don't. so the population cycle goes like this. oranges predominate and have most of the females. yellows impregnate the orange harems. orange population declines and blues predominate and build harems that are protected from yellows. oranges muscle in and take over females from blues. orange predominates. and so on

all I know about mine is that he is blue...here is a link to some pics. No particular order but faster upload than KS Gallery

lele's blotchies

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Glad ya stopped by, my chameleon pal

I'm sure there will be some more buddies jump in with blotchies or more "knowledge of them"

Come on DVL (David) and Tom and JohnN(stop lurking) , and.... Phil, all your lizard nuts....LOL

Anyway lele your pics are real nice, you got a nice pair. And from the looks of things they seem to like one another just fine, hehehee. Also seems we will be seeing some little blotchies soon

I like them, guess because I'm a collared lizard fan and they have that face, and nice coloration. Although some larger collareds/ lizards will be seen eating smaller blotchies BUT not in MY house

Be careful when you have the offspring and find homes, that they would NOT be used as FEEDERS
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Thanks Eve

yeah, they are definitely buddies, always together - she does seem to have the upperhand, though! She reminds me of my feisty Bahama anole.

they seem to have a preference for flies and are not eating many crix - UGH! NO ONE IS right now! Not even Cyrus! He's holding out for mealies and Darwin is still just not eating anything.

I think I'll move the blotchies to my 30gal - will have more fun setting it up

Would like to see other's setups

lele

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - swifty and blotcha for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Hi there,

I keep a quartet right now, they live in a 20 gallon L
on three inches of home depot play sand, 100W basking bulb on one side, and a standard UVB set-up....Reptisun 5.0. I put some Creosote barnaches and ironwood branches for them to climb around on, along with a few rocks. These guys are some of the neatest lizards around perhaps over-looked because of their size and population numbers. However as I'm sure you have noted, they are very extroverted, intelligent lizards that recognize you as the food bringer. I haven't noticed too much aggression, however it is generally a good idea to keep male lizards seperate in a small environment. Its actually the females that are the feisty ones in my set-up; they often chase a male off of a preferred basking spot. Interesting, perhaps females rule the roost with these guys....hope I was of some help.

Oh yes, they love drinking off of their rocks. I use a spray bottle, every other day or so. Good luck!

regards,
-Phil

Hi Phil,

I was really having a tough time finding anyone keeping them. I am sure they are similar to other desert lizards but it's always nice to get first hand experience.

Yes, my girl is fiesty, reminds me of a Bahaman anole I once had - she was the devil of the trio! lol!

I have a 30gal (right now in 10) and thought I could move them in there for when the babies come...now for THOSE questions:

how soon will she lay after mating?
I read somewhere (oh, think it was Eve - lol!) about keeping some sand moist for her to lay?
Do you incubate right in the tank?
how long from mating to laying?
laying to hatching?
will the adults eat the babies?

Can you possibly post a pic of your setup? Right now I have a section with sand and they burrow in it at night (I think that is SO cool ) and am hesitant about using all sand due to cleaning out all their poop - at least it is tiny I have a bunch of pics at webshots - check out the one wjere she has him in a choke-hold! lol!

Feeding:
do you free range your feeders or try to cup feed?
I have many phoenix worms pupating and eclosing so they like them
also blue bottle fly larvae and flies
little crix
mealies

they are the first lizard that will not take waxworms! I have seen them eat two but they really ignore them.

The only captive care sheet I found said "no water bowl, they get enough moisture from feeders." Well, I finally spritzed the sides today and they lapped like crazy, I feel so bad that I have not given it before!

thanks for your help - are they named?

lele

lele's blotchies

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - swifty and blotcha for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet