Reptile & Amphibian Forums

You might remember that Rorschach was recently having issues with impaction from ingesting her substrate. She has since passed it all and is more or less doing fine. She ate voraciously for about a week after, then stopped. Now she might take one item once every three or four days. Sometimes she'll look over the bug like she's kind of interested, then turn away. She doesn't appear to be losing weight, but of course, she had plenty of extra to begin with. She's mostly acting like her normal self except for food.

I've checked for mites twice, and her last fecal was clean. Is it possible she's brewing up some infertile eggs?
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
1.1 Collared Lizard (Ripcord and Rorschach)
2.0 Green Anoles (Bowser and Sprocket)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

Does she have the barring along her sides, gravid colors? They would look like Ripcord's orange stripes, I think.

She didn't get her blush colors this year - just a hint of them, not electric like she had last year.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
1.1 Collared Lizard (Ripcord and Rorschach)
2.0 Green Anoles (Bowser and Sprocket)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

Torey, shes older now and could be starting to slow down for the cooler months. I already see my male C. vestigum Chino, sleeping more these days. Sometimes does not come out everyday now, then when he does he looks fine , acts normal, But I see the slow down starting.
Soem of the ones in the wild have already begun to brumate.

Just keep an eye out, and take mental notes of her behavior, so if this is her preparing to brumate you will know next year when to look for her changes.
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PHEve / Eve

I don't yet have the years of experience with these lizards, but I can mark my calender by the days that some of my snakes start slowing down and refusing food. I have one Ball python that quits eating, like clockwork, as soon as september hits. And sure enough, I wasted two rats last week putting them in his tank. He completely ignored them and he now will likely eat once a month at best until next spring.

Do Collared lizards do this? My geckos eat like fatties all year round.

Kind of like bears that hybernate Collareds will slow on the eating , start to not come out to bask as much, may see them at first every other day or every couple to few days, then may just stay sleeping, but we usually intervene with some that won't ( if we want to breed them especially we must PUT them into a brumation come winter for at least 2 months it helps to produce fertile eggs/ better for the lizard to cool.

There are steps to do this and they can be found on my site or others sites, or just do a search on brumation. :0) Need help just holler.
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PHEve / Eve

Holler! LOL! I will be hollering, Eve. I have three sets of collareds and a set of DIs to brumate!

All the advice is great except one issue is being overlooked. With proper husbendry impaction is not a problem. I would review my set up and post it here. Good luck with your collared.

At the time of impaction (both times - last year and this year), she was living in a 40 gallon breeder tank (36" x 18" footprint). It has a homemade custom top to help retain heat, but still allow for ventilation.

Her heat comes primarily from a Mega Ray 160w self-ballasted lamp that I check with my Solarmeter for UVB output - it gets replaced if the UVB drops below 50 uW/cm2. Secondary heat source, if needed, is another dome with a halogen of whatever wattage is needed to keep the temps where I want them. Additional illumination is from a small fluorescent fixture on the inside of the lid.

Temperatures are monitored with a dual probe digital thermometer and a PE temp gun. Basking temperature reaches 112F at the hottest part of the day. Warm side is in the mid-90s, cool side is in the mid-80s at the hottest part of the day - closer to 80F in the mornings.

She had many rocks to run around on (all directly on the tank floor) and hide under. There are two small birdsnest snake plants in pots in the cage so there's a little bit of humidity when those are watered. She has a small water dish that she drinks from occasionally.

Last year, her substrate was pool filter sand - natural beach sand from Monterey (very fine grade, smooth, and rounded). This year I changed it to packed loam to allow her to dig tunnels, treating it as recommended by Robyn at PE.

Whenever the weather allows (not too hot or too cool), she goes out into a 1/4" hardware cloth screened sun cage - 30" x 24" - to get some natural rays. Lots of rocks, branches, and hides there, as well as a water dish.

Her diet consists of well-fed crickets, superworms, butterworms, phoenix worms, and wild grasshoppers that my nephew catches for me. She will not eat greens or veg, though it is offered nearly daily (for escapee crickets).

This year, after her second impaction, she now lives on tiles, though most everything else has stayed the same.

Thoughts?

The tank lid:

The very original tank setup (pre-sand), stayed nearly the same after sand substrate was added, minus the largest plant which outgrew the tank.

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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
1.1 Collared Lizard (Ripcord and Rorschach)
2.0 Green Anoles (Bowser and Sprocket)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

Wow - sorry - that second pic is ginormous!
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
1.1 Collared Lizard (Ripcord and Rorschach)
2.0 Green Anoles (Bowser and Sprocket)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)