Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in Florida and found what appears to be an adult brown Anole lizard. He appears perfectly normal but does not move? If you touch him he runs but it is obvious that he is blind and you can grab him because he does not see it coming. He is moulting at the time but I've seen moulting lizards and they run when you get close to them. Any help?

I have a female Brown Anole as a pet and one of her eyes is blind. She does pretty well in eating and every thing. The one you found are both eyes blind??? If so it will probably die of starvation and you can do nothing about it unless you want to put it put of it's misery. If only one eye is blind he will be able to hunt just not AS well and he wil have a greater risk of being food since he can not see anything coming (on that side of him). Hope this helped, Katie
-----
Owner of 1.2 Leopard Geckos, 3.0 Fire Belly Toads, 1.1 Bahaman Anoles, 1.0 Japanese Fire Belly Newt
and 0.0.1 Turtle

can you see any actual damage? If it is adult it must have been recent or it would have starved by now. Depending on your committment to it my suggestions would be to first make absolutely sure that it is blind. keep it for awhile and if it doesn't improve and it definitely isn't eating than you can either

1. put it in your freezer to humanely kill it OR

2. hand feed it. Since you can catch it easily enough you could hand feed it crix, waxworms, mealies, etc. Pry open it mouth (carefully so as not to cut it or it may get unfected) with your fingernail, a stiff pice of paper (index card or something) and put the cirx in. The reaction will be to eat.

I personally would probably opt for #2 but that's just me. I certainly wouldn't judge you if you chose #1! However, if you just let it go it is sure to die -either starvation or as food for another critter

keep us posted!

lele

Please...don't stick it in the freezer. How would you like to freeze to death? I wouldn't call it humane at all. Sounds quite cruel to me.

If it was truly blind, it wouldn't be able to eat...so it's unlikely it's completely blind. Perhaps, it's just lazy/sickly.

If you're planning on sticking it in the freezer, at least put it outside in the wild so it can 1. live, or 2. become a part of the food chain.

-RT

I am one of the most humane people I know and using a freezer is better than starvation. There is no guarantee that it will be eaten by another critter, which will then leave it to starve to death - a lot less humane.

Because these are ecto-therm (cold blooded) animals the cold shuts down their system in a natural way - it's like going in to a cold night that just never warms up, they sort of "sleep to death". When my pygmy leaf chameleon was dying -and I knew there was NO way he would survive I put him in the freezer in order to hasten his demise. I rear a lot of leps and if I am losing one to disease into the freezer it goes. I certainly can't watch it writh on the floor of the cage until it dies.

After hand-feeding a crippled sphinx moth for several days into the freezer she went. They only live about a week but why have it suffer?

I know that there are differeing opinions on this but understanding the mechanisms of ecto-therms it is the best thing to do. Unless you know a vet who will euthanize an anole.

lele

>>Please...don't stick it in the freezer. How would you like to freeze to death? I wouldn't call it humane at all. Sounds quite cruel to me.
>>
>>If it was truly blind, it wouldn't be able to eat...so it's unlikely it's completely blind. Perhaps, it's just lazy/sickly.
>>
>>If you're planning on sticking it in the freezer, at least put it outside in the wild so it can 1. live, or 2. become a part of the food chain.
>>
>>-RT

You're kiddin' me, right?

So...explain this to me. After you freeze your animals to death, do you toss 'em in the garbage? Or do you have a pile of perfectly conserved corpses in your backyard?

What do you think happens when an animal dies in the wild? Does it stay perfectly intact without any animal/insect/etc. eating it?

I am curious to know what your beliefs about the "food chain" are. :-D

-RT

Lele, a brown anole's body isn't meant to shut down slowly in cold weather because they're not supposed to experience temps below 60*F for short periods.

It is very cruel to freeze such an animal because of that. If you were talking about an animal that naturaly brumates, putting it in the fridge to slow it down and then the freezer to either knock it out or stop it is a different story. But a brown anole in the freezer is surely making the animal suffer. It's better to decapitate the animal... it may be harsher for us to do so, but there are much better ways to euthanize a tropical animal than freezing it!

Now, in my opinion, I think that if you can keep the anole, do so. I don't think it's blind or just blind because even a blind anole should sense you coming to pick it up. More has to be wrong than just that, but if you can keep it alive by handfeeding it (if you are willing, if not then don't worry because they're not native to Florida and being eaten is just a part of nature) and taking care of it aritificially, by all means do so!
-----
Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame

...I am bowing out of this thread since it will probably just turn into a lengthy debate and I would like to focus on some other questions (see above posts). I hope that our differences of opinions here will not have bearing on my future posts.

Thanks,
lele

>>I am one of the most humane people I know and using a freezer is better than starvation. There is no guarantee that it will be eaten by another critter, which will then leave it to starve to death - a lot less humane.
>>
>>Because these are ecto-therm (cold blooded) animals the cold shuts down their system in a natural way - it's like going in to a cold night that just never warms up, they sort of "sleep to death". When my pygmy leaf chameleon was dying -and I knew there was NO way he would survive I put him in the freezer in order to hasten his demise. I rear a lot of leps and if I am losing one to disease into the freezer it goes. I certainly can't watch it writh on the floor of the cage until it dies.
>>
>>After hand-feeding a crippled sphinx moth for several days into the freezer she went. They only live about a week but why have it suffer?
>>
>>I know that there are differeing opinions on this but understanding the mechanisms of ecto-therms it is the best thing to do. Unless you know a vet who will euthanize an anole.
>>
>>lele
>>
>>>>Please...don't stick it in the freezer. How would you like to freeze to death? I wouldn't call it humane at all. Sounds quite cruel to me.
>>>>
>>>>If it was truly blind, it wouldn't be able to eat...so it's unlikely it's completely blind. Perhaps, it's just lazy/sickly.
>>>>
>>>>If you're planning on sticking it in the freezer, at least put it outside in the wild so it can 1. live, or 2. become a part of the food chain.
>>>>
>>>>-RT