Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I'm working on my second week with the 1.3 Aquaflames. Everybody's eating well, although in todays second feeding, one seemed to have difficulty with the second large size cricket and gave up on it.

I had read that the cage was supposed to have a basking lamp on for 10 or 11 hours, so I have X10 modules taking care of that for me.

I'm turning on the basking lamps at 10:30am, the UVB at 11:30am. The UVB lights go off at 6:00pm, and the basking lamps go off at 9:00pm. It seems that any time past 4 in the afternoon, 2 or 3 of the lizards have already gone underground. That's why I set the X10 up to turn the UVB off at 6, so I'm not wasting its useful lifespan on buried lizards.

Is this a normal length of day for juvenile collared lizards?

Should I have days when I don't feed them?

I'm not worrying about water, I just always have it in there, and I don't know if they drink it or not. Occasionally I see one run through it...

Any comments or recommendations?

For lighting, I use the UVB to stimulate sunrise and sunset. I must admit though, I like your idea of conserving the expensive bulb I provide them with more light than necessary. My lizards are basking at 7:00 am, and usually retire between 6 and 8 PM...

Some of my older lizards retire a bit earlier. When I have young collareds, I feed them 2 or three times a day. I would opt for smaller crickets (say 1/4-1/2". I think they will be better off eating more smaller food items, than one or two large ones.

John Eddington

Try putting a few ice cubes, or a glass with a tiny hole poked in the bottom on top of the cage, over a rock. The dripping water sometimes gets their interest, and they will drink it as it runs on the rock.

J

One of those rare events they're all on the same rock...

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1.3 Collared Lizards
90 Gal Aquarium
Minneapolis, MN

They are all real cute, I hope you have names for your babies ! :0) Nice house they have too ! Eve

It took some studying of photographs of the different lizards to decipher distinguishing markings on them. But I thought I had better learn to tell them apart.

When I went through this exercise, my girlfriend took the findings and came up with names for them.

I can tell them apart, if I can get a clear view of the back of thier neck. Generally I can't tell them apart on a quick glance.

Left to Right:
Dino, Casey, Sunbeam, Chomper.

I don't know thier genders. I think I looked at two and could tell the gender, but that was before I knew which was which.

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1.3 Collared Lizards
90 Gal Aquarium
Minneapolis, MN

Very cute! They fit well, LOL Eve