Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 3 baby basilisks...they'll need a nice big enclosure soon...HOW BIG SHOULD IT BE???? Someone said taller than wide? How about 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep???

Would that do???

Anything else I should know or do???

Right now two small females are in a 55 gal and the small make is in a 30.

THEY NEED BIGGER SOON

Again: Check out my caresheet.
caresheet

Thanks for the caresheet. Most of it was helpful but I disagree with some it it. Especially with taking forest soil. I do not think this is such a good idea especially when forest soil (depending on where you live) can harbour mites, ants, and other harmful little bugs that could multiply in the enclosure and hurt the basilisk if not infect it first.

Also if the basilisk digests the soil it could be a problem. I have done tests with many different substrates with an experianced breeder and we've found that pine shavings work the best. If it's ingested, it is less harmful than eating paper. It is also easy to clean, keeps down odors and absorbtion is fairly decent.

Also, basilisks can become very very tame if you put enough effort and time into it. I've seen it first hand, I have a friend that can put his basilisk to sleep right in his hand.

I have a tokay gecko that people said could not be tamed and I tamed it down so much that my girlfriend will hold him without golves. It takes time but it's worth it.

Otherwise I agree with most of what was there. It was a fairly extensive caresheet...if you don't mind me asking, where did you aquire your knowledge for basilisks? and have you worked with any other lizards??

Hi,

for short: I stick to the point that "living" forest soil is very beneficial since it creates a competitive environment for potentially harmful microorgansdims and e.g efficiantly prevents accumulation of enterobacteriaceae multiplying on left over feces or food. The risk to import harmful mites or other stuff is close to zero, unless you do live in a subtropical or tropical herptile rich environment. I am a microbiologist by training and have done my homework on soil flora and fauna. Also I have long standing experiences with this kind of substrate and I very much recommend it.
Substrate ingestion and impaction is not an issue unless your animal suffers form mineral deficieny or a deficiency in gut flora (hence Babies should eat adults feces), which it wants to compensate for by eating substrate.
Semisterile substrates are much more dangerous, since they contain nothing which competes for the accumulation of "bad" bacteria. And you should no, that all that clean loking stuff still is everything but sterile. Competitive microorganisms do a much better work than any sterilizing or cleaning could ever do.

My knowledge stems from 4 generations of green basilisk breeding and intensive discussions with other breeders, hobbyists and professional herpetologists as well as from extensive literature studies.
Of course I do have experiences with other lizards as well. Next year my books on C. calyptratus, on P. mad. grandis, on B. plumifrons, on T. lepidus and on the genus will hopefully all appear.
These are only some species I have dealt with.

Hope that clears it up a bit

Ci@o

Ingo

P.S. Thje basilisk fells "asleep" in the hand of yopur friend, since it is scared to death. A healthy basilisk ONLY sleeps at night! Closing eyes and being immobile a typical last defense behaviour which very often is misunderstood. Lizards which know by experience that they can´rt escape, very often behave like that. Lizards can get tame with respect to being fearless and expecting food from their owner. My basilisk do jump onto my shirt when I enter their cage since they expect food. I can easily habdle them. But I only do if absiolutely necessary. Also my adult tokays tolerate me working very close to them-but I still only handle them if absolutely necessary. Nature did not program them to be able to feel bonded to humans. So any handling is unecessary steress and onlky of benefit for the owner.
We should no do that

I'm not going to call myself an expert by any means...I just read as much as I can and learn from local breeders and other hobbyists. Also I find that there seems to be quite a few educated people in these forums....

but I am going to have to disagree with you in the fact that they are unable to become very dosile with humans.

The "friend" of mine actually is a local breeder with his masters in herpetology, he has worked with all sorts of reptiles for over 25 years and currently keeps 200 animals in his home. He also is licensed to possess venomous snakes as well as a few other animals forbidden to the public. He received his first pair of brown basilisks in 1988 and has been sucessful in keeping and breeding them since.

The basilisk he "put to sleep" was picked up very slowly and calmly out of it's tank then gently placed on his forearm...all he did was gently stroke it's head until it closed it's eyes...it continued to sit still and would occasionally open it's eyes to see what we were up to. After the head stroking stops the basilisk is free to jump from the arm or climb up on a shoulder...but he's content on the forearm. This basilisk will also eat from your hand as well.

I would agree that this is a very rare case and is not likely to be possible with all basilisks but I would believe that it could be possible with enough time and energy and patience to end up with a fairly tame, calm basilisk.

Thanks for the caresheet though, it was actually very helpful. As well as clearing up the forest soil issue...they are currently on pine shavings but possibly when the snow melts they'll get a nice forest bedding.

I stick to my opinion: Very typical sumbmissive behaviour of a frightened lizard. Ask ethologists!