Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm new. My green anole has been 'not right' for about a week, and I'm not sure what could be the problem.

I have a green female housed with a brown male in a 25 gallon tank. They've been together since September with no problems. Last week when I broke down the tank for cleaning, I noticed she was skinny and somewhat lethargic, and looked like her head had been 'chewed'. My boyfriend had to make a run to the herp store, so he took her with him and the herp guy said she looked a little dehydrated and to up the daily misting. We soaked her in warm water and put her back in the tank, and have been misting more frequently. Temps are around 75 to 80 degrees and close to 90 in the bask spot, and humidity is usually around 70-75.

This whole week though she has been super lethargic--she perks up when I mist her and laps the water, but she is very sluggish and has trouble climbing. Our herp guy says she may just be old but this all happened very suddenly. I noticed that she and the brown were doing the bob/fan thing prior to that, but I thought he was just trying to initiate mating. Could they be fighting and maybe she is stressed out?

She sleeps a lot but will move around when I spray her. Her eyes are still bright and alert but she is so slow. Her breathing seems very labored and I haven't seen her eat, but she doesn't seem emaciated so maybe she is eating when I'm not looking. She changes from brown to green throughout the day, and sometimes is "halfway", like brown with green patches.

I'm not sure what to do, and we don't really have a good herp vet around here. Am I losing my lizard?

Thanks

Hi,

I think your anoles dont realy get along just fine. A few atacks from another anole can cause enough stress to the green anole to start hiding more, eat less (or nothing) and they often wont come out of their hiding place to drink. Dehydration doesn't suprise me at all. The activity during the misting of the tank can be because the animal is stressed or just running for a dry shelter.I wonder why that herp guy you went to didn't think of this actually.
I would advise to try and seperate them for a while and see how the green anole is doing. Maybe it's already to late, maybe not. Ofcourse it's verry difficult to make a propper diagnose with only some text to work with so i would advise you to visit a specialised vet to.

with kind regards,
T.Dros

Thank you, I'm going to separate them tonight. I was under the impression that one male and one female could coexist fairly peacefully, but I suppose that isn't the case. This morning when I looked in on them, I saw them both resting on a piece of wood, and she had his tail in her mouth....not clamped down hard on it, but almost like how a dog will chew on another dog's foot when they are roughhousing. I guess that means they are fighting though.

Any ideas as to why all of a sudden after 6 months they would tie up like this?

I will also try hand feeding her and maybe giving her some Pedialyte and see if that will rouse her. Poor girl.

I had a very similar problem but with a slightly smaller tank. My male and female got along just fine and all of a sudden every day he would beat on her. It got to the point where I had to take him out.(this was after I saw him rip mealworm out of the females mouth). I ended up shipping him off to Florida to be released into the wild. (I know, trust me I did not like it but it was all I could do) Now my female is almost completely green again and eating and moving around the cage much more. Though I did not like the fact that I had to ship him out, I think it was for the better of all involved. Just thought I would share my experience. Let me know how it goes.

Shaon94

Enjoy your freedom Spike!