Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey whats the consensus on chucking a anole lizard into my Brooks hypo's tank so he has some live prey to hunt?

You could throw a live anole in there and things will probably be OK, but there are a few reasons not to put one in there too.

I'm not sure how much it really improves their quality of life to hunt down live prey. I think food is food to them.

Live prey may have parasites or diseases that can be passed along.

When you feed them inside their enclosure there is the chance that they may accidentally swallow some of the substrate, which would not be healthy.

Live prey could injure your snake. I'm not sure an anole could hurt your snake, but I once had a mouse poke his claw right into the eyeball of my knoblochi. I've been feeding my snakes pre-killed or frozen thawed ever since. Some of my younger snakes still get live fuzzies when they wont eat pre-killed.

argafgadfgh

Ok. thnx, i appreciate the help, guess its not doable.Mike.

Thnx for the advice i guess its a no no, hey speaking of swallowing substrate? my cali king was a in a badd mood today at dusk he was striking the glass chasing my shadow...while he attacking the glass mouth open some substrate got into his mouth is this a big deal need i worry?

He's probably ok. They can get stuff out of their mouths pretty well, it's when they swallow it along with prey that you have to worry. Although if you use aspen there's a small chance he could get spinters.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

thnks "M" i was worried, u put them worries ta rest much appr! by the by shedding Q my brroks is milky white...i was wondering what your thoughts on helping him along on his shed are? i have been told mabey to mist once a day to once every other day? and my herper advise me to put a container rather samll enuff for him to fit into, wit some moist paper towel what r your thoughts?

Just like every house has a room temperature, every house has a humidity level. This will vary depending on location, time of year, and use of central heating and air conditioning. Kings will usually shed just fine if they have access to a dish of water and a humidity between 40 and 60 percent. But sometimes the humidity can be down to 20 percent, at which point MY hands start getting dry and flaky, and most snakes need more help shedding than they otherwise would.
SO, without knowing what your humdity is, I can't tell you what changes to make. (too much humidity is bad also). What you can do is go to Walmart or another retailer and look in the hardware section. You can buy digital hygrometer (humidity measuring thing)/thermometer for like 10 bucks and you'll never regret it. Because then you'll know exactly what your humidity is and if you need steps to change it.

Other than that, light mistings can work well too.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

Thnks Meretseger, apr all the help,i have a fours paws humidity thingy sittin on top of the screen of my 20gl n it reads out 40 something do u think thats ok or do u advise raising it up a lil for a brooks hypo king thats in a milky phase shed?your advice would Be greatly appreciated!Mike S.-All The Fun Of A Boa In A Convenient Pocket Size. P.s (what does the Eryx stand for>?)

Uh..why would you want to ? I doubt King or any other snake persay enjoys hunting their prey I think they just like the eating part so I guess it would be more for your enjoyment. Anoles carry parasites as well its not a good idea overall.

Keith
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Thank You, Advice Taken, but if u will i have anothor ques, i have had my cali desert king now for going on a lil more then a month...and he has not ever displayed the agression he displayed today is this not a good thing? or do snakes like ppl just sometimes get angry?Concerned keeper!Mike.

yea, they just get pissed sometimes , i personaly like em' with alittle spunk shows they still have thier "heart" i suppose?,
hey dude, let me tell you alittle about the green anole because they are "just a lizard" but they are really cool as sh....
the only grow to about a max of 8 inches (end of tail to head)
they eat small insects like crickets and small spiders , they remain close to the ground like fences, the side of your house ect. but when in danger they run up , thier breeding season is from march to october the female has a line down her back and when they are unhappy thier color turns darker , matter of fact i ran across one today, took some pics and let him go because they only live 2 to 3 years and the female only lays a max of three eggs , i know there is no short of anloes running around
but i feel like they are just trying to get thier "groove on" becuase they have some real important work to do man! think about it , 3 years ,three eggs per year! no wonder they are in such a big hurry dude!-lol do a search and read about them , they are pretty cool little animals -

hey dw yeah i guess u were a lil bothered then when i said i wanna throw one in wit my king, 1000 appologies, actually i did keep anole a long time ago when i was younger, reason why i wont keep them again (not that there not cool) but they kinda just chill there only feeding time is really as fun as when there active watching them compete for crickets is pretty cool they dont really need heat rite? and not to diff to maintain, ahh now your entice me to get some anole's in a tank nxt to my kings something for them to enjoi as well as me! im going to do some serious thought on this now, all in all tho there cool most all retptilians are pretty neat have always been a big fan of ecotherms, just something about em that draws me to em, well thanks you very kindly for the reply!Mike.love to hear from a fellow keeper, do you yourself currently keep any lizards or snakes? if so please describe? would love to hear from u!

naaa , it did not bother me , to each his own - if you end up keeping kings long term you might need anoles someday , they are often useful in getting a baby kings feeding career to kickstart,
And perfect for scenting pinkies also a method used to aid in getting a baby king to eat for the first couple of times , I just felt that if I offered a contrast, you might look at anoles differently than before , it's cool to watch your king kill another animal , but really pointless , what we provide to our kings is a controlled environment, there is no need for useless
or pointless activities like throwing a wildcought baby rat snake
In the cage just to see it get killed or a anole lizard, but it would be interesting to watch and learn from , but you will get plenty of opportunities to see stuff like that , like there are these people down the street from here they are good people but

"Coonasses" from the outback of Louisiana, Mississippi, they have
this huge anaconda, they will charge someone in the crowd 5 bucks to feed this animal a full jumbo size chicken , its cool as hell watching this thing just devour the chicken and get's lots of reaction from people , but pointless and somewhat stupid,
Or another example is dog fighting or cock fighting, it's cool
To watch but yet at the sametime somewaht horrible and mean and most of all pointless! I’m not the guy that tries to tell these type of folks anything, to each his own, but I can do my part by trying when the opportunity is right to educate, or just ask

you to take a minute and learn about the animal before you sacrifice it-LOL by the way i've participated in these activities
Before before I learned that it's stupid, any way - I have to many animals kings, boas, dog, fish and curly albino phase Amazonian monkey kids---
you "feel" me?
DJW

Felt and understood, query i have two kings a brooksi and a cali dsert king, now the cali king is much younger then the brooks but i have purchased him first, so i bought a 20gl for him n when i got the brooksi i couldnt afford a 20gl so i picked up a ten for free from this guy who came into the petland dicounts i worked at (for a month run terribly)(not all just this One) so heres the thing i knew when i first got the brooksi my herper told me to put him in the 20gl (reason being he's bigger) but as with the cali king when i first got him he was M.I.A for the first week or so, i thought well theres not point in puttin the brooks in the 20 becuz he needs time to adjust to the change? but now that he is comfortable i thought might as well put the smaller in the smaller and the bigger in the bigger. again tho i switcherd without cleaning n disinfecting...is this a big no no ? do i really have to worry ? or need not i do this again? Thnx For All Your help. Mike.

every couple of months anyway , but go ahead and clean the cages out if your switching cages,,,,,,,,
D

Anoles not only need a suprising amount of heat, but they also need UV lights. You also have to dust their crickets, give them water by misting, ect. ect. So if you want them to live long they're a lot more work than a snake.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

Sometimes people tend to get a little tuned into the species they like best, or are most familiar with. I personally haven't met a herp I have not liked. I like anoles to. Every time I visit my folks in Augusta, I spend a lot of time chasing them around.
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Tim

cool, yeah im not going for it, just a nice idea for the moment, hope i didnt piss n e one, but other then that thnx for the reply.Mike.

and the 'anoles are cool' (I used to keep them....they're fun) I'd be worried about changing the feed animal in case the snake decided he didn't want his mice anymore--I have a Hognose and some of them (not as much the westerns but those too) really don't like mice, their natural diet is toads. To get them started people will often scent pinkies with toads but then wean them, but hogs also seem (from the posts I read) to tend to go off feed for a while in the winter, and people start panicking and try scenting and all sorts of things, but then the snake just starts wanting those scented again and you have to start over getting them back to mice. If you want to provide some feeding entertainment, just get a pair of long tongs and wiggle his meal a little bit out of reach and he can strike at it--my Fl king goes bananas and wraps his F/T mousie as if it were alive. Fun to watch
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)