Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey all. I'm building a pond/habitat outside. I wanted to put a couple of horned lizards out there. I know its pond and there desert, but i live in Southern California and habitat area will be pretty big. Would they just die? or would they make it and fend for themselves on the crickets?

David

Please inspite of your desire to do this, please consider something like a bearded dragon or Gecko's. Horned lizards take alot of very special care to be taken care of in captivity. Ants are their primary food, of which scat analysis is 90 percent or more. Your idea, not being informed about Horned Lizards is definately a detrimental idea. If you live in California these are protected, therefore you would need special permits to even have these. If your looking for a lizard, then a bearded dragon by all means would be an excellent choice because they are omniverous and will eat anything. Although Horned lizards do eat crickets, crickets are a harbinger of disease as well as they do not provide the proper nutrition. Based only on your e-mail, and with all do respect to your experience, because of your description and question, please do not, please do not!! Use a Horned Lizard for this, you will certianly doom them to a slow but certian demise. You wanted an opinion, you've got mine.......a Horned Lizard would be a bad choice when one considers all the options in the lizard rehlm that is available for purchase.

Ok sorry man, it was just a question, a thought that went threw my mind. I'm not doing it. Don't worry.

David

hey David,

Even though the HLs probably won't work, there are lots of other native lizards that would go well in a riparian style/pond habitat, ie Western Fence Lizards, Alligator Lizards, Western Skinks, Sagebrush lizards, and I've even seen Side-Blotched Lizards near the Mojave River, so maybe some of those guys will do. If you do try, good luck.

-Phil

ya i'm looking into blue tail skinks or western skinks..Thanks for the info.

David