Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 6 now, 2 males, 4 females. They are split up 2 females and one male each to a 40 gallon set up.
They all look nice and healthy, that is, until I see pictures of everyone else's Collareds. Some of them look HUGE compared to mine. Mine all look much skinner than anything I have seen here.
I feed them every day, crickets with calcium powder, and they all devour everything I give them I drop in at least 15 - 25 medium crickets per cage.
Is that not enough?
Should I be feeding anything / something else?

Eve's collareds are always huge, I think she sneaks something in their crickets! I feed mine gutloaded crix and occasionally wax worms and mealworms and during the summer I catch grasshoppers for them. Mine aren't nearly as big as eve's but I think my female has some kind of underlying condition because she is very thin. I feed mine as much as they will eat, sometimes they are ravenous and other times quite disinterested. Good luck

Laura

"gutloaded" crickets ?
I buy crickets 500 at a time, from flukers. They are kept in a large rubbermaid container and are given Fluker cricket food and the orange cricket water with calcium. I keep a supply of both in there so all the crickets can eat and drink to their little insect's delight.

I take them from there, dust them, and then they become lizard food.

Am I missing something ?

Sounds like you are doing everything fine. I don't buy the commercial cricket food and water, I buy 1000 crix at a time and feed them oatmeal mixed with nonfat dry milk. I give them waterwith cotton balls in it so they don't drown. I also give a wide array of fruits and veggies to them. When I say "gutloaded" I mean feeding a very nutritious buffet to the crix so that the lizzies in turn will have a very nutritious meal. Don't stress, you are on the right track!

Laura

we also have been throwing romain lettuce in to the crickets when I remember, so they have that as well.

Water with cotton balls sounds cheaper than what I am using. I tried water in sponges, but the little buggers kept eating the sponges and turning them into a mess too.

I am going to have all the lizards checked and even medicated for parasites. And I will probably do that every 3 months for the next year just to make sure if they got anything it's gone.

Water with cotton balls is pretty cheap, papertowels in the water works too. I feed nonfat dry milk for extra calcium. Ask your vet for followup doses of the dewormer and administer it yourself in afew months if possible. That would be cheaper than 3 additional vet visits!

Laura