Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I already am owned by a bearded dragon, but the other day I saw my first horned lizard! I love the looks of them. I need tons of info on them to decided if I can get one or not. where is the best place for info.?

as far as housing how differnet are they from a beardie? (not thinking of keeping them together)

how big do they get?

how long do they live?

how hard is it to feed them?

coastiewifex2@aol.com
-----
Owned by 1 bearded dragon, 2 Leapord geckos,1 iguana, 2 cats,1 dog , 2 wonderful kids and a husband

1,0,0 breaded dragon
0,2,0 leapord gecko's
0,0,1 iguana
0,2,0 cats
1,0,0 dog
1,1,0 children
1,0,0 husband

I'll answer your questions first.
As for size, adult horned lizard range from 1.6" to 4.9". Those numbers vary by subspecies.
Longevity for the species is 2 - 10 years. Again that is info varies by subspecies.
You'll want to feed the horned lizards small insects such as ants and small crickets. I buy ants through Antsalive.com. I supplement their diet with pinhead crickets dusted with herptivite, smallest mealworms available, and pillbugs. I collect the pillbugs in my backyard. Of course my backyard is not treated with pesticides or herbicides.
I keep my dhl's habitat similar to bearded dragons.
Some readings you will want to get are Introduction to Horned Lizards of North America by Wade Sherbrooke. I got this on Amazon.com. I have an extensive collection of herp books and this is one of the best. This book doesn't touch on captive care, but it goes all the way in describing horned lizards' natural history. The other is by the same author. It's an article in Reptiles magazine in the January 2004 issue. This article does touch upon captive care.
I got my dhl's from Mark Lucas (http://markmlucas.com). Another ad there has two pair of roundtails for sale.
Lastly, other than this site, there is hornedlizards.org.
I hope this helps,
JC