Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My dad found an alligator lizard hiding in our van and caught it yesturday. It's almost exactly a foot long. I just made a home for it with a 20 gallon tank/kit. I covered the ground with repti-bark, sprinkled some moss. On one side, I put some rocks, and branches, and a water bowl. I put a broken shingle slab with UV light shining down on it on the other side. I threw 3 crickets in and then put the lizard in. The lizard pounced at a cricket, but didn't eat it. Then she (I think its female) hid under a rock. She didn't even move when the crickets were right in front of her or even jumped on her. I then put a superworm in front of her, and she ate it right away. I put another one, and she ate it again. I heard its not good to feed alligator lizards too many worms because their shells are hard to digest, but this lizard wont eat the crickets. What should I do?

ps. This is my first time trying to raise a lizard. Any suggestions/care tips or information will be greatly appreciated. O yea, its a southern alligator lizard I think. It's brown with horizontal black/white stripes.

Wow, congrats on your catch! Or your dad's catch...well, eitther way. My alli that i found under my garden house did the exact same thing. She wouldn't eat for around 3-5 days, and was extremely paranoid whenever something moved. I assumed you just caught him today? Notice the eratic breathing? Ya, poor guy. Scared him $hitless. But I wouldn't worry to much. Give it time for him/her/it to adjust to. The good thing is that it is eating something, and i think you should think of dusting the food also.

Your set-up sounds great. Feeding superworms / mealworms isn't a big problem. My al's get a lot of worms in addition to crickets and they have no trouble digesting them. Once she settles in she will also be more inclined to branch out and try different food items.

Feeder insects will need to be gut-loaded and dusted. To do this, feed crickets something like a high quality crushed dry dog or catfood or fish flakes with orange slices for water. Mealworms / superworms can be fed a mix of oats, and dogfood or rodent chow, with carrots for water. Insects will also need to be dusted with a calcium supplement at every feeding and a multivitamin supplement at least a couple of times a month. Make sure your calcium supplement does not contain phospherus, calcium phosphate etc. I use and recommend rep-cal and herptivite.

Since this is a new acquisition watch closely for mites. Check the ears, corners of the mouth, behind the legs and in the vent and watch for any really tiny critters (mites are about the size and color of a grain of pepper) crawling on your al. Mite infestations need to be caught early or the mites can literally suck your lizard dry.

Good luck, and have fun with your new pet!
Alice

I just kept the superworms in its orignal container and its been sitting there for a day. I got the crickets today and put them in a critter container thing with a piece of the kind of cardboard used to hold eggs (cus the lady at the petshop gave it to me and said the crickets sleep in it) and a carrot. I have ReptoCal and it has: min. calcium 27%, max calcium 35%, min. phosphorus 6%, min. potassium .03%, min. sodium .03%, and min chloride .02%. I didn't dust the insects today though.. was too lazy. Ill work on the cricket and worm food tomorrow.

I didn't see any mites on the lizard, but I didn't inspect too closely and the lizard kept hiding. If it does have mites, will they escape? The tank is in my room right now so im kind of worried and scared. Will the mites infest me/my room if they escape?

Thanks for your help.

Lizard mites won't "infest" you. They can get out of the cage though and infest any other herps you may be housing. I've only had to deal with mites occaisionally in alligator lizards, but since they represent a serious health threat to the lizard you need to be on the watch for them.

You may want to consider switching cacium supplements since yours does contain phospherus. This is the supplement I use:

http://www.repcal.com/supp.htm#Ultrafine Calcium

and I've never had a case of MBD / Metabolic Bone Disease. Since the phospherus level in your suplement is low though, you may be able to get away with it. If you notice any signs of lethargy or diminished jaw strength after you've had him a few months, definately make the switch. If you catch MBD early, it is completely reversible.

Good luck,
Alice

I ended up buying Flukers high-calcium cricket feed and I gave some to the worms and crickets.

I forgot to add that the lizard shed the night I caught it, but at that time it was in another tank. It was an aquarium that used to be for fishes and it had gravel in it which was left outside. I put some dirt in with some branches and rocks and it was pretty dirty in there with snails and ants. It shed pretty perfectly, I saw one really big piece that it shed whole and another little piece stuck on a branch. I don't think that there was any skin left on that it didnt shed. I read that it sheds mites with its skin, but I don't kno it was reinfested or something in the temporary tank or not.

Thanks for all your help, Alice.

You certainly have a good species to begin keeping lizards with. I grew up in Southern California and they are the one type of lizard that adjusted to urbanization quite well. I believe the largest one that I had over the years was 18" from nose to tail tip and that was mostly tail. I used to suppliment my lizards diet with beetles caught in the back yard. I never had an alligator lizard that didn't relish "june bugs".