Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey jeff, i'm still workin with those little texas horned lizards that hatched out a couple of weeks ago. what do you do for your little guys? do you monitor their eating carefully or what? i've lost one so far that obviously wasn't eating at all.
any pointers or tips would be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot
andrew

Hey Andrew,
Cornutum hatchlings are a tough bunch, almost as tough as modestum. They are picky eaters compared to most other species. Mine ,at 3 weeks, still refuse ants no matter what size or species I offer. They eat a few small crickets with the hind legs removed. They go nuts over mini mealworms from www.minimealworms.com but you must be careful. They will eat way too many of them causing them to get sick. They will regurgitate them or lay sick for a few days because they are difficult to digest. I limit those to 1 or 2 a day. Probably the best thing I can advise is to keep vitamin dusted fruitflys in the terrarium constantly. Add them in the mourning and evening.

sounds like i'll be trying some fruit flies along with the small crickets. 4 are looking quite chubby after 3 weeks so i'm assuming their eating well. any pointers on a cage set up? right now i've just got them in a 10 gal with several inches of white sand and a uv power sun mercury vapor bulb on them ( about 4 ft. above the cage) and a few flat pieces of rock here an there. i spray the rock once every couple of days ( so they'll drink off of that)
any other info would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for the help.
andrew

I would use a larger terrarium and adjust the bulb so that the temperature directly beneath it is about 110 F. The opposite side should be in the 80s F.

Hey Jeff,

would the baby THL's eat termites? I've never heard of anyone trying this, but those would probably be small enough for them, I'd think.....I know you can get them from arrow frog breeders and such. Have you ever tried it? I don't know, just a thought.

good luck Andrew!

-Phil

Hey Phil,
Termites are a favorite amoung all HL species and work very well for hatchlings. I havn't found anyone who sells large quantities of them. Do you have any web addresses for the poision arrow frog breeders that might carry them?

Hey Jeff,

I don't know how recent this ad is but it was in the kingsnake marketplace.

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=28&de=203156

The phone numbers are for seaside reptiles(or some similar name) in Florida.

phone numbers for the termite guy:
(239)353-3394
cell (239) 821-9737

Hope this is a good link. Talk to you soon.

-Phil