Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey I have a baby Southern Alligator lizard and yesterday I bought like 500-700 1 week old crickets and dumped it in his 10 gallon cage. He ate about 10-15 of them real quick, I was wonderin will the crickets do him any harm granted they are only 1 week old. Also i have other questions about substrate and heating. Thanks

David

Way too many crickets! You need to get them out and just put in as many as he can consume in one sitting. Half the nutrition your al will get from the crickets will come from their stomach contents so you will need to feed them a good diet. I have found that high quality crushed dry dog food works well or fish flakes along with pieces of fruit and veggies for water. Your crickets will also need to be dusted with a high quality calcium supplement such as rep-cal with vit d3. Additionally, loose crickets in the cage can chew on your al when they get hungry and the presence of so many can be very stressful. The crickets will also consume your al's feces, this can lead to bacterial and parasitic infections when the crickets are consumed by your lizard.

I have found that heating is not really necessary when the als are kept at room temp and I have successfully maintained als long term without UV. To play it safe, however, I now use UV lights with my als.

-Alice