Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have statistics on the growth rate of DHL's. Mine are about 4 months old and a couple of them are already ~1/2 the size of the parents. Is that normal?

Next year, if I'm lucky enough to get more clutches, I plan on tracking the babies growth rate more scientifically (by weight and STV length, etc.). Unfortunatley I've squandered the opportunity this year.

Wondering if anyone else has done this study, or know where I can find such data, so I can judge how I'm doing.

Thanks,
Roger

I know someone who has kept growth rates. I'll try to get in touch with him and post the results. Glad to hear yours are doing good.

I forgot to ask what your feeding and if your providing supplements.?

I've had many reach adult sizes in a year. I'm sure growth rates vary in wild DHLs based on yearly differences in food abundance.

The diet experiment is still in full force. The baby DHL's are being fed a diet of strictly 1-2 week old crickets, dusted occasionaly (~1/week) with RepCal. I have tried the mini-mealworms you suggested in an earlier post, unfortunately the babies tend to regurgitate them. Like wise on wax worms.

They are exposed to argentine ants daily in the outside enclosure, only the babies tend to ignore them, sporatically nibbling on them at best, at least from what I can tell when I'm watching them outside.

They are voracious feeders on the crickets, pretty much begging me to feed them every time I pass the cage...and I do cave. They get a healthy amount in the morning and evening. On the weekends I'm feeding them sporatically all day long. I can't seem to keep up with their appetites...had no idea they ate the quantities I'm experiencing....costing me some serious $'s to keep up with them.

By the way, the substrate is Calci-Sand inside, play sand outside. I notice they're licking the Calci-Sand alot...is that a bad thing?

Thanks,
Roger

Hi Roger,
HL's purposely ingest sand as an aid in digestion. It helps break up the food in the stomach.

The Argentine ants are credited with the contributing to the demise of the Coast HL, partially because they won't eat it, and secondly because it out competes native ants, displacing them.

You are offering no other ants to your DHL's? Their diet is highly ant specific in the wild.
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Phrynosoma.Com

Search the old archive HL forum for calcisand. There were some issue noted there that might interest you.
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Phrynosoma.Com

Cable...love your site...that is your site, right? Very well done.

Yes, you read it right, I'm working on an antless diet experiment, starting from the egg. I've read a lot about HL feeding theory, but there seems to be very little of the theory that is backed up with scientific facts. I figured the only way to prove/disprove the antless concept is to perform the experiment myself.

Basically, I'm investigating a hypothesis I read about in a scientific article I found on-line (see link below). Unfortunately, it reads like some of the data may have been in question, possibly due to control issues involved. But what I found most intriguing was the conclusion that indicates there may be more than just a possibility for a successful antless diet....so I figured there's only one way to prove it.

So far the only control violations that I'm guilty of in my amateur version of the same experiment is not performing periodic weigh in's. To get that under control, I'll need a high resolution low weight scale. So far I've been unlucky in finding them at local stores...guess I'm just going to have to cough up the bucks and by it on line.

Would love to track down some of the referenced literature in the article below, having no luck on line. Any chance you have the link(s)?

Link Reference:
http://www.chelatedtraceminerals.com/hornedlizards/prey_preference.pdf

Hi Roger,
Thanks for the compliment. The website is my brainchild but there are quite a few other folks contributing to the site and more are welcome.

Regarding the antless diet, I think it might be an interesting experiment, but I haven't seen any papers suggesting a completely antless diet. Maybe it is worth testing. What are your plans for the study? Are you using two groups, one with, one partial and one without?

I'll drop you an email on the papers. There are a few available from various sources.

I bought my scale on Ebay for about 40 bucks and it is working out very well. You might check there.

Regarding crickets and $$, you may be able to establish your own colony and raise them yourself. You don't say how many HL's you have but it might be worth considering.

I am looking into some alternatives as well. I am having some earwigs sent to me for a breeding experiment. I want to see if I can raise enough of them to supplement my HL diet. They seem a good food source and are readily devoured by HL's.

Keep us posted on your progress.
Cheers!
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Phrynosoma.Com