Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my green basilisk, Lebowski, was moved into a bigger tank on tuesday. it is now sunday and i personally havent seen him eat. usually he will eat readily from my hand or from chopsticks, he actually preferred to be hand fed instead of hunting. in his old tank there was two decent branches and 2 live plants as hiding spots/ decoration. in his new tank he has 2 fake plants and 2 live plants (live plants are safe) and a great log/branch and one of his old branches. he has sufficient visual barriers, today i covered the whole tank to try and induce feeding but it didnt work. i also kept his old rocks and water bowl in hopes hed feel a little familiar with his new environment. he has done nothing but wall-dancing and banging into the sides and hanging onto the screen top, etc. he is just not happy. im wondering if maybe his UVA light is too far away, now that the tanks taller, and hes not getting enough UVA to stimulate his appetite. the only real difference in the tanks is that the UVB full spectrum is not the length of the tank and the lights are just 6 inches higher than they were. it is also really difficult to keep the humidity up in this tank. i dunno, im stressed out and need some advice. im just out of ideas. please help!!!!

Could he have eaten but you didn't see him? I don't think 6 inches would affect him that much, assuming you have a branch or something for basking near the light? When i moved my basilisk out of his old cage and into his new I thought he wasn't eating, but then i made a table on how much food i gave him and how much wasn't eaten and it showed he was eating, just not in front of me.
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Savannah Monitor - Artimus
Emerald Swift - Jesus
Baby veiled Cham - Sir August De Winter 1-20-05 RIP
Green Iguana - King Arthur
Rose-hair tarantula - Bill
Basilisk - Adam Used to be Adam and Eve but there was a food competition because my girlfriend was taking care of them and she didn't know what was wrong until it was too late.

I would give him time to settle in. How tall is the cage? If you just have a flourescent UVB light he needs to be within 12 inches of the tube in order to get any benefit. If you cage is tall, you may want to get a mercury vapor bulb, they project UVB up to 6 feet.

Other than that I would leave him alone for a few days and let him get used to his new environment. Reptiles can go for weeks without eating, so as long as he isn't sick he should come around.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04

thanks for the replies. his tank is like 19 inches tall. i have only had him for 6 months, but he was getting huge! i hope he is going to be ok. any suggestions anyone might have in their successes with basilisks? thanks again!
-tamlin

Well, the key to keeping them happy is a huge cage, at least 6 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep or so. Anything smaller and she will always bang her nose and be unhappy.
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A mans got to do what a mans got to do. A woman has to do what he can't.

Mom to:

1 little boy born 7/19/04
2 male RES, born 1999
1 ribbon snake, age unknown
3 FBT, ages unknown
1 female bearded dragon, born 5/2002
1 male lab mix, born 5/24/03
1 female calico cat, born 6/7/04

well, lebowski isnt as jumpy as he was last week, but lately he seems to just be hanging out on the full- spectrum part of his tank. he will eat but not readily. i have to hold waxworms with chopsticks in front of his face. he'll lick them and eventually grab hold and eat them. but he'll only eat one. he usually eats quite a bit. but things are better, he still looks vibrant, but he has lost weight.

Have you ever tried any appetite enhancer? We just moved recently and my CWD was really stressed out so i started dabbing a bit of this stuff on her nose and she was back to eating in no time flat. cant seem to find it atm though (i really hate moving).... but yea, we've used it on her twice because she wasnt eating as much as she should (due to the recent move and a new setup a while back) and we use it on her every once in a while just to make sure she's getting all her nutrients if i feed her mice for long periods. if you cant find anything like it in the pet stores, i'll try and scare it out from wherever its hiding from to give you a brand name. anyways my 2cts worth, good luck

Hi,

from all your posts I assume, that you want the best for your animal but that you are not very informed about the need of basilisks.
Also your posts sound like you kept the animal in an extraordinary tiny tank and now changed to a tiny tank.
I guess, just because you did not know better.
Years ago I posted a caresheet in this forum.
Maybe you should read it and contemplate about its contents.

Ci@o

Ingo
My old caresheet