Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had my new collared for almost a week. her name is frankenSTEEN. hope i can get some suggestions. anyway, here goes...

1. every week i leave the house for 2 days. i have a regular basking light and a black heat lamp light. what is the best way to do this? i have a window in the same room so he can get some sunlight but not much heat. would it be ok to leave the blacklight heat lamp on for those 2 days 24/7? that light is basically just for heat anyway. she will also have plenty of crikets and water.

2. i have changed the water everyday and she always has plenty but i have yet to see her actually drink from it. she just runs through it and gets sand all in it. is this normal or is she suposed to be drinking from it?

3. whats the best way to feed her meal worms? im not sure if she will even eat them but i would like to try.

4. where can i get a male collared? the pet shop i got this one from said they wouldnt be getting anymore in because the are going to stop selling most reptiles. this sucks because i live out in the middle of nowhere and there isnt anymore good petshops that sell reptiles but persmart and they have a very small selection.

thanks bunches and sorry for the long past.

1. You can get a timer that will turn the lights on in the morning & then off again at night.

2. I've never seen my collared drink from the water bowl either. Just make sure it's available. Every once in a while you might want to give the cage a light mist. Sometimes if they won't drink from their bowls, they'll lick it off the glass & cage furnishings.

3. Depending on how comfortable she is with you, you may be able to feed her the meal worms from tongs. If that doesn't work, put them in a tray with sides high enough that they can't get loose & burrow under the substrate or do whatever mealworms do & she'll pick them off when she feels like it.

4. There are lots of people on the forum that breed collareds. You should also check the classifieds.

Hope that helps, Kristin

I use X10 modules to control the lights, because I'm a nerd.

I recently got some meal worms, and was able to get the most voracious of my collared lizards to take one from my hand. I still have one collared girl that will not eat either mealworms or superworms. I don't know what's up with that.

Good luck!
-----
1.3 Collared Lizards
90 Gal Aquarium
Minneapolis, MN

I meant to private e-mail the above message, but hit reply to message by mistake, and didn't realize what I had done until it was too late. I already e-mailed kingsnake.com and asked that the above post be removed within 3 minutes of posting the reply.

John Eddington

But Nice ! LOL I'm sure they will understand and delete it, Eve

i tried the cup and warter on top of the cage thing.... it worked great almost instantly!!! she started rubing her head on top of the rock where the water was dripping. it was funny. as far as buying TJ, ill think about it and im gonna look around some. i will let you know cause i cant do anything till next pay day which will be in about two weeks. i like his colors alot! i might be intrested in looking for another female too. we'll see though.

oh yeah... and where could i get a timer? i was at the pet store today and im almost positive they didnt have anything like that. do you have a website i could get a good one at? any particular name brand?

look in the lighting sections...run about $4.00-$5.00.