Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anybody know what he is?

This is a desert horned lizard(platyrhinos), looking at his body wieght, he needs to be heated up 105 degrees on one side of the cage about 85 on the other, he eats ants which you can order through lifewest.com and also 1/4" crickets dusted with vitamin powder. Please visti our site for more info at www.phrynosma.com. You should use a 20 gal long reptile glass aquarium with proper lighting and home depot play sand for a sbstrate. These lizards will od well with the right husbandry but he looks a tas skinny and lethergic to me, so you need to correct what ever needs fixing to get him inot shape.......Cheers!!
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

Thanks. I just got him sunday. I have him with a hot spot of 110* and about 85* on the other side. I have 1000 ants on the way from antsalive.com. I've been feeding 1/4 dusted crickets. I have a small water dish in there with him, not enough to raise the humidity, just enough in case he is dehydrated since I don't know any history on him before sunday. On that site it lists a few different, subspecies i guess?, with no pics so I just wanted to be sure I was looking at the right one.

Bryan do you have a few rocks and a fake plant or two in the cage. What size cage is it and are you using a florescent D3 bulb with 7.0 or greater or a mercury vapor lamp? During the day is he active and moving around the cage. If you have 1/4 crickets is he eating them? YOu might get some very samll king mealworms or mini mealworms to round out his meals. But you do need to keep him up with ants. Refrigerate the ants and put a small ampount out at a time once he is heated up in the morning. Let us know if you need any other help. As a general rule I usually don't put in a water dish, but either guive them and eye dropper and squeeze a drop on his nose and if he licks it uo I keep putting a drop on, or I spray the plants and they lick the plants and side of the glass. I am assuming you have him in at least a 20 long aquarium?
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

No offense Lou, I think you meant a florescent UVB bulb, to clarify.

I provide a water dish, but, be advised I've only seen one example of a horned lizard drinking from one. it's mostly for thermoregulation/basking purposes. my Cornutum was fond of it, and my hatchling female Solare has taken to using it also.

I used a heavy pinhead cricket & mini-mealworm diet for more than 2 years of the 3 with the Cornutum, but, they are high in phosphorus, which will take calcium from the bone matter if balance is not achieved. so calcium supplement dusting about every other feeding is key if your using them regularly.

for purely academic information...the typical pinhead, or 1/4" cricket contains about .2% calcium to 1.2% phosphorus, a 1:6 ratio ( depending on what the crickets are fed within 48 hours ). the mealworms run about the same ratio at .10-.15% Ca. to .60-.75% P, but are very fattening. a balance of about 2:1 / Ca, with sufficient D3 from UVB is recommended for proper growth. it's pretty impractical to determine this unless you want to weigh out a ton of insects and figure the appropriate amount of calcium powder...but if you do;

every 1gm. of crickets would render approximately .002gm Ca. and .012gm Phosphorus. so .022gm Ca. supplement would have to be added to achieve a 2:1 ratio. ok, if you got a pharmacists scale or handloading scale for measuring gunpowder charges! I just dust 'em lightly and use it right away. that's enough to compensate for the individual Phosphorus content of a cricket or mealworm.

I personally will be trying to stay closer on the ant diet with the Solare. I still believe crickets and mealworms can be an option for some horned lizards, but if the numbers aren't right, I also believe that growth rates suffer.

Mick

Mick-I stand corrected, your right on the bublb. good information, I still am pretty hooked on ants for most of my horned lizards only because they seem to be the make-up of most of the scat I see. I will say you can also use wax worms as mine have also ate wax worms, amd they love moths as well and pincher bugs. They are definately opportunistic and will eat what ever they can get a hold of, including some of the soft bodies spiders that we have in our garden. I have had better luck with just spraying the cage or using a dropper than getting them to drink out of a water bowl. One trick I do is put 1/4" screen mesch and cut it slightly bigger than the inside of the bowl and press it in. so the lizards can walk above the water and drink the water that is very shallow above the level of the mesh..........Cheers!!
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

wow, wire mesh over the bowl? what ever made you think of that!?
you don't have enough to do, do 'ya Lou? do they take to walking on it?

Okay. So I don't use tanks, but yes, he's in the equivalent. I have 2 plants, one giving shade in the corner of the hot side, one giving shade on the cool side. Both low enough to hide under the low leaves. Off to the side of the plant on the hot side I have a basking spot with a piece of clay pot that reaches about 110*. I have a clay pot hide somewhere near the center, haven't seen him use it, but I'm used to more traditional lizard care. The water dish is only temporary. It's more to make me feel better, at least he has it. I have to admit, I think my set up is good, maybe even overkill. The desert 10 UVB also, I left that out. I'll try to get a pic up of his enclosure tonight. He hasn't eaten since I got him though. I have 1000 ants that should be here tomorrow so I'm hoping that does the trick. He hasn't touched any 1/4" crickets. As soon as I saw one crawl across him I took them out so they wouldn't add to his stress. I'll try a few meal worms tonight. He may still be settling in. I had a beardie that didn't eat for almost the first 4-5 days I had him then I couldn't stop him from eating. Any other suggestions?

a cricket crawling across him is no cause to worry about stress. happens all the time. get used to it, because you'll see it happen often with the ants as well. HL's just shut their eyes and patiently wait for them to get off so they can be gobbled up. overhandling and visual or other disturbances with a new wild caught lizard, are a much greater stress factor to be worried about.

Mick

PS...such as hovering around while feeding.

LOL, I don't hover, I just happened to notice when I went to check on him. The crickets were in there for hours and not one was missing. I figured like other lizards anything they don't eat should usually be removed. Hopefully a little more time to acclimate and some ants will jump start his appetite.

yeah, after a couple hours it's safe to assume he won't be eating them that day. but they will do no harm to him either. not the same as leaving in ants or other aggressive prey.

Mick