Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My nephew "won" two sweet little lizards which from what I could find are green anole lizards. He came to me for help and I have ben going crazy trying to gather information on their proper care before our ignorance winds up killing them So far I have figured out for sure the bigger one is male as he showed off a nicely colored red thing coming out of his neck like a beard. He also seems to have two bigger scales at the beginning of histail. I SUSPECT the other is female as they do not fight and I can't find the bigger scales at her tail. The smaller one has not displayed the neck thing though to see it's coloring. The smaller one also made a "nest" out of grass he put in there with them and it apears something white (perhaps an egg?) is also in there. We ran out to buy them A day light, a night light, a basking light,a thermometer for both sides of the aqarium,food specific for anole lizzards and misting bottles to leave dew drop for them to drink. he put top soil in the bottom of the aquarium as he wants to grow them live plants once we find out what can and can't be in there with them. For now he put a branch off of my fake tree in there and a real treebranch with no leaves. he also put a small shalow dish in there in case they want a bath. Oh and distilled water for theremisting bottle and bath water. What else do they need and what needs done about the "male female situation? if it is a female and she has already laid an egg two more are coming right? if so what do we do about it? He bought a second tank to seperate them but it seems a litle late if she already laid eggs and we will soon see babies right? How do we protect and care for them and the mother? Do males and females only mate once a year? Must they live seprately the entire year or just during breeding season? EXACTLY when is that for these little ones? Do they do better with a buddy or alone? I have nevr cared for lizards before so I am a nervous wreck over this. I hate carnival people. they treat poor littlecreatures like they aren't even alive

Wow! Lots of questions, but that's the way to do it right - ask. Have you found the website Under the Leaves or Anole Forest? TONS of information available on both sites.

For some quick answers, they breed pretty much all the time, so separation is necessary. If the tank is small, the male will run the female ragged trying to breed. Females do also lay sterile eggs even with no male present.

What food is "anole specific"? Canned food isn't the best choice. If you just mean appropriately sized crickets and worms, that's much better!

The websites provided should be able to answer all your other questions, and probably some you didn't know you had! And good for you, by the way, for trying to do right by those poor little lizards. I hate it when living critters are treated like toys.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Uromastyx geyri (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Uromastyx dispar maliensis (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Uromastyx ornata (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.1 Anolis carolinensis (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo, and Pickle)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Yes we bought the canned flies kind of food for them I read that the hard shells of crickets can cut their insides and kill them so I was afraid to get them crickets! My nephew was on a farm for a few days before he brougt them to me for help and so he was easily able to catch flies in the chicken house for them but here it is a whole lot harder so we rushed to find them something safe to eat. I couldn't find the powder I read needs put on live food nor do I know the difference between kinds of crickets, worms ect to be sure they aren't getting the wrong ones. This is a rough one for me! I have only ever cared for furred and feathered animals like guinea pigs, hampsters, rats, dogs, cats, geese ect!LOL (This is why he came to me. I have a great love of all animals. LOL)Thanks for the links. I will go read all of them and be back in short order if I can't understand what they are saying! LOL

Hehehe, well, first of all, don't get frustrated about it, that will usually lead to any bad case scenario..But instead of just telling you what you need to do, I'll make it easy and just give you a great website that tells almost everything you need to know when it comes to caring for Anoles.
http://www.kingsnake.com/anolecare/index.htm
Try going there, I'm sure you will find what you were looking for.
-GreenAnoleManiac
(Willard)

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