Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all. I'm very new here. I'm also newly returned to lizard keeping. (Used to catch some nice ones back in Salt Lake City as a kid.) Anyway, I have been into poison dart frogs for quite a while and today I accidentally became the proud owner of two newly hatched brown anoles.

It seems the last batch of plants I bought from a Florida terrarium supply contained at least one clutch of eggs. One hatchling introduced itself to me this morning and a second, smaller one showed up tonight. I keep new plants and cuttings in a 20 gallon high aquarium with a glass canopy and a double florescent light fixture on a timer. It stays quite warm, especially up near the lights. There is one thumbnail frog in there temporarily because the larger male was beating him up. For now, I plan to keep feeding the flightless fruit flies (thoroughly dusted with Herpevite and Herpcal) but add enough for two more critters in addition to the frog. I will also mist the tank more regularly than I have been. Beyond that, I have lots of questions.

I'm quite sure the parents of my anoles were wild. However, while not captive bred my babies are captive hatched. Will they still have parasites? I can't imagine collecting stool specimens while they are so tiny, but is there some trick I don't know? How fast do hatchlings grow? How soon will they need larger prey? Any other information anyone wants to impart will be very gladly received.

Most small anoles reach adulthood at about one year. As long as the tank is not sopping wet, the anoles should fair well. They like tempertaures in the upper seventies to mid eighties, with a basking temp at around 90F. I will warn you, however, that adult male brown anoles can be very aggressive and may eat small frogs, so watch out when they get big.

As for parasites, they may have them, but they are not as likely to because of the lack of exposure to eggs.

I don't know personally about anole babies but when i got nile monitor eggs from a pet store, from wild parents they did have quite a few parasites that i had to cure, I say wait.