Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hellos everyone.

I recently stumbled upon this site and found it one of the only forums i could find with a lot of devoted horn lizard keepers.

I found myself with a platyrhinos about three years back. We visited a reptile show here in canada and my friend purchased me this little addorable lizard. I backpeddled to the vendor and got as much info as i could out of them on thier care... I was told. "small crix will do fine.. thats all they need"

Boy...if i only knew. lol.. actually.. i probably would have still gotten her lol.
With all my reading i have gained a lot of information. I am always trying to learn more as well. I found out about the stress on thier numbers as well which leads me to wanting to start a breeding program somtime in the future. But i still have a lot of learning before that begins.

I have my little girl in a 20 gal for the moment...I am planning on building a much larger enclosure pretty soon because i just adopted another female. The previous owner couldnt really keep up with her appitie. She is more of a salmon colour than my original female.

I have one concern however.. I usually feed a varied diet because i cant get ants as frequently as i would like. The food offered is usually small crix, small mealies, butterworms, wax and harvester ants when i can get them. I also offer small beetles, spiders...moths etc.
My girls seem to be both fixated on mealies and mealies only..I slightly worried if they are becomming picky eaters?

The tank has a mix of sand, small pebble and some potting soil.. They have an aloe planted on the cooler side and a flate cut of slate that sits under thier heat lamp, one side is propped up by a chunk of grape vine. They can hide under the slate as well. The temps get around 100 or 110...so hopfully that is not too hot or too cool.

I hate to admit it but i really have no idea on how desert really looks...as we dont have many here around toronto but i do what i can by pictures and hopefully i will be able to take a visit and see these little guys in the wild.

Any help...or tips on care or breeding would be extreamly appreatiated.

i'll try to attach a photo of my first female, playing dead of course but she is a lot chunkier now i am happy to say. ^^ her colors also seemed to get lighter over the years as well.

I'm looking at the substrate under the feet in this picture, if you have her on ground walnut shells get her off of that right away. Go to home depot and get some play sand in 50 lb. bags that are very cheap and has been cleaned for childrens sand boxes and makes an excellent substrate. For one lizard a 20 gal long is fine, for anymore than that I would recommend a 40 gallon for a pair, and larger for a trio if you want optimium health. Sounds like you are giving them a varied diet, however feeding them ant is very important. You can get them from Ants Alive on the internet. You didn't say where you live but maybe you can find some ant piles near you at a park or something. The big red ants. I would like to see a current picture of the animal now, that would be good to assess it's current health at the moment. IN this picture you sent the animal looks o.k. what were you refering to them playing dead? They really don't do that, and a healthy animal is usually active. Anyway give us more info, what is the ambient cage temps and azre you using a mercury vapor bulb or 8.0 or greater flourescent bulb for UVB. Are you supplementing them at all with vitamen powder?
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Phrynosoma.com

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

Thanks for the help.
The temps on one side of the cage is around 85 or so and the other side is 100-110... i know there isnt much of a gradient but i am working on getting the larger enclosure.

That picture was taken two years or so and i dont have a digital camera anymore so i will take more shots as soon as posible.

I need to replace the UV bulb in my fixture because its been over 4 months now. I think i should go with the desert reptibulb as well? I'll check back on the HL site that has been so helpful already.

Unfortunaly here in toronto canada i cant just walk out my door and collect whatever i like. We dont have big red ants around here really...other than fire ants. We do have big black ones...but i am also in the city so who knows if they have been sprayed. We do have lots of ravines around here...so maybe i will do my collections there. The only concern was that the rainfall washes everything from the city..down into the ravines.. :/ Opinions on this would be helpful.

She's not on crushed shells... Just riverbed sand and some medium pebbles tossed into the mix.

What i mean by play dead is that she freezes up when i hold her. So...i dont hold her often. I worry to much about stressing her out. She gets a flat as possible and just freezes up. I rather not handle her too often anyways... I am perfectly fine watching them from afar.
Otherwise she's great at taking mealies from my fingers...

Thank you for the help and the check.. I really would like to make things perfect.

My first concern is getting a larger enclousure and new UV.

you might try and find some of those big black ants and just catch 100 or so and put them in a container and before you offer them put them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to slow them down, and drop in a few and see if you get any action. If they eat them you may be able to use them....I know other horned lizards eat black ants that are indiginous to their areas. USe a big potatoe spoon and dig in front of their hole so they come out and fill the hole up and you just scoop them up. There are new bublbs that are 10.0 flourescents that many people are claiming are very good. I think you can purchase them through any of the larger reptile company's. Good luck.
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Phrynosoma.com

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

Oh! excelent.. I was worried i wouldnt be able to use them.
I was thinking of collecting from my mums yard. She doesnt use any pestisides and my neighboor hasnt this year as far as i understood. There is an ant highway running along my mums fence..

I'll let you know how they do of course.
I also priced out anew reptile style aquarium today one of those 40 gallons i think. 3 feet by 2 1/2..somthing along those lines. Also got a look at a good lid...Since i have two cats who are very fond of crawling and sleeping in my spare tanks

i'll fly by some photos when i get that set up.

Also.. Anyone make floursesents with easetrophs? My bf and i wanted to upgrade ours if we got the longer tank.

thanks again for the help!

Here are a few things to consider with lighting:
A mercury vapor bulb screws into a spot lamp holder with the aluminium bell on it. This around 34 dollars for the bulb and 12-14 for the lamp holder, be sure you get the deep lamp holder that will accomodate the length of a mercury vapor bulb, this puts out light and heat on one end of a 40 gallon cage, and I ususally have another smaller regular basking bulb set up in the center of the cage that is a zoomed usually 75 watt or 50 watt.

Or you can use a flourescent fixture thats going to cost around 35 dollars, a bulb that is 30" or so which is going to cost 20 bucks, and then the extra spot bulb with the 50 watt zoomed, so as far as lighting goes if your going to up grade, you might consider the mercury vapor, but do read up on them, and be sure you'll be buying from a competent dealer and get the right info on these. I would recommend Dr. Foresters or LLL Reptile or Big Apple herps on the internet, any one of these are good, and if you talk to one of their reptile experts they will give you good info on these. Now remeber your looking for light and heat in a mercury vapor, some give great light but less heat. Zoomed is dependable, there are others as well.

As far as ants go--my question, these are not those little grease ants that is around everyones house? OIF so these will probably not work, I am talking about the big black ants. It sounds like the right ones, as they travel in trails as well. I would just cat5ch a few and see if they will eat them, no reason to go through a bundh of catchng if they won't eat them....
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Phrynosoma.com

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

Ohh yes i was wondering about those bulbs. SOme of the sites you listed do not ship to canada, but we have a reptile show comming up and i can get some info from there. We happen to have an excellent pet shop downtown as well... I think i will purchase from them.

I still dont know which way i will go but eather or i am going to make sure its correct.

Yes we do have the big black ants at my mums place and we also have fire ants in the ravine. The ants are actually located in a nature preservation area so that should mean they are pestside free.... I just wasnt sure if the sting from these guys are the same as your harvester ants. The fire ants here ...really really hurt and for a long time. So i was wary about offering them.

I'll try the black ones and let you know