Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a week ago, my parents and I went to Del Rio to vistit relitives.We arrived at our destination on Wednsday( the same day that we left), and we went to my cousin's house on Thursay. To cut it short, I saw two legs and a tail under something, and when I lifted the box, I identified the lizard as an anole(I'd never seen anoles in the wild)! I stared at it for a second, and then grabbed it.I put a stick, a rock, and some sand in a Rubbermaid tote I brought along(just in case I saw a snail that I wanted to take home).Then my aunt saw another anole on the windowsill,and after I while, I caught it too.My parents made me name the anoles Barthon(*Bart*,the first anole) and Esquivel(*Squivle*, the second one).I fed 'Bart' a small yellow butterfly on Friday. We drove home Friday evening, and the lizards survived the trip( I fed Bat. Upon arriving home, my father and I purchased a ten gallon tank(I insisted that it should be a 20 gallon, but my dad said that a ten gallon was big enough), a UVA/UVB lamp(bulb& fixture), a heat lamp, a humidity gauge,a thermometer,a water dish(though I insisted that it wasn't nessecary), a fake plant,substrate, and crickets.We set up the tank(by the way, my mother fitted paper Kroger sack on the bottom of the tank and sprinkled substrate on it), put in a thick stick,the crickets,and the anoles;lastly, we sprayed the tank.
As of 12/2/05, the lizards have survived a week in captivity.Squivle puffs out his dewlap and bobbs his head often;I saw Bart do the same thing when I put Squivle in the tote for the first time.I'm postitive that they've been fighting(I saw marks that appear to be bite marks),and I can't find a reptle vet.Please help! Oh yeah, I learned very early on than the anoles don't like to be handled.

I'm not exactly sure what your question is, but it's a good story. We have multitudes of anoles where I live. They're both males (Male anoles have that red pouch under their chins), and most male anoles will fight each other. You should immediately seperate them. If you can't take care of two seperately caged ones, then you could give it to a friend as an early christmas present, or it may be ok to release it near to where you got it after only a week in captivity. Anoles do bite pretty regularly, but the bites i have had just felt kind of like a strong pinch, so on the plus side, even though you will more than likely suffer some bites, playing with your anole shouldn't be too painful. On the negative side, your anole probably wouldn't be biting you if it weren't stressed out. After seperating the anoles, I would just leave them alone for about a week. Feed them, but don't play with them. Then slowly take them out for a few minutes at a time. Over time, they will probably get used to being handled as they realise that you aren't a serious threat.

Also, this is something I'm unsure about, but if you rub your hand on a cloth and then drop it in the tank. Your anole might start associating your smell with the smell in it's tank, thus making it more docile. I'm not sure if this works for anoles, I know it sometimes helps with aggressive snakes, so if someone could confirm this I would be very appreciative.

also, im not sure but if a pet store near you has anoles you might be able to trade yours in for a female. i dont know if they will do that or not tho but you could try. but if you dont seperate the males then one will eventually die either from a fight or stress/not eating. good luck though.
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"it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
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