Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am a newbie with collard lizards, in fact I wont have any until later in the week, However I have been breeding reptiles since the late 80s and have worked with a few differant W/C species and successfully kept and bred some of them in captivity. I am pretty sure the same rules would apply to acclimating any of the wild ones.The approach I took was to not disturb the newly captives other than feeding, watering and cleaning the cage. I rarley handled the wild ones as my thinking was to lessen the stress as much as possible, when in a cage where they can look out and see other activity wheather it be me, other lizards or anything I used old bed sheets to obscure their view enough to keep them calm.Even for my C.B. lizards I keep their view limited to within their cage, they seem to stay much calmer that way. I did this with Wild Caught frilled dragons that were both adults and within 9 months I started to get fertile eggs from them. I would imagine this approach would work with other species including the collards. I just thought that I would post this to share my own experiance with anybody that is dealing with wild caughts and is clueless. And when it came to a lizard that would not eat I would usually try flagyl on them verses force feeding which is one of the most stressfull things you can do to any reptile and I only do that as a last resort. Flagyl knocks down the amount of protazons in their gut and usually stimulates their appitite. Hydration is another big concern, I sometimes even used a humidifier in the reptile room to increase humidity levels and decrease the lizards dehydration rate. Putting multiple bowls of water in the cage will also help the newbie to find the water dish and also increase cage humidity. Just figured Id post this as Ive read a few posts by people that seem a little green in the lizard keeping buss.
Good luck with your lizards.
Bob

Thanks Bob. As a complete novice, all this info is helpful. What do you think about those backgrounds they sell for around the back of the vivarium? Do they help with "cage stress"? Snappy is calming down now, but occasionally plasters herself against the glass, clawing to get out.

Deb

To the eye of a keeper the background pic looks pretty, to the lizard I dont think it means anything, it is only a pic with colors, nothing they can utilize to climb on or hide in. On the other hand Im sure they wont hurt the lizard? The main 4 things all lizard species need and want is water,food, warm spot, and shelter which can be anything they can hide in. The last thing a W/C lizard in captivity wants is to be held, chased, or viewed by your cat or dog which if they were in the wild they would veiw as a potentual predator that would end their life.
Good luck, Bob