Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an Alligator lizzard that is digging up the bottom of the tank, as if it's looking for something, it's well fed as lots of water and a wet area, I'm not sure whit it's looking for, any ideas???

Sounds like your AL is a little stressed to me, but many things may cause this. Make sure you have plenty of hiding, the proper heating, etc.. I've personally felt that Alligator Lizards do better with other substrates besides sand. Lizard Carpet works great, so you could always try changing to that. If you are sure everything is set up right, and your lizard still tries to escape, then try giving the lizard a bigger cage and see if that helps (if you have any). I’ve run into this problem in the past with wild caught Alligator Lizards. After I had kept them for a while, they seemed to dig in the corners as if they were trying to find a way out of the cage. I ended up letting wild lizard back go after a while due to this problem. Make sure you are also feeding your AL plenty of food. Sometimes their stress seems to be relieved temporarily after a feeding session.

I currently have 2 baby Alligator lizards that I incubated and hatched, and so far, they haven't tried escaping or shown signs of stress (they don't know any better).

Good Luck

Thanks, this is a wild lizard from the back yard, I have it in a long 20gl tank, it has 3/4 inch of sand 1 inch potting soil 11/2 inch of reptile bark, and a quarter of the tank has about two inches of moss, I mist the moss evey morning fill the small water bowl,It has a nice size log that it hunts for stray crickets and sleeps under I also feed it millworms, I tried the calcium/vitamin d3 powder, the lizard will lick the crickets but not eat them till the powder comes off, for lighting I have a zoo med 100w powersun UV-A/B that comes on with a timmer at 8am then a basking light that comes on at 11am and goes off at 3pm the powersun goes off at 7pm, Anything I'm missing?

You may want to check the temps, Powersuns put off a lot of heat. The cool side should be in the 70s and the basking site should be no hotter than 100 or the mid to high 90s. If this is a recent capture, look closely for mites. The irritation from mites can make als very uncomfortable which can lead to digging and rubbing on furnishings. Getting your al to accept a calcium supplement is essential to its long term health; you may want to experiment with different brands, just make sure they do not contain phospherus.

-Alice

Thanks Alice, I have DHL'S and an Iguana, they have no problem with the calcium but this guy just will not eat a white cricket, is there any brand you prefer?

I use Rep-cal and herptivite for my als. Maybe you could try some tough love. I'm not sure what kind of feeding regime your guy is on, but you could try letting him skip a couple of meals and then offer some dusted insects and remove them if he doesn't eat them, then re-offer them, redusted at a later date. You could also try catching / buying him some special treats and offering them dusted. My big als really enjoy large grasshoppers and potatoe bugs (Jeruselem crickets). Super worms are also good treats. If your guy is smaller, you can try waxworms and moths.

It's never a good idea to have extra feeders running around for extended periods, especially with wild caught lizards. Crickets in particular like to eat poo and this can result in very high parasite levels for the lizard. All the feeders should be consumed within half an hour or so after which, those remaining should be removed. After awhile you'll get a feel for how much your guy can tuck away. If removing excess feeders, don't put them back in the communal food supply since they may have picked stuff up while in the al's cage, set aside a separate container just for his left overs. I also like to do a quick poo pick up before feeding time to minimize the chances of the crickets consuming it.

-Alice

Thanks, I gave him four days with no food, powdered some crickets and he was eating anything that moved. Now he is eating them every two days at will