Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK... My brother in law works for a company that imports large crates from arizona. he states when they get the crates there are lizards in them. He brought 2 of the lizards home and placed them in an aquarium with a heat lamp and some sand and a handful of crickets.(then basically forgot about them) Well as usual, I didn't want them to die, so like every stray taken in, i take over the care. I have done some research on the forum and the net and have determined the spinys are either mountain spiny from arizona area(which would make sense) But.. I live in Texas and I found there are Blue spinys from close to this area.
Is there a difference?

Also..It turns out that the one that is the most skitish has given live birth to 14 babies while the large lazy one, turned out to be the male, when I sexed it.
I have been feeding a steady diet of gut loaded crickets and live meal worms, dusted with d3 supplement, bought proper uv lighting, have a temperature of about 90 on one side of the aquarium and about 80 on the other side. i have a basking light and i mist a few plastic leaves in the cage every morning to provide a kind of dew for them to drink.

Is there anything else I need to do?

Last thing... finally, The male hardly moves even when you pick him up. Is he possibly in a hibernating mode he seems healthy other than, hardly moving. I also have 3 babies that are not moving a whole lot and don't chase after cricket and eat them like the others.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for taking the time to read my long post.

Hello,
First off You have Yarrow spiny aka mtn spinys. They love shipping crate for the spiders that acumulate in those areas, especially if the crates are left outside for any amount of time. Second congradulations on the litter of spinys, but I would sugest you move them to anouther terarium or you may find out that you no longer have as many as you thought. A fellow herper brought some back, they had babies then before he knew it there were no more babies left the adults ate them all. Third and most importantly your cage is to hot, where they come from is the mountains of arizona. Average temp is in the 70's to low eighties. What I did for my breeder cage of yarrows is I added forest floor material for the base, a couple of old branches you would find on the forest floor or grape vine works well, some granite slabs stacked for hiding. They enjoy being misted with water, do this at least twice a week. For the light fixture I use a aquarium light fixture with a grow light for a reef tank. The light it provides is what they need (natural full spectrum).And the cool warmth it provides is all they need, especially when kept in a climate controled house. If they are kept in a cold room, then just add aluminum foil to the top of the screen that is not covered by the light. The non responsive yarrow might be fried, if he doesnt respond after you change the set up, then you know what up. I breed the yarrows and am looking for more to finish out that project. If you decide to part with any let me know. If you would like email me and I will send you some detailed info on them as well as the blue spinys with pics to go by.

Hope this helps,
Gary C.
mtnsnakeman@excite.com

Houston we have a problem....Ok since you advised my cage was too hot I turned off the spot lamp to check and see what the temperature is in the cage. I have 2 thermometers one on each side of the cage. When the lamp was off, the cage varied between 70 in the early morning hours to high 78 during the daytime.
After a day of this new temperature range, I came home from work and discovered that 4 of my baby spinys have died. Is this a coincidence or what? The babys were a little over 1 month old.

I really dont want to lose anymore, but not sure what else to do.

They may have passed do to the hot temps from before. 70 degree temps would not have killed them. My guess is it was the babies that were acting strange before finally passed away, keep an eye on the male if he was fried from being to hot he will be the next to go. If they were fried from hot temps there was nothing you could of done for them anyway.For mtn spinys, if the cage is big enough a hot spot at eighty degrees is as high as you should go. 75 degrees in the cage to 78 is perfect range for them. They will be out breeding at a basking spot of 70 degrees. As hot as you had them they would have all withered away eventually.

sorry for your lost,
mtnsnakeman@excite.com

I got the second enclosure to seperate the babies, is there a time when the big ones wont eat the little one? They are over a month old and havent eaten any yet? I wasnt sure if it was something that happened when young or older.

They have had a steady diet of crickets and I recently got some meal worms, but they dont seem to pay any attention to the meal worms. Any ideas to supplement the diet, maybe some variety? Is there a proper amount to feed them. They seem to be eating about 12-15 a day, TOTAL.

The male lizard is still lethargic. Not sure what his deal is. He appears healthy otherwise. I havent seen him eat, but I have seen him defecate quite a bit. He is still a good size and does not seem malnurished at all.

Any help is always greatly appreciated.

The adults were probably to stressed out to atemped eating the juveniles. Once the adults are set up properly, if left in with the juveniles then they might eat them. The herper that brought back a group of about 10 to 12 adults of different sizes, had found out that after the spinys were set up, within a month they started finding babies in the cage. He thought nothing of it and the next time they went into the cage to sell some babies he discovered there was no more, they had been eaten by the adults. Once the babies are about half the size of the adults there should be no more worries with canibalism.

Lizards are fine just eating crickets, if that is all they are willing to eat. As long as there is proper full spectrum lighting and a calcium supliment dusted on the crickets. Or you may want to try the reptical multivitamin supliment, I have used it , but I have not seen any differece from when I didnt.

Just my experience, but I will not feed mealworms to most lizards, because alot of lizards cannot crush them completly then you have the chance of a ingested mealworm eating its way out of the lizards sides. It has happened to me a couple of times. If you are looking for something different to feed the lizards, you can try silkworms, butter worms, or cockroaches. The silkworms and butter worms are really good for putting on the weight on any lizard. They are a little on the expensive side though. I am not sure on the nutritional value of the roaches, I dont feed them because they are hard to find and usually if you feed roaches consistantly you have to breed your own. I hope all this information helps you with your yarrow (mtn) spiny's.
mtnsnakeman@excite.com