Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi I'm new to the forum and I'm from houston, tx. I'm not a complete newbie at raising reptiles so please know that. For the record, I have 2 adult blue spiny lizards...one is a male and the other is a female.

My question is that I have a 40 gallon tank with bark substrate. An 75 watt incandescent bulb and a 75 watt infrared bulb for heat a 5.0 reptisun UVA/UVB bulb. I have a few nice basking spots, a large waterbowl. Moss scatterred throughout the terrarium. The basking spot made of a thick branch that they sometimes use. The basking spot is about 90 degrees with the ambient temperature of the tank averaging at about 80 degrees with a humidity of 40-50%. I didn't cover the sides with wallpaper yet by the way and there isn't really a hiding space for the lizards to run to except the substrate (when they burrow themselves).

Anyway my lizards are active, but they aren't eating at all. I threw 6 gutloaded crickets into the tank but the lizards don't seem to be interested at all. I got them both checked at the vet for parasites and they had the mites which the vet took care of and he ran a check of their feces for intestinal worms which came up negative. Any idea as to why my lizards aren't eating? Please any help would be appreciated and if you'd rather email me my email is mikebajsel@yahoo.com . Hopefully someone here can help me get my lizards appetite jumpstarted. Thanks in advance for reading/replying. -Mike

if you have mulitiple males in one enclosure the less dominant ones will stop eating.

Blues are not always easy to keep in captivity. First thing-- they are large for spineys. And skittish as hell. I would suggest as large a tank as possible ( 75 gal min) and provide plenty of rocky crevices as possible to give them shelter. Make sure the rocks are secure to avoid smushed critters. Blues naturally eat flying bugs-- grasshoppers and such. I have seen them knock down bumblebees in flight when the bees were over flowers. The Blues will leap off a rock & snatch em right out of the air! Thats cool to see! I have Blues running around in my rock garden in the yard.

can you please help me?

how do you give blue spiny lizards water