Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two pictures of a little critter who came to our Niagara Falls plant via a chemical transport shipment out of Bayport, Texas.

This guy came in on Monday, and spent the morning in a plastic baggie.

He then moved into his present home, but has yet to eat that we know of.

Until yesterday, I didn't even know if he was alive, until my boss moved the leafy vine, and he had been in the back corner.

The pictures are not great, one yesterday of his back, (he's brown) and one this morning, (mostly just his head but he's green again) he is sleeping on a leaf.

If anyone can identify him that would be great. And if anyone has ideas about what to try getting him to eat. We got crickets the first day, but he didn't seem thrilled with those so yesterday, I got him some meal worms but again doesn't look like he ate last night.

Help please!

That's an Anolis of some kind. I'm guessing it's a green anole (Anolis carolinensis) or maybe the brown anole (Anolis sagrei).

Are you keeping it warm and well lit? It should have a basking spot of around 90F and some additional bright lighting. I use incandescent lights in a clamp-on dome light for heat and a small fluorescent fixture for additional lighting. Also some humidity. Spray the enclosure a couple times a day. It will like to lick up the drops of water. It looks like it has plenty of artificial plants to crawl on and hide under. Keep the lights and heat on about 12 hours a day. Don't let the temperature drop below around 65F at night. Keep it away from cold, drafty places and heat vents. Also if it's in a glass enclosure don't place the enclosure in the sun. Could heat up excessively and kill the animal.

If it's warm it might eat. But it may also be slowing down because it's autumn. From the photos it looks healthy.

Standard pet shop or bait shop crickets may be too large. Try to get crickets that are smaller than his head. Sub-adult crickets, maybe 1/2 " variety.

He might eat mealworms, although meal worms are kind of sluggish and may not catch his attention right away.

I'd try both and see what works. Once he starts eating you'll need to add some calcium with D3 powder. I use the product from RepCal.

Thank you for your help.

I added took some more (still not great ) pics. Please note that he's probably a 'lot' smaller than he looks in these.

He is usually green, but changes to brown seems when he's not happy.

Plus I just found out (luckily) that the outlet in my office that his heaters and lights are connected to, shut off at night. So if he/she's an anole, and has no heat every night, then its probably spending all day trying to get warm again (I feel horrid), but have an extension and found an outlet that the power in my office doesn't get shut off at night. So hopefully he will start feeling better soon.

Looks to be a female from the white broken stripes along its back.

You need a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen top, some substrate such as ESU Lizard Litter Jungle Mix (holds humidity well), a water bowl, some silk or live plants, some pesticide-free branches for the little one to climb on. They are highly arboreal and need stuff to climb on. You will also need a good UVB fluorescent bulb and a fixture for it. A good UVB bulb is the Repti-Sun 5.0, which is very cheap on www.lllreptile.com. You will also need a 60-75W incandescent basking bulb, which can be a common household bulb, in one of those silver dome fixtures. Put the lights on a timer, with a 12 hour cycle. The night time temp should be about 65-70 degrees F, and the ideal daytime temperature is 85 degrees F.

You will want to gut load the approximately 4 small crickets you will offer the anole on a 3-times-a-week basis, and dust them with a good calcium powder for reptiles every third feeding.

Anoles like to drink their water from droplets on leaves and on the glass, although they will lap from a bowl, too.

There are numerous websites with more detailed care, but this should get you started.

Congrats on finding what will prove to be an interesting and cute pet.

Is it eating yet? If its too cool it may not eat...lizards need proper temperatures in order to digest their food.