Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got out of th hospital, and I'm ok, not that any of you knew that. The thing is, while the lizards were farmed out, after I got home I cleaned their large glass tank, and put five gallons of soil in there. I just 20 minutes ago put them back in there, and they are having great fun digging and exploring their underground hideout.

These are Jeweled Lacertas, and I've fed them zoophs in the past, along with crickets. They can eat a 3/4 inch cricket. But I can't feed zoophs anmore because they'll go to the botton of the soil and hide out until the morph. I don't know why, but none of my reptiles wants to even try the beetle form of zooph.

So for now on it's crickets, probably dusted. But I'm afraid to leave crickets with them overnight, in case they may want to eat toes. Do I need to worry about that? If so, I doubt I'll ever get every last one, even with that mouth-suction tool, because they are the same color as the soil. What should I do? Feed them in a separate container? They *hate* to be picked up, so I'm not convinced they will eat enough if I put them into a container with crickets? I could use a small fish tank if that's what I have to do. I may be able to start a colony of that certain type of roach, whose juvvies I could put in a bowl in the cage. I'm lucky to live close to someone who has several dozen adults, so I could get a few and start a colony. But that's long-term. Hmmm....I suppose I could use a bowl for the zoophs?

One is trying to dig a tunnel. Should I have 6 inches of dirt in there?

I'm very open to any suggestions and/or rebuttals.

Roger

Do not worry about the crickets. No harm to a healthy T.lepidus.
Also you may offer Zophobas in a bowl.
Moreover, T.lepidus are the only lizards in my collecteion which do eat Zophobas beetles. And all jewelled lizards I have eat them.

Best regards

Ingo

BTW, your jewelled lacertas schould now ne in the 20" range and readily eat full grown crickets and bigger prey.
If they are significantly smaller, sth has gone wrong.
Do you have pics?

They are a full 14" long. They were in the egg last spring. They always have plenty to eat, and they hunt and eat to satiety now, because they now are excellent cricket hunters. At first they were incredibly clumsy hunters. I suspect they ate to little when they were tiny. But there was no way I was going to syringe food to such tiny lizards. I simply watched until they ate at least one cricket each, just to be safe. I used to snip off the cricket's hind legs and toss them in the tank. I assumed they caught a few more each day, but their hunting skills did not match the interest they plainly showed in the food. That problem is resolved now. When they don't feel like hunting, they eat zoophs, which I consider to be high in chitin, and barely acceptable as food.

Should I keep them at 75 at night? It seems resonable if I want to reproduce their natural climate. I keep the warm side of their cage in the 90's during the day, and it's in the low 80's a9I use the thermostat to control the low-temp side of the cage, just because if I control the warm end, there is no guarentee that the cool end will be the right temp. The warm end reads 110 under the CHE with a non-contact themometer, and they spend just a little time directly under the heater. They usually hang out in the intermediate temp zones. Last night they could have chosen to dig in near the CHE where it is warmer, but they burrowed for the night at the 75F end. I use Spyder Robotic's thermostats, so I know the temperature readings are always accurate.

They are CB. I have no idea of how to collect a fresh fecal sample other than the way I describe below. Once, the male defecated on my vet's arm. It was a miraculous gift, which my vet scoped right away, and they both got treated with panacur. The vet reported seeing ova. Do you think they need more parasite control? My vet won't treat for anything she does not see in person. My male still defecates on me when I pick him up, which I rarely do. I actually like that, because it seems to be the only way to collect a fecal sample.

Thank you for doing a judicious review of my description, I'm open for comments.

Roger

Dear Roger,

do not keep them too warm at night. Roome tmep fully suffices. Also time for hibernation is close. Hibernation can be skipped for this species but if you consider breeding, you should hibernate them and moreover regular hibernation is beneficial for leongevity. I hibernate min in a refrigeratir at 5 ° C for 4 (babies and juvies) to 8 weeks (adults).
Do not worry too much about feeding Zophobas . They are muchg better than their reputation and if gut loaded proeperly, they are quite a good food source. Ask Bert langerwerf...
I do feed like 10 kg of zophobas per year to my lizards since these insects are available on the market and I only have good experiences.
Jewelled lizards normally do not suffer from severe parasite infectiosn. A Panacure treatment suffices in most cases.
Do you have pics of your animals? Maybe they are so small because both are females?

Best regards

Ingo