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Well it's been a couple years since I was last active on these boards. I hope everyone's horned lizards are all doing well! About two years ago I had some baby p. hernandesi lizards born in captivity. I gave a couple of them to Cable and in turn he was kind enough to give me a couple baby p. solare he had. Sadly one of them died soon after, but admittedly that one seemed a bit sick from the start. The second one though, named Eris, has been doing great and I figured I would give a little update.

Eris the p. solare two years ago after I got the little guy home:

Close up of head:

Current picture of Eris doing well:

Eris' Terrarium as of Nov '07:

so far i think it's a male, though i'll see if i can find a picture of his underside and you folks can let me know what you think.

not sure about the volume in gallons, but the terrarium measures: 48" x 12" x 18"

the lizard in the tank is the same one that was in my hand. it's a 2 year old p. solare, the only lizard i'm keeping at the moment. my girlfriend is setting up a tropical vivarium for a tokay gecko soon, which i'm rather excited about. but as far as the horned lizard goes, here is a picture if you can take a better guess at the sex:

WOw what a very nice looking and healthy lizard. He should be going down for the winter soon? YOu've done a very fine job!!
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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

Last year she didn't crash for the winter until December and she stayed down until mid February. At the moment I'm trying to feed her as much as I can to fatten her up with the assumption that she'll take the same schedule this year.

The aquarium is 4 feet long and the fluorescent UVB tube is kept on the 'cool' side of the terrarium. For a basking light I have a mercury vapor spot. As far as food goes, I've been feeding her around 90% harvester ants, 9% crickets, 1% house flys and such. I'll dust the food with vitamin/calcium supliment every now and then, not sure of the specific species of harvester ant, I'm currently getting them from antsalive.com.

hehe, I keep reading about people being afraid of tokay geckos and their bite. I had one when I was a teenager and he bit me a couple times, but after a while he'd take crickets from my hand and act as calm as could be. Though I'm excited about a tropical tank either way.

A picture I took today:

Now that is one post that is a real pleasure to see. Nicely done. Very nice looking female solare you have there.
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Hello sir! It's good to hear from you, and I'm really glad you liked the pictures. It's been a lot of fun taking care of the solare you gave me, thanks for the opportunity!

So how's your outdoor pen of lizards doing? Did the other baby hernandesi happen to make it? All of mine were doing fine but then they all died suddenly within a weeks time. Very weird, and I can't figure out what happened, but that one solare you gave me is obviously doing good, though is currently the only horned lizard I keep. But it's good I'm not keeping as many horned lizards... the ants for so many mouths to feed gets a bit costly. I really need to follow your example and find some wild ant colonies outside of town and harvest my own.

But in other lizard news... I just finished a tropical terrarium for a baby tokay gecko that I'll have within the next few days. All live plants, waterfall, fog, and a small CPU fan wired for ventilation. I love horny toads... but it's been a whole different kind of fun setting up a tropical vivarium.

Hey,
I just found this reply. I ended up losing the hernandesi too. I just don't seem to have any luck with them. They do well for a few months, and then downhill quick.
That solare really looks nice, and has good color. You should breed her if you can this spring.
I've closed down my outdoor cage since late summer. I had some additional loses out there, and needed to get them indoors so I could monitor more closely. It has made me totally rethink the outdoor setup. I plan to build new outdoor cages this year, off the ground. A few of us have been discussing this for the last few months.
Anyways, nice setup you have there, and the new setup for your gecko, wow!
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