Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The plated lizard my daughter and I bought last month at a herp show is finally eating more consistently. Too be honest, I thought it may not make it based on it being wild caught and probably poorly managed until it arrived at the show. However, it rallied and took a couple bites of banana, then I discovered it liked chicken to some degree, and last night it ate a whole hopper sized mouse. I am stoked it is finally taking some decent meals. Are these lizards notorious for long acclimation periods?? Also, from the info I read it appears they would do better in a darker cage with underbelly heating then being heated with a bulb type of device. Any thoughts on this idea?? I think the light may be stressing it out somewhat.

Congradulations on getting your plated lizard to eat. Just make sure you don't feed it rodents too much, cause plateds can can fat quickly. I hear that it is better for basking lizards to be well lit. I've noticed that many lizards (not just plated lizards) eat alot more when well lit. As long as your plated lizard has several dark places to hide, he should be ok.
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T-spoon
my menagerie:
1.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Amazon Tree Boa
1.0 Corn Snake
1.0 Dumeril's Boa
1.2 Bearded Dragons
2.1 Crested Geckos
2.1 Sudan Pated Lizards
0.0.5 Eastern Painted Turtles
1.2.5 Eastern Box Turtles
1.1 Eastern Red-spotted Newts
1.0 Northern Mockingbird
0.3 Chickens
2.0 Cats
1.1 Ferrets
0.0.40 some kind of goldfish

Glad to hear it is finally eating.

Tank heating and lighting should be as follows

5.0 full spectrum UVB, Basking spotlight, and under tank heating (UTH)covering 1 3rd of the tank.

Make sure ther is 2 hides, 1 at the warm end and one at the cool end that are dark.