Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When getting the proper diet...a lot of ants...this is what they look like - wonderful. Look at those fat reserves. This girl is being kept by a subscriber of mine, Fernando, in Sonora Mexico. He, like I, practices letting our solare free range near Pogo colonies for natural foraging, and they get liberal amounts of Pogos daily.

Here is part of his recent post in his words:

"When outside, I leave her to wonder arround the front yard because it has an enclosed space where it is very difficult she can escape. The front yard is a desert like space where a colony of pogos has established. This kind of pogo is a less noumerous kind which is not as dark as the pogos I harvest with success every week or every 2 weeks depending on the yeld. When She is outside she has never eaten other insects... nor crickets, termites, worms or other kind of ants... she is very selective...

I stay close just to make shure she doesnt wonder off and also I make sure a cat or bird could trespass the yard limits. The first 10 minutes she basks imobile, the rest of the time she wonders about the yard and profits from the anthill. This kind of pogos seem more aware of their environment because as soon as they sense the predator they stop going out of the nest and rapidly she wonders off the entrance in borement. Then she profits from the ones comming back from the harvesting area and soon it is time to go back in."

I emphasize here his statements that his solare is very selective and does not eat anything else when outside. In corroboration with my experience with solare, they gain the best weight and growth when given all the Pogos they want.

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www.groups.yahoo.com/group/HornedLizards
www.youtube.com/user/PhrynosomaTexas
Wichita Falls Reptile Rescue
Harvester Ants

Very nice looking lady indeed. It has been my experience that the female sof the species are mor einclined to put on the fat deposits. For some reason even wild caught males I have had or seen most often are ehaltjhy but don't seem to have the fat deposits or bulk of the females... Maybe I have been dealing with skinny lizards Ha! Know I think MArk may have mad ethe same observation as well. By the way my male has went up a couple grams and while there are many people who feed their solare a mixture of insects Iam pretty sure the ants are the ticket. I do occassionaly give a wax worm or maybe a small cricket but 90 to 95 % of their offering is ants. My female is runt and is 6 years old going on 7 this winter and she has nice fat researves which I can send out a picture, she wieghs 41 grams but that is a fat and helathy 41 grams......
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www.phrynosoma.org

The females do tend to be larger and put on better fat reserves than males in most species. The differences I find are not as wide with solare as some other species. There tends to be even more disparity with size differential and fat stores in say cornutum or hernandezi between male and female. I do tend to notice that males in captivity are not as healthy looking, and I think a lot of that has to do with male stress hormone production, as well as the fact that females are the ones who need the most biomass for healthy propagation. In the wild, it probably has more to do with being on the go and roaming in the home range for mates and such. Not as much time spent eating, and more time roaming.

My adult male who passed away last year broke 50g though. I offer a similar diet to mine. Occasional wax worm and crickets. Even less occasional mealworms ( maybe once every 2 months, and in the summer when ants are a plenty, they get virtually nothing else ), but they get almost all the ants they will eat through the day. Currently my youngest is 2 years this fall, but she is 53.5g as of tonight. You may need to step up the ants. How many ball park do they get a day?

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www.groups.yahoo.com/group/HornedLizards
www.youtube.com/user/PhrynosomaTexas
Wichita Falls Reptile Rescue
Harvester Ants

I usually would put in somewhere around 300 or so maybe a bit more, Its not unusual for them to lay to healthy scats the next day.Because my female is small her weight is really excellent, the male on the other hand is a work in progress for sure......
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www.phrynosoma.org