Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I am most likely getting a few baby South African Giant Plateds, though, I know very little about them right now. So I was hoping some of you could provide me some good links/books for reference on care. Or if you don't have a link, some examples of your setups and diets would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Phil

I have a pair of black lined plateds. I posted about them below. I assume the diet is similar to the giant plated. I feed mine the same basic salad that I feed the chucks, beardies and uros daily, and a few times a week, I top their salad with thawed frozen beans and veggies. Then a few times a week I give them bugs. Mine love supers and I trained them to stick their heads in a large jar to eat crix. I keep a Megaray over mine and they do bask. They are from semi desert regions of Africa, I think, but they do love water, and they love to dig. I would not use sand, though. Mine do well in organic top soil or organic potting soil. I wish that I could construct a really large enclosure with a small shallow pond for them to swim in and plants, but they would destroy the plants unless they were potted. Mine are a bit shy, but do warm up and are really personable and interactive. I will try to find some of the care sheets and articles that I read when these came in.

BTW, I treat them like beardies as far as temps go, because they come from a similar environment. They do not like it super hot, but will bask at 105, then spend most of the day on the cool side watching the birds, in hides, or buried. They do need UVB and supplements.

Here is one care sheet that seems pretty good, but these guys can actually live more like 20 years.
http://www.aquamania.co.uk/plated-lizards-care-sheet.asp

Here is Melissa Kaplan's care sheet on them
http://www.anapsid.org/plated.html

This is also a really detailed one. And it is true that they make a MESS of their food with the digging, so I am planning on cordoning off the substrate part and feeding them on a tiled section. Simply using a piece of tile on the substrate won't work. They will dig under it and tip everything over! They are compulsive, obsessive diggers!
http://www.thereptilefile.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sudan_Plated_Lizard

And another:
http://www.unc.edu/~dtkirkpa/stuff/plated.html

These should at least give you an idea.