Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have four young of the year jeweled lacertas. They started in a ten gallon tank with paper towel substrate, a rock pile and water dish. They were fed crickets.

I have sepparated the two smaller ones into another 10 gallon tank. (now there are two animals in each 10 gallon tank) I have switched them to a diets of silk worms since I had lots of left over silk worm chow. Eack tank has a UV basking spot and a thermogradient.

Problem:
One animal is by far the bigest. The second place animal has grown quite a bit. The smaller two don't seem to be getting much larger.

Thank you,

Brian

Seems with Lacertids they form a pecking order very early on in groups, and the smaller ones can often be intimidated from food (especially when they can't see you) or just for some reason don't seem to grow as fast. Maybe try separating the two smaller ones again into separate cages, and possibly try more of a varied diet? I've found that some are quite individual in they're tastes and therefore may not grow quickly as others on a particular diet (they just don't eat as much of it)

Sorry I culdn't be more of a help (being a Brit and all) but hope the smaller fellas start growing soon.

Rob

Hi,

jewelled lacertas are among the least agressive Lacertas and hence in many cases is tis possible to raise them together in groups. The bigger the group, the better.
If there are only 3-5 individuals left over, ist not unusal that some dominate the rest. In this species this seldomly ends in severe fight, but the supressed specimens eat less and their groth becomes significantly retarded.
In such cases only strict seperation helps.
I do have 4 leftover juveniles form the last clutch (and 12 more to incubate) and I ended up with each baby in a seperate tank.
You can easily run into space problems with this, since some specimens can reach 20" in their first year.
Also females can produce fertile eggs wehen they are just 9 months old.
Upon spares feeding (recommended) growth takes longer but animals reach same sizes.

Hope that helps

Ingo

ive been looking into getting a jeweled lacerta, but cant find too much info on em. since you own one i was wondering how social and tame they are? thanks, justin

Mine are just hatchlings so they are afraid of everything! They are taming a bit though. They seem to set up a bit of a hierachy and the smallest ones get the short end of the stick.
BUT I am very new to this species.

Brian

They stay shy if they live in a calm room, but can become quite tame if they live in a frequented one. Adults will have learned that humans mean the presence of food and since they are voracious feeders, they will always come out to see if you would give them some nice insects