Although I've been keeping (and, on several occasions, breeding) this magnificent species for years, informations on captive care I managed to gather during that period are quite scarce. I haven't been able to find any books on terrarium keeping of this species, so I rely mostly on experience I have with some other Lacertids in my collection, aswell as several scientific papers on natural history, feeding habits in the wild, climate conditions on Gran Canaria island, etc. Also, there seems to be very little sound information on keeping and breeding on the internet.

Since lizards in my collection thrive and even breed, I guess keeping conditions are at least "optimal", but I like to learn as much about animals in my care as possible. Therefore, I'd like to share infos with other keepers, and possibly improve keeping conditions.

I keep my animals in spacious terrariums (200x80x90cm, 150x60x60cm, and 100x50x50cm for youngsters) decorated in mediteranean stile (sandy loam and gravel substrate, plenty of rocks and branches, some shrubs) illuminated by HQI lamps (Ingo hooked me on those ), and heat gradient is created from 45C on the "hot spot" to 25C on the cool end where artificial caves and burrows always containing certain degree of moisture are situated. Photoperiod ranges from 14/8 in the peek of the summer to 10/14 in the middle of the winter. During the winter all heating elements are switched off and animals are kept on lower temperatures (20-23C during the day and 15-18C during the night)for two months.

As for food, I try to stick with "natural" as much as possible: animal part of diet consists mostly of insects (predominantly B. dubia roaches, G. assimilis crickets and Zophobas worms, suplemented with some wild caught insects, arachnids and snails during the season), while plant material is provided in form of various ripe fruits (bananas, grape, various berries, peach, apple, pears, etc), flowers (especialy dandelion), and tender leaves (dandelion, clover, plantain). All foods are suplemented with high-quality vitamin/mineral powder periodically.

Recently I got some info from a fellow Czech hobbyst that he feeds his animals with yogurt (regular and fruit yogurt), boiled rice and noodles, and fish (small minnows), along with usual insects/fruit fare.

I'd really like to hear from any of you who have any experience with this unique lizards (John C, Ingo) in order to improve keeping conditions as much as possible.



Thank you all in advance!



Regards

Nino

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