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Amount of light for anoles

  • Thread starter Ozzy
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Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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I just got two green anoles and I was wondering if anybody knows how many hours of light I should give them a day?
If anybody has any other tips for these lizards let me know.
Thanks.
 
12-14 hours a day in the spring and summer, and about 9 hours in the fall and winter. Be sure to use UVB lights.
 
Green anoles are small lizards ranging from 6-7inches in lenght, give or take an inch or two. Males are terriorial, so try not to have 2 or more males together. Males can be ID by looking for theier red dewlap that comes out from the throat area (its redish orange). Any amount of females can fair well together. Feed them a diet of crickets dusted with ReptileVitamins (vitamins not really important, but it helps). Occasional wild caught insects like moths, flies, spiders (they LOVE spiders), etc will add some boost to thier diet. If you have them under indoor lighting, have the heat lamp on for atleast 10 hours, with the UV bulb on the same time. If possible, place the cage outdoors for a couple of hours for natural sunlight which adds more UV to thier lives. Make sure there is a shaded area and that the cover is well ventilated (cage can heat up really fast outdoors and UV rays cant go through plastic, glass, etc). Temps around 75 during the day is best. Good luck-Zach
 
Thanks ceph and flytrapgurl,
The info both of you gave me helps alot. Like I said before I have two anoles, how many crickets should I give them. Like you said ceph they love spiders, I've been giving them any bug that I think they'll like. I gave them some meal worms too, They'll eat 'em but they don't seem to like 'em as much as the insects.
I'm from NC and we have them all over the place, In winter I guess they hibernate, cause I wouldn't see them in the winter. Do the ones I have now need a dormancy?
When I was living in NC they would get in my house all the time and they would live on my curtains. I always let them stay there as long as the wanted.
By the way these are not the same lizards, I bought the ones I have now in a pet store.
Again thanks
 
Anoles should be fed atleast 5 times a week, best if given 5 right sized crickets a day, but since it is kinda hard to keep getting it, vary the diet with WC insect, mealworms, etc. Try not to feed them waxworms alot, they kind to tend to get "addicted" and only want them, as what happened to a couple of my past breeders. In thw ild they do hibernate, but since you have them in captive conditions, and if the temps are kept fairly warm, you can enjoy them year round! Feel free to drop me a line if you need more help. Good luck-Zach
 
Thanks ceph,
You've helped me alot with these lizards.
I have a heat rock and a under the tank heater do I still need a heat lamp?
You said they will get addicted to wax works and not eat anything else, I can't imagine them passing up a spider or a lake fly, they love them so much.
Thanks again
 
OH MAN......NO HEAT ROCK, please........it can severy burn and kill your anoles. The temps that can be reached on the surface can go over 100F+ on a few, so please return it or use it as a petiolaris drosera heater lol. The undertank heater should be fine, as i started with that and those lizards that used it turned out great. Just try to expose them once in awhile to natural light, maybe place them on your hand and bring em outdoors with you sometimes. UV is impotrant, so keep that in mind. You are on your way to a great start with anoles. Keep on trucking!
 
I agree with the general instructions here, except you shouldn't skimp on the vitamins with these guys, weather you choose to gutload or dust the crickets is up to you, but I can't begin to discribe the number of green anoles I've seen with vitamin difficancey illnesses. Just because an animal is cheap, doesn't mean it is right to treat it like it's a disposible pet. The other thing that sort of surprised me is that no one mentioned that they need high humidity and that some won't drink from a dish but rather lick dew drops off of of leaves. I am not sure where you little buddies came from, so I don't know what sort of habbits they will have. Also, these animals are not very robust and a lot of stimulation sort of freaks them out to death so try to keep them in a low traffic quite room. The last bit I'll toss in is that a great way to reduce their stress is to let them have a few potted plants, this way they have plenty of places to hide and stay out of each others way (if they don't get along). The only caution it keeping the plants clean so they don't grow bacteria.

-Darcie
 
Yup, i forgot about the spraying of water. I was able to get my past anole coloney to drink from bowls, but i did spray the terria atleast once a day. Good luck-Zach
 
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