My First Lizard- Tips Please!

[Cutlass]

I'm thinking of getting a Green Anole (everyone's been telling me leopard geckos are best for beginners but the Anole's okay too if I think I can handle it)

What's a fair price for the lizard itself? What am I looking for to identify a healthy animal? How much should I budget for the initial cost of everything, assuming I raise my own crickets? And then; how much should I budget for monthly costs?

Any tips?

 

[cheesy feet]

You need to research a bit more matey...
Anole's are generally cheap so don't pay too much for them.Bearded dragons are also a good beginner lizard, and said to be the, or one the the most, friendliest lizard you can get.
I've never researched anole's in deep as I have never thought them to be very interesting, however lets say we're talking about a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft viv new with ceramic heater and a few basic ornaments.That would cot around 300 pounds.
Every 3 weeks or so it costs me 35.00 to feed my chinese water dragon & leos.So probably around 12.00 around every 3 weeks (with a varied diet)....Hmm or do they eat veggies, i forget lol.Then every 3 months or so you have to renew calcium/vitamin sups.
Oh, yeh.And when looking for a healthy animal make sure it has no feces around its vent, check that it is alert, and not lethargic(eye movement, being spooked when a hand reaches in to grab it).Check over for mites, and ensure it has a nice fat tale and filled out body.Ask a MOS to feed it if you can.

 

[kribensis12]

Minnimum size for a anole is 2 for a 10 gallon( maybe diff for other, but i even had three in a 10g and they were very happy and bred!). They DO NOT drink out of water bowls. It isnt there nature. You need to mist the tank daily as they need the humidity, and drink the water droplets. It is almost better to buy crickets as they take for ever to raise. They do best with small sized crickets as they tend to choke on the bigger ones. I have found that anoles really dont like being handled. The only reason they will stay on your hand is if it is very warm( they are reptiles and dont make there own body heat), but it can be possible to "tame" them by handleing them daily. You will know when they arent happy by 2 things: they will be brown, and behind their eyes there will be a dark patch. They do not need a heating rock!!!!!! It will cook them. The best tihng is to either get a 60 watt UV bulb, or get a 60watt flouresent bulb and dust their crickets in calcium powder. They are oppurtunists and will eat around 4 crickets a day( hungry little lizards). They LOVE to climb, they are found in tree's in the wild( the major diff between their invader cousins the Brown Anole). To sex them here is the rule of thumb. Males usually have a crest over their eyes( dominant males), a full grown female usally has a cream colored stipe, and if it has a huge dewlap it is prob male. If the lizard displays most of those signs of a particualr sex, then chances are good it is a male or female. Hope i helped, if you have any questions, just ask!!!!!!!!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I almost forgot, Welcome To the Forum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[arvlyn]

I haven't had anoles for nearly 15 years but I do remember one thing...make sure the lid is TIGHT!

One of ours got out of the tank. We looked and looked but finally figured one of our three cats had gotten it.

6 months later, I found a skin laying in the middle of the kitchen floor one morning. Hmmm.... Still, no anole.

About a year after that, I was taking the plants out of the greenhouse window in my kitchen and something jumped on me...scared me half to death, it was the anole!!!

We fed them small crickets we bought at a pet store. It's entirely too smelly and takes entirely too long to raise your own. We always dusted the crickets with Repto...something...a vitamin/mineral powder. We had a water dish in the tank that they loved to swim/hang out in. Humidity is key, we misted the tank with water from a spray bottle twice a day. The more things we had in the tank for them to climb on, the happier they seemed to be. I loved how they would change colors to blend in with whatever they were on. Apparently, as I wrote above, they are GREAT at blending in and hiding!! They're good for children, if the children are taught how to treat them. My daughter loved holding ours. They'd sit on her shirt peacefully while she watched TV or did her homework.

 

[Cutlass]

Thanks for all the help! I guess I won't be rasing my own crickets; I got that idea from a third party site that promised it would be easy >.>

You guys are great! I definitely needed some advice from somebody with experience- after my first aquarium I decided not to trust labels too much

 

[kribensis12]

Your Welcome, adn just a note, Anoles cant swim very well, and if you leave a water dish out, the crickets will drown in it, so i would just spray, but what ever floats your boat.

 

[AQUAKING]

Thanks for all the help! I guess I won't be rasing my own crickets; I got that idea from a third party site that promised it would be easy >.>

You guys are great! I definitely needed some advice from somebody with experience- after my first aquarium I decided not to trust labels too much

Yeah crickets are quite cheap and its eaiser to buy them (£2 worth lasts a month for my leopard gecko)
As for Anoles never kept them but there are many reptile forums that could help a bit more than me

 

[kribensis12]

You need around a dozen if you want to just let them make it by, i usually get 12, so that they appreicaiate their meal when i get new crickets, and when i order a dozen, they usually give me around 20 anyway.

 

[Cutlass]

Your Welcome, adn just a note, Anoles cant swim very well, and if you leave a water dish out, the crickets will drown in it, so i would just spray, but what ever floats your boat.

Will the anole eat dead crickets?

This is a bit of a strange question, but what kind of poo does an Anole make? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere....

Oh! And is there anything I can do to feed them if while I'm gone for more than two days? I'm usually never gone for more than a week and I don't go on such trips very often. Is there anything like vacation food? Could I just throw in some extra crickets?

 

[cheesy feet]

Thanks for all the help! I guess I won't be rasing my own crickets; I got that idea from a third party site that promised it would be easy >.>

You guys are great! I definitely needed some advice from somebody with experience- after my first aquarium I decided not to trust labels too much

Yeah crickets are quite cheap and its eaiser to buy them (£2 worth lasts a month for my leopard gecko)
As for Anoles never kept them but there are many reptile forums that could help a bit more than me

Either you get crickets very, very cheap, or your starving your leo?!
I buy crickets in bulk bags, but it would be easier for you just to buy tubs

 

[kribensis12]

There poop is like a small piece of licorice with a small white ball on the end. That is such a strange question, so i am going to ask why? Also, i feed mine weekley, i just by around a dozen, and add more the next week. (E2) is $4 dollars in america, so i usually spend around 8 dollars a month on crickets. If it has been a week and there are still plenty of crickets left, then i sure you could feed every 2 weeks, but i have a house gecko, so they need food every week.

 

[Cutlass]

Great!

That is such a strange question, so i am going to ask why?

XD I mostly wanted to know with regards to cleaning the terrarium


Drowned crickets? Will they get eaten?

 

[kribensis12]

Nope, they will jsut sit there and smell up the tank. Anything else?

 

[grahamsokel]

For anoles you dont need a big tank but I must admit when I had mine i had them in a 3ft high 2ft long and 1ft deep well planted with live plants and vines and they loved it.
You will need a heat source and also a UV light for them.
I fed mine small crickets,hatchling locusts,the odd waxworm and various other small insects inc wood lice all dusted acordingly.
They wont eat any dead insects.They need to be sprayed for humidity and drinking purposes.
They are very fast so handling isnt advised.Most of the ones in the pet shops in the UK are wild caught.My local reptile shop sells them for £7.99 each

 

[kribensis12]

Make sure you dont feed them wax worms as a staple diet, as they will become hooked ont eh high fat diet and not want to eat anything else.