| Longtial lizards |
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| Longtail lizards Introduction Long tail lizards enjoy climbing every where. They do not usually like to be picked up, but they will climb up you finger when they feel like being held. They are great climbers and will climb all over if they get a chance. They will also jump great distances. Purchasing Longtail lizards can be found at most pet store. They are relatively small, growing around 6 inches in body length, but thier tails grow to be much longer. They are relatively cheap, cost around 7 dollars each. When picking out a lizard, it should be very alert, when the cage is opened, it should run and hide. Lizards from the store generally dont like to be held. Look for a healthy looking lizard, it should not look dehidrated, or be missing any parts of its body. Its cage should clean and not over crowded. Housing Housing Longtails is fairly straight forward. A standard 10+ gallon aquarium with a tight fitting lid. A good rule for housing longtails is for every three animals there should be at least 10 gallons. You will often see small lizards housed in small plastic containers with colorful lids. These are not suitable for housing any number of anoles and should not be used under any circumstances. Bedding I use reptile bark for bedding, because they like to hide in it. Sand is not a good thing to use because it can get cought in their digestive tracks and could cause death. Calci-sand and walnut shavings are a very bad idea, even though they claim to be digestible they are not and could cause impaction, leading to death. Carpet is a very easy thing to use. It is cheap, easy to clean, and is not hazardous to anoles. Moss is also another safe and easy bedding to use. Baby Longtails should be housed on paper towels, and should aslo remain seperate from the adults until they are similar in size to the adults. Heating and lighting Longtails, like most lizards, lack the ability to produce heat therefore you will need to supply heat for them. The best way to do this is to use a heat lamp above the enclosure. Make sure the lamp is not too hot or you will bake you them. The temperature should be around 80-90 F during the day and 65-75 at night. Heat Rocks are often available for use with reptiles but are not suitable for any reptile because they are often too hot and the animals will burn their delicate belly skin, most lizards can only detect an over all temperature and not a regional temperature. It is strongly recommended by some to supply UV lighting specially made for reptiles. This will, along with a good vitamin supplement, help them produce much needed calcium. Humidity is also a factor for keeping healthy Longtails in captivity. A Longtail enclosure should have an average humidity level of 50% or more. The best way to supply the enclosure with a good supply of humidity is to install an automatic mister that sprays the enclosure with a fine mist whenever it needs it. Unfortunately, because of the cost involved, this method is not always realistic for the average reptile keeper. A more realistic way of supplying humidity to your Lizards enclosure is to mist it with a hand sprayer atleast twice a day. Setup Plants serve many purposes in an enclosure. They can help keep the humidity up, help the animals hide from other animals and people, and make the enclosure a lot more appealing to the human eye. Also make sure that there is good ventilation, this will help promote the health of the lizard. The best way to supply your Longtails enclosure with fresh air is to construct or purchase a tight fitting screen for the top of the enclosure. Feeding The best food choice for longtails are gut-loaded crickets, available at your local pet store or through mail order. To gut-load your crickets just place some cricket feed or fruit in the container with them. The crickets will eat the food and therefore becoming more nutritious to your lizard. They should be feed crickets every day, as many as they will eat in a 15 minutes, all extra crickets should be removed from the cage, because they will try to eat your lizard and keep them awake at night, disturbing there sleep cycle causing loads of stress to your lizard and possibly even death. The crickets should be no bigger then the size of their head. The crickets should be dusted with a high quality vitamin and mineral supplement made specially for reptiles. Watering A water dish should be in the cage at all times, it should be cleaned daily. The enclosure should also be sprayed twice each day to ensure that they are getting enough water. You should keep spraying the lizard for as long as they keep licking up the water. Handling Longtails generally do not tend to like being handled, however with a lot of work and patients they will tend to tolerate being handled. One way to help get them used to being handled is to hold them for a couple of minutes every day, if you do not hold them everyday they will tend to not like being held. When you first pick them up you should hold them in side of the cage so to prevent escape. Shedding When longtails shed, they will turn grey. Their behavior will change, they may gecome more agresive, and loose thier appitite the day before they shed. Shedding should not take more then 15-20 minutes. If they do not finish shedding within 30 minutes, you need to peel the skin off yourself. To peel the skin you need to soak the lizard in warm water and the hold him in your had so he cant run, then take a pair of tweezers and lightly peel the skin off. They should shed 6-10 times a year, but you might not notice they are shedding or have shed because they eat thier old skin. Breeding If you provide the right conditions it should happen without even trying. First off you need to simulate a winter you have to shorten the length of the day, and lower the temperature by a couple of degrees. The length of day in winter should be about 8-10 hours of sunlight a day, and the temperature should be 70-80F during the day and no less than 60 during the night. In the spring raise the temperature to 80-90F and lengthen the day to about 12 hours of sunlight a day. They will bury them 1/2 inch eggs in the ground. After the eggs have been laid, you need to remove the eggs from the enclosure to prevent the adults from eating the small hatchlings when they emerge from their shells, and to prevent them from getting smashed or damaged. An easy and inexpensive way of incubating eggs is to shallowly bury them in damp but not soaked vermiculite (potting soil) in side a small deli cup. The eggs should be buried just beneath the surface. The container should be covered and a few holes punched in the lid for ventilation. Then the container can be placed back in the enclosure or in a place where the temperature will stay at a constant temperature of 84-86F. Under these conditions the eggs should hatch in 30-60 days. Back |
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