| Anoles |
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| Green/Brown Anoles Introduction Green anoles, for many years have been one of the most popularly kept reptiles and is a good first reptile for beginners. They are small, growing to be about 8 inches, they are inexpensive, colorful, and easy to care for. Because of there ability to change color from a dark brown to a bright emerald green they are often called the American Chameleon, even though they have no relation to chameleons. They are found all over the southern U.S. from N. Carolina to key West and west to south east Oklahoma and central Texas. They can live up to 8 years if cared for properly, but the average is 4 years. Males can easily be distinguished from females by there large heads and larger dewlaps (the colorful flap of skin on their throat). Purchasing Anoles can be found at almost every pet store. They are very popular because of thier small size (8 inches) and they are relatively cheap, cost around 5 dollars each. When picking out a lizard, it should be very alert, when the cage is popened, it should run and hide. Anoles 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 anoles is fairly straight forward. A standard 10+ gallon aquarium with a tight fitting lid. A good rule for housing anoles is for every three animals there should be at least 10 gallons. You will often see anoles 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. There should be a lot of hiding spots and basking places. Never house two males together in anything less than a 50 gallon tank, AND there should be three females for each male. 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. Baby anoles 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 Anoles, 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 anoles or any other 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 anoles in captivity. An anole 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 anoles enclosure is to mist it with a hand sprayer atleast twice a day. Setup Plants serve many purposes in an anole 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 anole 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 anoles 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 anole. 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. Handling Anoles 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 anoles 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. Sexing All anoles have a dewelp. Male anoles have a large dewelp, which is the skin under neath the lizards neck. Juvy anoles also have dewelps, they are smaller and not as noticable. Female anoles also have small dewelp that is the same size of as a juvinile male. Breeding If you provide the right conditions it should happen without even trying. First to get the anoles to think its 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 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. Female anoles usually lay clutches of 2-3 eggs every 2 weeks. 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 anole 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 30-40 days. Behavior Anoles generally do not like to be handled. They will however become used to it after a while of hadling. They will get a long with others of the same species and size, but if you have two males in the same tank you must have at least a 55 gallon tank and 3 females for each male. If you have more then one anole, you may see head bobbing, this is used to determine dominancy. One anole will start to bob its head slowly, then the dominate one will bob its head faster, others might join in. If it is a female the male will jump after it and they wil play "chase". The once that are bobbing thier heads slowly are reconizing that the bigger one is the dominate one. If there are any bruises on any of the lizards, you must seperate that one as soon as possible. Back |
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