lizards! do you have one?

[Philadisney]

I bought one this past weekend. I am going through an unpleasant breakup right now ....soooo, I coped by buying a bicycle and a lizard.
I get what to do with the bicycle - wear a helmet, stay in the bike lane, don't get smacked by a car door. But the lizard, I admit, I didn't do enough research on.

His name is Apollo and I absolutely love him. I got some canned crickets and fed some to him earlier this week. I also keep a water bottle, basking log (under a heat lamp), and a little dish for swimming in his 10-gallon tank. Sometimes I find him sitting absolutely still gazing at his reflection, other times he hops around like a maniac and I can't pick him up becos he will run straight up my arm and down my back (I learned this the hard way).

I tried feeding him some canned lizard food today that was all vegetable-fruit parts, but he wasn't having it. The pet store did say he will probably only eat once a week, but he only ate 2 crickets on Tuesday...I put a few more in his cage for later but he just let them dry out. I am doing some more online research but wanted to see if any of my fellow DISers had a similar lizard - Apollo's a dragon agama - and any tips to offer.

 

[tmt martins]

I don't have a dragon.

But I do have or DD has 2 Anoles like you see all around Disney.

They are very pickey eaters and what they eat one day they might not the next .

Ours only eat LIVE CRICKETS but sometimes a dozen last a week sometimes 2 weeks .

They also don't drink water from the dish only from the dew drops from spraying.

Make sure the enviroment is stable and at the temp & humitity .I found out mine don't do the heat rock for digestion only the basking light. I still keep the heat rock as the crickets seem to like it.

Good luck and watch his weight (looks of thinning and dehidration).

Do a quick Google search for that breed as they can get sick fast also watch what you use in the tank.Ours can't have sand it hurts their digestion system

 

[Philadisney]

tmt martins, thank you for the reply! it was very helpful.

 

[paigevz]

Well, yes and no. I had lizards, but don't now. They were iguanas though. Vegetarians. We just had to make sure that their nitrogen levels were right. For that we bought powdered supplement that we sprinkled on their salad. They always had organic fresh leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and apples. We tried a few other things with them.........they loved cantaloupe but it was too messy for every day........they hated parsley, spinach and tomatoes. They needed both heat lamps and a certain light lamp that gave them some other vitamins if they couldn't get to sunlight. We generally gave them out of cage time for a few hours a day and they tended towards the window sills like cats. They didn't have heat rocks. They had both a "swimming pool" and a "creek" for their fresh water that pumped itself through. They tended to soak and poop in their swimming pool and drink from their creek (they didn't drink often). It was important to them, we found out on our own, to have areas to stay away from the heat lamp as well as areas with the heat lamp. We built them a 6x6x4 plywood and chicken wire cage. We used only butcher paper on the floor and changed it out. They spent little time on the floor except when eating or swimming. We gave them to my brother after our son was born. He gave the younger one to a friend of his, but the older one, the 4 footer, he kept until it died, and then he had it autopsied! I don't think there was ever a more loved iguana than that one (her name was Iggy and she also went to school with me to educate the kids during student teaching and my first year of my own class).

 

[Gaspode]

I wish!

Good luck with your dragon, he's very cute :

I have always wanted an iguana and one day still hope to have one (DFi says yes, at some point, when we have more room lol!)

For now I will keep on dreaming, I think they are so lovely lol!!

- Gaspode