almost about a year ago i gave my friend an anole its still thriving but my friend says he seem not to be doing so well and with no money to go to the vet nor internet to look up the needs or standards to check for this little lizard i am going to go check on the little guy later this week and see how he is...if i remember i think the lizard is in small 5 or 10 gallon maybe bigger tall tank on aspen and everything else im not sure if its still same last time i saw the lizard was like a year ago.. i need some advice and info temp.. humidity.. i'm gonna bring over quite few stuff to check everything out he's letting me change anything for the better for capirnucus.. main question can eco earth be used?
Eco Earth would be a much better substrate than aspen. I can't imagine aspen is holding the high percent of humidity needed for an anole. Humidity should be around 65-70%. His tank is pretty small, even for a single anole, which could be causing some slight stress, although I have seen anoles tough it out in some pretty undersized setups. The number one problem I see with anoles is people keeping them without a UVB light. These are diurnal lizards and as such they require UVB lighting. Do you know what kind of lights he has on the setup? If he doesn't have a UVB light, that should be the very first thing that gets fixed. It's essential to their health, and if he has gone over a year without it, this is likely the cause of any issues he may be having. As far as heat lighting goes, temps should be around 75-80F with a basking spot around 90F. Remember to record temperatures with a digital thermometer with probe or a temp gun for accurate surface temperatures. If you can get more details on the setup, I can be of a little more help, but without knowing the details of his husbandry I can't really tell you any more than the basics. Hopefully this will help you get started though. Just let us know if you get any more information.
That's very compassionate of you. It is certainly very important for the anole's health. If he does indeed only have a heat light, you should probably step up the calcium supplementation as well as adding the UVB light, even going so far as to dust food with a supplement daily.
update: my friend left to texas for most the summer leaving capurnicus in his dad'S care..he changed out the aspen with sand and thats when he pretty much went downhill..i went over yesterday and saw the lil guy he's so frail skinny and weak.. i changed the sand out with eco earth brought up the humidity and gave my friend extra calcium and calcium with d3. is there anyway to get up the lil guys weight? some kind of food slurry or something??
Wow, that's great that you are doing all this for a friend! With a proper set-up he should kick back into eating properly very soon, maybe offer more substantial food items like roaches or silk worms for a short time, make sure that you dust everything especially right now Good luck!
thank you ^w^ its kinda my responsibilty too it was his last years birthday present and even i didnt give him the right set up for him because i didnt know fully i forgot to add the lil guy is in 10x10x10 tank hope he makes it you can see every bone in the lil guy's body..
Poor guy. =( At least you tried to take action and get him set up better, and now you know for next time that animals can make very troublesome pets. I'm sorry for your loss. =(
