I'm a first-time green anole breeder, and I need some tips to help me keep them alive. Well, for when they hatch... which won't happen until their eggs are laid... which happens when Desdemona and Camillo mate... which happens after I get them, hopefully... Anyway, here are my questions: 1. How old are anoles (generally) when they become sexually active? 2. How many eggs will be laid by one female? 3. How big are the eggs? 4. What is a good temperature at which to keep the eggs? 5. What substrate should I use for the anoles before/after birth? 6. Where can I get "pinheads" and other food for the baby anoles? 7. How big are the baby anoles, generally? 8. How long should the babies be separated from the adults until it is safe to introduce them into the adult environment? 9. I've heard that sexing babies is hard, as both males and females have a stripe on their back. Is this true? If so, are there any other ways of sexing them? 10. How long will it take for "pinheads" to grow up into adult crickets? Thanks to whoever answers me. I know it's a lot of questions, but I wanna get all of them out of the way before the babies are hatched. Don't worry, though; I am by no means a novice; I have had quite a few anoles in my time. They have just never mated before; mainly because they were all female.
1) Anoles are capable of breeding at about a year old, although it's usually better to wait til they're about 18 months old and fully grown. If they're not fully grown, the calcium taken away from their bodies in order to develop the eggs can cause health problems. 2) Each clutch is a pair of eggs. They usually lay about 6-8 clutches per year, so total about 12-16 eggs on average. 3) The eggs are about the size of a jelly bean... Not very big at all. Sorta Mn'M sized but egg-shaped 4) We've always incubated ours simply in outdoor temperatures. Out on the back porch at our house, the "windows" are simply screen, allowing air, humidity and temperatures that are available naturally. Fortunately we live in Florida where brown anoles are thriving very well in the wild. These temps and conditions also work here for the greens. The average temps here at the time were around 85 in the day, dropping down to about 75 at night mostly. 5) Same as you use for the adults, we used potting soil as the substrate in all our anoles enclosures (adults and hatchlings). 6) From your pet shop. If your local petshop is unable to get them, you can buy adult crickets and raise the pinheads yourself. This can take a little work, so read up on a specific caresheet on raising crickets, but once you understand how to care for the crickets, it's a piece of cake 7) Hatchling anoles are usually not much more than an inch long, including the tail. 8) Babies should be housed separately from the adults until they are the same size. So about a year. Remember, any male babies that grow up can NEVER be put with the adults if the original adult male is still there. You'll also want to split up your male anole babies after they start getting pretty big, although we've housed a mixed tank of about a dozen male & female babies together until the age of about 6 months with no problems. 9) Sexing baby greens can be quite hard, and it can take a few months to figure it out. Yes, females have a strip down their backs, and immature males do - although we've seen mature males which also carry this trait. But, unless you're selling them, sexing them isn't really a big deal until they're about 6 months old. They should live quite happily with each other. Once they're older, it becomes fairly obvious which are which. With multiple males in an enclosure they will start to become more agressive with each other, and you'll see their dewlaps popping out a lot to impress the girls. Yes, females have dewlaps too, but they are much smaller than the males. 10) The whole process of pinhead to adult usually takes about 6 weeks or so. Not very long at all if they're well cared for. As with mealworms though, keeping them in a slightly cooler environment can slow their growth, although don't put them in the fridge, and it'll only slow their growth a little bit. We've got that many reptiles, we go through crickets like crazy. About 50-75 a day are consumed by our lot, so we keep all of ours constantly gutloaded. This can be a double-edged sword though. The more the crickets eat, the more the crickets poop, but you've always got gutloaded crickets on hand. You could just give them the bare basics in your main cricket colony and just gutload the crickets as you feed to them. Make sure you take them out of the colony 24 hours before you intend to feel them to your reptiles to allow them to fully feed and get lots of juicy goodness in their bellies for the anoles to eat. This will also mean your crickets should last longer. And make sure you have water for them. The best method we've found is to simply use a small piece of sponge in a bottle cap. Just make sure it's not a harmful man-made sponge that the crickets could eat and pass on to the anoles. This could lead to impaction from indigestable materials, or poisoning. But the sponge does prevent you from waking up to find half your colony has drowned
Kewl. Thanks. I will soon be getting a 60-gallon cage. Would more than one male anole be comfortable living in such large quarters, or would I still need to have a different cage for each male? If multiple males could live together, how many?
You MIGHT be able to get away with two males, providing there's PLENTY of hiding spaces, and I mean plenty, as well as at least two basking heat lamps, so both the males can bask separately of each other, and even then it can be a risk.
Actually, i figured it out today, and it's a 100-120 gallon cage. I would know how big it is, but I'm going on the word of my friend. According to her, it's H20" x L70" x W20". Of course, I'll be turning it on its side, so that there will be plenty for it to climb. Also, the cage has a deluxe lid, so that you can put stuff in the cage and grab the anoles (if need be).
You'll be turning it on its side so that it's 20"x20" and 70" tall? Then no, I wouldn't put two males in there. Males naturally want to be up at the top so they can show off to all the girls, and look big n' tough. In a 20"x20" space, that's gonna be too small for two males. If you had it the other way where it was 20"x70" and 20" high, then you could probably do it, have a basking light at each one, one for each male to chill out separately of each other, but then, this is still a bit iffy being potentially unable to create a safe heat gradient. If the cool "end" is in the middle, and both males get too warm on each of their ends, they're gonna meet up in the middle and fight. I'd stick with just the one male, and get plenty of females One male can impregnate quite a lot of females in a season, and it's not worth the risk of getting two. If they do fight, and one dies, even the victor could end up with cuts or scars, possibly becoming infected, leading to its death too.
Well, the thing is that I will be having my first two anoles *Camillo and Desdemona* breed. The babies will be kept in a separate 10-gallon cage, where they can grow, with no threat of being eaten by their parents, until they are older. The males will be sold to Petsmart, where we will buy a different male *so that we will know that the male we buy is not one of the ones we had earlier; to prevent inbreeding*. I don't think there should be too much fighting between them; I mean, there will be plenty of leaves and such for them to climb on. And by that time, Camillo will be pretty old and nearly dead, so the next male will be King of the Cage awhile--at least, until he dies and a new king succeeds him. Actually, on second thought, I should probably just put the new male in when Camillo dies. I could put the girls in the big cage as soon as they're big enough, and just leave the male in the 10-gallon cage alone. Then again... I'll leave a female with him so he doesn't get "lonely"
You sound like you're only in this for the money. If that is so, then you are definitely in the wrong game. You won't get more than a dollar each for anoles at PetSmart - if they're even interested. Given that one female is going to produce an average of around 12-16 eggs, and what amount you have to spend on crickets each week, plus what it's going to cost you to house all these and provide adequate heat and lighting (you DO provide them with UVB right?)... You're probably going to be down several hundred dollars per year. As for getting another male next year because "Camillo will be pretty old and nearly dead", I seriously hope you're kidding. Anoles can live as long as 7 years or more. So, I highly doubt that one year's breeding will get him anywhere near the "nearly dead" stage. If that's so, and he is nearly dead after a year of breeding, I suggest you get rid of any animals in your care, and buy a pet rock
I've had a male for 6 years now, hes been breeding now nad hes finally slowing down now, Camillo will not be "Almost Dead" after 1 years fi yoou tkae care of him, if oyu dont, well thne oyu will have petsmart quality animals and eventually people will realize........... i fell sad for oyur animals
Why do you think I am only in this for the money!? I only said that I would be selling them to Petsmart because I: 1. Wanted to prevent inbreeding 2. Was worried about having enough room for the males 3. Didn't want to overcrowd them in general And I only said that he would be dead after a year or two because everywhere I go, I hear that they only live for about 3-4 years. I am sorry that I have been misinformed, but please do not yell at me for it. If you think that I am only in this for the money, then you are sadly misinformed. I have met many lizard owners who are, and the mere thought of them makes me sick. I love Cammy and Dezzy and worry about them whenever they are the slightest shade of brown. Again, do you seriously think I am in this for the money? I am fifteen years old and living on my allowance. I am also working extra hours on yard work so that I can afford to feed them. Don't you tell me that I am a greedy pig! All my money is going to this. I am currently $50 in debt, not counting the crickets that I am going to be buying this week for them. I hope you feel very proud of yourselves for giving a guilty vertict to an innocent person before his trial.
Well, the fact you're selling them to petsmart at all implies that you don't care about the animals. Please don't take this personally, but there are other pet stores you could take it to which DO take care of their animals. The big chain pet stores in this area do not take good care of their animals AT ALL. You're probably better putting up a classifieds ad or trying to sell them online, or put an ad in the local paper. This will put the least amount of stress on them. My post was only from what I had picked up before, I don't know all the circumstances regarding you and your anoles, it was just the impression you gave. Please accept my apologies. Now you've stated your reasons for wanting to sell them, I entirely understand your point. Yes, housing the males can be a problem if you've got a whole bunch of them, however they should be able to live quite happily together til they're at least 6 months or so old. If you put an ad in the paper, or just told friends at school, I'm sure you'd be able to find them better homes than the local petsmart. Most reptiles that end up in PetSmart and other big chain pet stores like that, don't live beyond 12 months of the store receiving them. They either die before they ever leave the store, or get sold to inadequate owners, who think they know how to take care of them refusing to read up on how they actually should care for them. You might be better looking in your local area for small independent mom n' pop pet stores. They tend to care more for their animals, know what they're doing, and aren't stuck with "national store policy" which prevents them from giving correct care. PetSmart and other big chains (we've been informed by management) have policies whereby the enclosures have to "look pretty and appealling", which is apparently more important than the health of the animals. Overcrowding can be a problem too when they get bigger, but hey, if you're into anoles, there's not much nicer to look at than a nice big 6ft long by 4ft high well-planted jungle enclosure with a bunch of green anoles running around all day The in-breeding doesn't seem to be as much of a problem (if at all) as it is with mammals. In fact, I've heard of people in-breeding leopard geckos for 15 generations, over the course of about 10 years, to enhance certain genetics or properties with no ill side effects. Again, I apologise, I'd just had a bad day, and maybe I read your message wrong
That sucks, man. I think I'm going to have better luck with my anoles; Desdemona *the female* and Camillo get along very well. Dezzy was even showing off her dewlap and bobbing her head to Cammy last night *I would normally think this was aggression, but judging from the fact that, minutes later, they were sleeping next to each other and Dezzy was resting her head on Cammy's back, I think they're okay*. I see where you're coming from, Axe. Sorry about the mixup. Thanks for the advice, though. I'll try to look for a store like that. The thing is that I have two pet stores here that have anoles: Speck's and Petsmart. The anoles at Speck's are barely alive and constantly brown. At Petsmart, they are at least healthy. If you take how healthy the Petsmart anoles are and divide it in half, you have the top-of-the-line Speck's anoles. I'm not sure if I can find a non-franchise petstore, but I will try. A 6ft X 4ft cage does sound nice . However, I'm kinda limited on money. Fortunately, I'm going to be getting the big 6ft X 1.5ft cage *a.k.a. The Tree* soon. Before I can get that, I'll need to pay off the debt I'm in. But I have a 20 gallon cage in my basement that I can use if babies come sooner that I thought; the only reason I don't have it out for Dezzy and Camillo is that it will take some heavy-duty cleaning, as it has been down there for about five years *spiders love the cage; it's covered in cobwebs*, and it was damaged while in transit. If worst comes to worst, we can use that one. For now, though, the 10-gallon cage *The Nursery, as we've come to call it* is doing nicely.
