Is there any way, besides separating them, of preventing a male and female anole from breeding? I will be able to survive this breeding season, but what about next year? What if they breed then, too?
Basically, as long as their care requirements are met, they will breed. So the only way to make them not breed, other than separating them, is to neglect them and give incorrect conditions under which to live. So, to answer your question. Separation is the only way to prevent them from breeding. The other alternative shouldn't even be an option
Turns out I had to separate them anyway. Dezzy kept trying to mate with Cammy. I ended up moving Dezzy to the Nursery. Don't worry, though. I covered the eggs well, but not so much that they'll suffocate, so Dezzy won't get into them. Once I get the new enclosure built, I'll move Dezzy into that, where he'll stay until all the hatchlings are grown enough to the point where I don't need to keep them in the Nursery. Then I'll move all the babies into the new enclosure, and put Dezzy in the old one. Also, with the old one, I'll redecorate it for Dezzy's sake. I mean, right now, it's too short notice to be very elegant. I'll work on it this week, though. He'll be okay; he's about as well-off as he was when we first got him, except he has the whole cage to himself. "Basically, as long as their care requirements are met, they will breed. So the only way to make them not breed, other than separating them, is to neglect them and give incorrect conditions under which to live." That's funny, because at one pet store *where anoles were not very well taken care of*, I witnessed anoles mating for the first time in my life. And, at another one where about thirty anoles were in a 10-gallon cage, they had two eggs. *sigh* Breeding these guys is way too easy. lol And don't worry. I couldn't do the other alternative if i TRIED!
Yup, they do breed fairly easily. And don't worry about having one in the nursery... the eggs will be fine with him there usually - although I did have one female in the past who dug up the eggs once and attempted to eat them. Something like that's a pretty rare occurrance though. When we had 1.3 adults in an enclosure, they just laid the eggs right there in the potting soil substrate. The first we knew about it was a hatchling clambering around inside the tank - which we promptly took out to prevent it from being eaten by the adults. We tried to get as many of the eggs out as we could as we saw them being laid, but a few of them we didn't see until after they'd hatched out in the main tank. The rest hatched out in a "Nursery Tank" (a 20 gallon long), along with house gecko eggs that were in there too. Both hatched out at about the same size, but the house geckos quickly outgrew the anoles, and were separated after a couple of months to give the anoles some room
Anole eggs are usually about half an inch long, right? This new egg looks really really small. I'm wondering how a 2.5-in long thing is gonna come out of that. I mean, I know it's only two days old, but still, it looks pretty small. I'm thinking it's a female, just judging from the size. Then again, it might grow. Or it'll stay the same and be a runt. Or it'll be another infertile egg *which I hope it isn't; I really hope it isn't*. I hope it's one of the first two solutions. ...Or that my sense of sight is off and it looks small to me
yeah, they are very small... not much bigger than a tic-tac. And the size of the egg doesn't really give any indication as to the sex. All the eggs we had were about the same size, and we had both sexes hatch out. As they develop inside the egg, it should start to expand a little bit, especially as it gets close to hatching out. They develop curled up inside the egg utilising as much space as possible.
Yeah, I know from the research I've done that they're small. It's just that the new egg was a bit smaller than the first egg, which turned out to be infertile. However, now that I've checked today, it does seem to be getting bigger. Oh, and on the subject of anole eggs, my school's biology book actually has a picture of an anole hatching from the egg! *digs up his memory of bibliographies * Here goes: Audesirk, Gerald and Teresa. Biology: Life on Earth. Macmillan Publishing Company. Fifth Edition. Page 441. Well, if I did it wrong, so be it. It seems to be a college book, judging from the words "campus" in the intro . You probably won't be able to find it in any library near you. If I had a scanner, I'd scan it in and post it up here or on my site. Still, it's a good picture. It shows the tympanum well, as the skull has not fully developed. It's funny how the head looks a bit like a Jurassic Park Velociraptor's head.
Hehehe yeah.... Two of the coolest things I've seen are anoles & leos hatching, and leos moving around inside the egg while candling... a great thing to see
Well, I think we have another egg. I haven't checked the vermiculite yet, but... well, let me describe what I saw: I walked into the lizard room and over to the cage. When I finally found Cammy, I saw her digging a hole into the vermiculite. I decided to leave, in case she WAS laying an egg, so as not to disturb her. I came back twenty minutes later to find her in the same spot, but with the hole covered up and a cricket in her mouth. Also, she looked a lot thinner. If she DID lay an egg, then I guess she had been making it along with the first egg.
Well, in case you were wondering, the egg is just fine. It is growing and is a bright, snow white. Question, though. My first egg has developed a darker, slightly yellow-brownish color. Almost as if it had been soaked in coffee. I have read in a few places that, if the egg becomes discolored, the embryo is either dead or dying. However, my egg is growing, and I have seen pictures *which I mentioned before* of anoles hatching from colored eggs. Any predictions?
All the ones we successfully hatched out remained a nice slightly off-white colour the whole time though. But I have heard they can change colour mid-stream. Sometimes if it's too moist or too dry and they start to shrivel a bit, this can distort their colour, but providing the correct moisture levels come back, and there's no mould or fungus growing on the eggs, they should be good to go if they're fertile
