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Posted by JoeM on October 29, 2001 at 14:12:57:
In Reply to: green basilisk care sheets posted by Val on October 28, 2001 at 23:17:22:
If you want a mean, freaky, keep-your distance animal, follow the care sheets and the(very few available)"professional" articles. On the other hand, if you want an animal that will ride on your shoulder, enjoy having its ears rubbed, will demand to be taken out of its cage to go places with you, then try this:
Start out with the youngest animal you can get.
Food - "One" brand dry low-ph cat food, 3 cans ZooMed tegu food, 1 can ZooMed juvenile iguana food, one bananna, 4 cans ZooMed "Can-O-Crickets" and/or any chopped-up live earthworms you care to throw in, 1/4 - lb frozen blueberries (no sugar added!) Boil the blueberries down to a thick syrup. pound the dry cat food into dust. Mix all ingredients to the consistency of thick peanut butter (use the cat food for thickening). Freeze this stuff in very small aluminum foil packets (longer, flatter packets thaw faster) about 2-3" long, 3/4" wide, and 1/2" thick. One packet will feed one basilisk for about 2-3 days. You should have enough food from this recipie to last one animal several months.
Harness - You need a tough, thin harness that will allow the animal to shed around it without taking the harness off. The harness needs to be able to expand as the animal grows. I made mine out of thin silver chain. You also need a leash which is expendable, tough, thin, waterproof and light. I used nylon thread coated with silicon rubber. One end is attached to a safety pin (to anchor the animal to my shirt so that it doesn't get into trouble). The other end is attached to a silver clasp which can be snapped on or off the leash in an instant. Putting a conventional leash on a baslisk stresses both of you out, and that is no way to begin a "desensitizing" session!
Cage: As soon as possible (which may be nine months) get them out of the fish aquarium. Make a cage from rabbit wire, or buy a mesh cage. They need to feel as little confinement as possible, and a more open cage helps. But make sure they don't rub sores on their face if you use rabbit wire. Mine were all tame before I tried this. (If you do use rabbit wire, "Rustoleum" black spray pait sticks to the wire better than some other brands.) The most important thing about the cage is, make it functional, but do not make a terranium out of it. If you want a terranium, use it for frogs. Basilisks are too awsome as pets to waste them by making ornimental objects out of them.
Desensitizing Sessions - Basilisks are energetic, curious, fast-learning, visually-oriented animals with a lot of instinctual behavior hard-wired in, but enough gray matter to learn to override their instincts, if you have the patience to train them. They are afraid of people. To get them over this, put them in a harness, get them used to riding on your shoulder, FEED THEM BY HAND (hold the basilisk in one hand while feeding them with the other) EVERY time you feed them.
The "9-Months" rule: For the first nine months none of your efforts seem to pay off. When they reach puberty at nine months, they stake out their territory. You need to make sure they see you as "their territory" when they do this. For nine months you will have a harnessed wild animal. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, at about nine months of age, they begin responding like a spoiled cat. Some time before then you will notice them signifying to you when they are hungry (mine stare at me and open and close their mouth), thirsty (mine stare at me and lick the air) or when they want out. I interact with my animals once every morning before I go to work. I try to take them out of their cage three times per week, but sometimes I can't make that goal. I have three green basilisks who are as tame as spoiled cats (which is pretty much what their personalities remind me of).
