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Posted by Ingo on October 30, 2001 at 05:40:19:
In Reply to: Re: OK, I feel the need to construct a caresheet.... posted by Ingo on October 30, 2001 at 05:34:16:
: So here is what I recommend:
: General considerations:
: Never buy a wildcaught animal unless you are already a basilisk expert and can provide a 1000 gallon plus tank
: Do not keep tham as single animals. Also pairs are in many cases not a good idea since males can stress females by frequent mating. So go for 1,2 or 1,3
: Try to aquire animals of similar age, otherwise the older ones may dominate the younger ones too strongly. This can be the cae independent from the animals sex and sometimes makes breeding difficult.
: Housing:
: Do not compromise for space. A good size for an adult trio may be 6 x 6 x 3 ft. Donīt go for significantly smaller tanks (rule of thumb: height and one more dimension of the tank should be at least 5 ft).
: Do not use mesh tanks since these do not oly harbour nose rubbing risks but also poorly keep the necessary humidity.
: Also do not use all glass tanks, since these may make the basilisks feel insecure.
: I recommend to have sliding doors made of glass at the front side, have maybe one second side made of class and the rest be covered by bark or fake rock backwalls to give a visible bareer and to enlarge climbing space.
: Ventilation has to be efficient but limited. A good solution is an only 3" tall screened area along the whole front side, located directly above the substrate in combination with a completely screened top. To regulate humidity provide glass plates of different size to partially cover the top screen. Once the tank is up and running, you will find out the best percentage of glass/Screen on the top by varying the positions and aamount of glass plates.
: Heating should be predominantly performed by the light sources but you may integrate additionla heat pads into your fake backwalls.
: Easiest way to produce fake backwalls is to modulate them from styrofoam and cover them with a thin layer of coloured concrete. It is recommendable to integrate larger flower boxes into the fake backwall. This helps to keep the cage heavily planted in the upper tank regions and is a preferred egg laying place for many females (Maybe reminds them of the river banks they prefer in the wild).
: Do not try to safe money with lighting. For a tank of the size depicted above, you shopuld at least have one very hot and bright basking spot (150 W metal halide with 4000-5000K Colourtemperatur are the best -if not only-solution). If your supplements are OK , you do not need UVB (I do not use UVB bulbs since 2 Basilisks generations), but especially for a beginner I would recommend to have at least one of the 100W active heat UV bulbs running. The fluorescent UVB bulbs to my experience a significantly less recommendable. be prepared to need another 100-150 W in total fluorescent bulbs to maintain the neecessary brightness within the setup.
: A heated water bassin is a must in any basilisk setup. It should be big enough to allow some swimming and that means, at least 3 feet in length-the other dimensions may be smaller, but the bigger the better. The water should be heated to approx 80F. If the surface is agitated by a simple aquarium pump, the acceptance of the bassin is much better. Water has to be exchanged frequently. Filtering does not prolong water exchange intervalls, since potentialy harmful soluble products of nitrogen metabolism are not removed (basilisks will poop into th ebassin)
: The top of the water bassin should be at one level with the substrate surface. Substrate should be 8" or deeper. I prefer a mixture of potting soil and bark mulch. I strongly recommend to inoculate the substrate with a bucket of forest soil. This brings microflora and fauna int o the tank which helps to keep it clean (A peice of basilisk poop literally vanishes inmy tanks within a day). Beleive me: Its not recommendable to try to keep the setup sterile. A healthy microflora is way better since it can outcompete the growth of more harmful microorganisms and -as said- helps to keep the tank clean.
: Provide lots of branches of at least the diameter of a basilisks body and take care that many of these are horizontally orientated in the upper quarter of the tank.
: Plants in the enclosure give additional shelter and structure the habitat. One problem with basiisks is that htey tend to destroy many plants with their sharp claws. So you may use fake plants, but I still prefer living plants. They help in stabilizing humidity levels and make the enclosure look much nicer. Some have to be exchanged after soem time, soem survive for years and even thirve. among the latter are many bromeliads, most dracaena and Yucca species, pothos, Ficus species etc.
: Especially juvenile basiliskes prefer to sleep at the top of thin branches among the leaves. Hence I recommend to use at least one bigger Ficus, orange tree or the liek in a basilisk setup.
: Temps in the tank should range from the mid 70s to the upper 90s in the basking area. If these temps are not reachred by the light sources alone, heat cables or mats have to be integrated into the walls of the tank. I do not recommend to have heated areas in the bottom.
: At night temperatures should drop to the mid 70s, in winter they may drop down to 70 but not lower.
: Feeding:
: Basilisks are voracious feeders which prey on any insect you offer. A good staple diet can consist of 70% Crickets 20% Superworms and the rest completed by a pinkie mouse here and then and some fruit.
: Mayn but not all adult basilisks will eat ripe to overripe fruit if offered cut into pieces of apt size. If available you can add all kinds of non poisonous insects.
: If you breed Roaches (Blaberus or Blaptica) these can make up a major part of the diet and most basilisks will prefer them over almost anything else. You can also offer feeder fish in the water bassin, but take care not to transfer parasites by low quality asian mass produced fish. Better to have a small guppy breeding colony of controlled health in house.
: All feeder items shoud be dusted with a Mineral/Vitamien supplement of choice. This should fulfill the following criteria: No phosphorous in it (or less than 5%), high calcium content, better provitamine A then vitamine A, hight D3 content.
: If you give liquid D3 supplements, take care not to give more than 50-100 IU D3 per week and kg animal. If you give D3 poweder, overdosing is hardly possible.
: A bowl with bird grit should be constantly available in the cage. During mating season it is recommendable to additionally dust feeder items with calcium lactate or calcium gluconate.
: Take care not to overfeed the lizards. Feeding them every third day is still plenty! Only gravid females should be fed ad libitum.
: Mist at least twice a day for drinking and humidity.
: Have the ligths on for 14 hours a day. In winter reduce daytime down to 11 hours and reduce misting to once every other day. Under these conditions females stop egg laying and have time to recover.
: Breeding: Contact me, once you consider that
: Raising of juvies: Start with smaller enclosures to make it easy for them to find food (rule of thumb: Till 3 months of age 30 gallon per three basis, from 3-7 months 100 galloj per three basis, from 7 months on: Move to adult enclosure). Raise females between month 6 and 15 without a water bassin and in the absence of males -and feed them sparsely. Otherwise there is high risk that they develop eggs to early and die eggbound.
: quarantine: Keep every new animals seperately for at least 6 weeks and have 2-3 fecals done in that time. If treatment is necessary, do another fecal 3 weeks after treatment and only if this is negative, introduce them to the group.
: Handling:
: Basilisks are display animals and I do not recommend uneccessary handling. Every other statement to my opinion has to be considered anthropomorphistic and is of no benefit for the lizards. Anyhow, have the cage in a frequented area of your home to help them to get used to people moving around. Offer them special treats (pinkies) here and then by hand and you will reach a degree of "tameness" which allows handling without stress if unavoidable.
: CB animals generally have no problems with nose rubbing or jumping against glass (WC animals have!). If they do such things, think twice about your setup and try to identify problems which irritate them. In themeantime cover all glass sides with cloth mesh from the inside.
: So, that are the bare essentials.
: Please beleive me, that THIS is the way, how basilisks have to be kept.
: If you want to improve your setup beyond this caresheet: Increase size of enclosure, increase amunt of light, increase size of water bassin and increase variety of food.
: Have a nice day
: Ci@o
: Ingo
