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Re: Need a little help


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Horned Lizard Forum ]

Posted by lisak on October 18, 2002 at 08:43:19:

In Reply to: Need a little help posted by amylp on October 17, 2002 at 19:37:48:

:Found a baby horned lizard. Stupidly took it home after saying to the boy "Are you sure you want to take this home?", he was sure. Guess who ended up researching and discovering how dumb we were? And guess who stays up late worrying whether it will make it to next year, when I can drive back up to the desert and release it where it was found? Yep. Me.
:Meanwhile, I bought ants. I overdid it, have currently 200, and have 500 more coming. And the lizard ate 6 of them yesterday. I have no idea how many he ate today, because I came home from work and panicked. He had one biting his mouth. I stuck a pin through it's head and released my poor little buddy because no way did I want him to be in so much pain. But his little back was pure white, I can only guess from pain. I hurt another one, and left it in the habitat with him. Of course, I came back to check on it and he was being bitten on the foot this time. Okay, this is a SMALL baby. So far he has eaten 5 meal worms (the small ones, I was afraid he wouldn't eat the big ones), one small cricket, and about 8 ants.

:I don't know if I need to buy a UVA/B lizard light, do I need to buy herp vitamin powder if he's got harvester ants, and they are well fed??? I have a 75 watt bulb hitting a black rock, a red rock, and a piece of bone. There is some creosote in the habitat, and lots of red sand.

:I am DESPERATE to keep him alive until I can return him. He's been in my care for 1 week exactly.

:What else can I do to ensure survival?

:By the way, the boy thinks I am being a dramatic alarmist. He swears all we need are meal worms.

:boys are dumb.

Amy, I have a baby that I have had for 4 weeks. I'm guessing he was only about one or two weeks when I found him. He is still too small for the harvester ants. He actually runs from them. He will eat any other smaller ant I put in there. This is how I collect them: I keep a plastic covered container with a small amount of sand in the bottom in my refrigerator. I put a clear jar with a bit of peanut butter in the bottom, near where there are ants in my yard. When there are ants in it, I get my container from the refrigerator, open it, and knock the ants in the jar into the container, quickly closing the lid. Keep them in the refrigerator and then, even when you have lots of ants in there, they will stay asleep long enough for you to take them out to the yard to add more ants. When it's feeding time I will put about 50 sleeping ants in with the HL. I stay nearby because these ants can climb out and I have to knock them off of the glass. HLs protect themselves from ants by being very still, if you scare the HL while he has an ant on or near him, he will move and the ant will sting him. So, no quick movements while you are feeding him. I'm hoping he'll be big enough for harvester ants by the time my yard ants hibernate. It's a hassle, but it's the only way I have found.I hope this helps. Lisa





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