Care of Lizards

They eat small insects, crickets, spiders, ants, flies, mosquitos, and snails. I heard they also eat meat from small animals, too.

Three species of lizards are found in MN.

The common five-lined skink

The prairie skink

The six-lined racerunner.

Prairie skinks and six-lined racerunners are not found in the area around Braham, according to range maps.

Five-lined skinks are found throughout the State.

It is rather unlikely that you will find them within the limits of any town or city, but you may find them in a nearby nature preserve, prairie, park, or other wild area. Rice Creek SWMA would be a good place to search.

Keep in mind that these small, fast, alert lizards have excellent eyesight and hearing, and you will need to be on top of your game to ever see one.

If you mean a lizard of the genus Phrynosoma, they make bad pets due to their specialized diet. Consider another option.

Since you are asking this question, it's best to assume that you know nothing about caring for reptiles. Before you consider food, proper housing, heating, and lighting have to be addressed. Keeping reptiles is similar to keeping fish, in many ways. They require a specialized environment to survive in captivity.

First, you will need a 10 gallon-sized tank or cage, for one animal, or a 20 gallon for a pair or trio. There should be a tight-fitting screen top (or front-opening doors). Substrate can be coco fiber, forest floor, or similar high-humidity bedding. Climbing branches and plants for cover (plenty of them).

Long-tailed lizards (like virtually all reptiles) require controlled heat. An under-tank heat mat or radiant heat panel will do the trick. It should be controlled using a thermostat or rheostat. A digital thermometer with a remote probe should be used to monitor temperatures in the tank. The warm side should be 90F, and the cool side 75 to 80F.

These lizards also require UVB light in captivity, so a fluorescent UVB light should be provided. The tube should be replaced every 6 months, as the UVB coating wears off.

Mist the cage once or twice daily to provide drinking water, and increase humidity.

Feed them 1/4 inch crickets, gut-loaded on quality food, and dusted with a quality calcium powder containing vitamin D3, every other day. Once a week, use a multi-vitamin powder containing preformed vitamin A, instead.

Before purchasing any reptile, do your research to ensure you have the knowledge and means to properly care for it. Buy a book on its care. Never rely on advice from pet store personnel, they rarely have appropriate knowledge of reptile care.

By this age it should be full grown, so give it as many crickets as it'll eat in 10-15 minutes and offer Collards, Mustard Greens, and/or Dandelion Greens daily.

Yes!they do it because that means it is getting bigger!:P

they are afraid of other animals that eat lizards like snakes.

I'm pretty sure you are supposed to separate them for a week, but to check to see if they have already mated, put the cages side-by-side, if they haven't mated yet put the male in the female cage for a couple weeks

size and color

I would look at your dilemma as one of 'persuasion', not 'making'. You will need to convince her with all the pros and cons to owning a lizard. You need to do the research on which type to own, what is needed for a good habitat, where you will keep it, what kind of food is needed, how to maintain its health, veterinary care, alternate caretakers in the event you and/or your family go on a trip, etc., and the cost of it all. If your mom does not like lizards at all, you might not win her over.

You can't 'stop a bearded dragon pooping' wherever it wants to !- They don't have a 'set area' to use as a toilet. As a reptile owner - it's YOUR responsibility to clean up after your reptile whenever they produce waste. If you don't like the idea of cleaning up after an animal - then maybe reptile-keeping isn't for you.

That white stuff is urates. Its the bearded dragons pee.

Depends on the species of lizard. Most lizards are herbivorous, and, for example, iguanas eat only fruits and vegetables. Others, such as bearded dragons, will eat insects as well as fruit and vegetables.

It depends on the individual pet or wild animal. A very small amount can sicken iguanas, and if they are already unhealthy, kill them. Similarly, fresh radiator coolant is more likely to seriously poison pets than old or dilute coolant.

No it needs laxitives.

Some popular reptiles that may fit in a 10 gallon terrarium are Leopard Geckos, Anoles, Crested Geckos, Ball Pythons, Corn Snakes, Red Eared Sliders, and Southern Painted Turtles.

Because it may not like male

Thats totally irrelevant

The gender of a bearded dragon is easiest found by looking at its stomach right between its back legs, a male bearded dragon has very defined pores that are sufficiantly larger than the females, and very easy to see.

and although the following male traits have been found in females as well, they are more dominant in male dragons:

-- during mating, the males beard will turn black so to show dominance.

-- males are generally found with a larger head and slimmer body

-- males are often found to have more bulges on the neck behind their vents while females generally dont have more than one.

Reptiles are usually solitary creatures - however - you can house species together IF they are from the same country and are not likely to view their 'companion' as food !

For example - corn snakes and rat snakes can live inthe same vivarium but NOT corn snakes and king snakes - as the king snake diet consists of other snakes !

Feed dark leafy greens. Have sides they can't see out of (they literally die of stress occasionally because of this). Also feed crickets that are gut loaded. Use reptile carpet, newspaper, paper towels, or alfalfa pellets for substrate. Even if you are giving them calcium, they can't digest it without a Vitamin D3 supplement. Use a Powersun mercury vapor bulb (these are the best). Keep humidity low. Use 3 or four hides that are low to the ground and don't let you see your lizard(s). Use a flat basking rock and have a shallow food dish on the cool side. Get a PE-1 or PE-2 temp gun to measure surface temps (should be about 120 on the hot side). I'm probably too late but for the future....

I would recommend not killing it. It doesn't do any harm. Instead it does a lot of good by eating a lot of bugs (ants, termites, cockroaches etc.) that can cause real problems. If you still want to get rid of it, I would suggest moving it. Get a cardboard box (with a lid, frogs jump) and put the frog in it (use rubber gloves if you don't want to touch it) and transport it a mile or so away and release it. Problem solved, and nobody had to die :-)

Lizards eat mealworms, crickets, some other insects, and leafy vegetables. They can drink water out of a dish, but in the wild they can drink from rivers and lakes.

Most lizards eat plants and drink water.

As plant material CONTAINS water, they APPEAR to drink very little actual water.

when your water dragon turn es brown or almost black, this is due to stress, under heated enclosure, ect, if its under belly is brown it is most likely scale rot and should seek vet attention as soon as possible

chow-chows have blue tongues