Hi All,


Well here goes my first thread. After finally getting a cuban knight in the UK 1 and a half ago. We have a male and a female and they have been eating well (Correction the male will feed infront of us already and take lettuce from our tongs the female, still working on her!)

We had to clear out the tank after discovering we had the wrong substrate in our tank and our Liz was hiding under a plant and not getting any UVB.

The question is;

Our male has just shed which I take as a good sign however there is no sign of the skin. I came in and found him resembling a bearded dragon (dead skin flared out from his face) however now the skin is gone.

I dont want to disturb either of them as they are still cross at being cleaned out yesterday, but what on earth have they done with the skin.

Do Anoles eat skin normally? Could the live food, crickets snacked on it. Could she of eaten it?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to HC! I don't know much about anoles myself, but I'm sure someone will soon come along who does

[edit: I just found this on the internet that says that they do indeed eat their shed skin (and each other's) as it's a good source of minerals...

Here's the link:

Lizards

Look under the Brown Anole section for the information about green and brown anole shedding...

Several other sites said the same thing, so I would assume that any variety of anole would do it. ]

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~Juliane~

Fantastic Juliane,

just come in and eating skin off his foot, Just want to make sure its not a stress issue or anything like that.

Does even bear thinking if humans did it!

Could they still be doing this down to stress levels?

I don't think that particular behavior sounds like a stress level issue. To me, it sounds like natural shedding behavior.

What are their temps and humidity levels? What substrate are they on now? Does their color look good for their species? As I said, I know next to nothing about anoles, but I do know those are important things for any lizard... I'm still hoping an anole keeper will come along and add a more exprerienced voice to this thread

Edit: I found a care sheet for the Cuban Knight Anole that may help:


Ludos Herps! - Cuban Knight Anole Care Sheet

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~Juliane~

All seem to be doing well. After all our concerns our female anole took her first waxworm from the tweezers!!

However our hungry male kept diving in for them.

To complment the 6 crickets he has today. Still worried about her feeding. I think if we get any more worried we will step up a video camera for the day to make sure she is feeding and its not becuase she is still new her surroundings.

I think if it was stress he would not of kept going for the waxworms and he came to the floor for one that dropped off a branch that was for her! He came within 4 inches so I think he forgives us for cleaning the tank out.

She is just a mardy bum!!

That's great! I hope that you'll be able to determine if she's eating more than wax worms since those are mostly fat, with very little nutritive value. Good luck, and if you take some video, maybe you could post some of it here. That would be cool

Edit: Where are all the anole experts out there? I can't understand why no one else has commented yet

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~Juliane~

Yes anoles do eat their skin every time they shed it.

try separating the male while the female eats. He may be stressing her out.

Welcome

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I dont think they are stressing each other out. They seem to be on top of each other. there has been no sign of fighting and they seem to watch over each other when they sleep. They sit on each other and there is no sign of one being more dominant over each. I.e, she stis on his head, sharing the same branch with legs on each other.

We had a bit of progress yesterday she took a wax worm from only 6 inches away while using the tongs. I think its just to setting down.

They even look like they have been mating. Who knows!