Hi, I am new here. And also not very experienced herp owner. We have green anoles and one seems to be sick. What do you guys think...He's losing weight, not eating his crickets, lethargic. He is normally very active when I try to grab him for cage cleaning, but now, I can catch easily. He is still moving, but just not his usual fiestiness. Also, he seems to be keeping his eyes like half-closed. He's not usually a really bright green one, and he still gets green after I tried to touch him just now.

Anyways, we've had him for a year and he's seemed healthy until now. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
~Laura

Can you give any more details on your husbandry..

Temps
humidity
lighting
Any other animals in the enclosure
feeding

size of tank

__________________
Live for today Not tomorrow.

Hi, thanks for reply.
He's in a 10 gal. aquarium with wire mesh top by himself. I use the walnut shell substrate and he has various silk plants and vines and little coconut hut. He has a heat lamp and a UV (coil type) lamp, both used during the day. The temp in there right now is about 85 or so, at night we keep our house warm, probably 72. I don't have a way to measure humidity, but we spray his cage throughout the day.
I usually feed him every couple days, as he doesn't eat all the crickets right away. Right now, the diet has just been small crickets that are fed calcium-enriched food. We have done mealworms before, but he wasn't really into them so much.

Right now he looks a little better than when I posted, but still, doesn't seem to be opening his eyes all the way. He's still green.

Thanks for your help.

Feeding them isn't hard... but i've heard that feeding them only crickets doesn't work. the normal life span of anoles is also only 7 years. i've also read that anoles never "over stuff" themselves like we do on thanksgiving try catching flies, moths, grasshoppers... anything that you would find in there wild that is away from farms and doesn't have pesticides on them. meal worms and wax worms also work to.

question: i also read that peach baby food is good if they will eat it?

if you have any other questions here is the site where I got this information from...
http://members.aol.com/Mite37/TPFGA.html

Thanks for the reply...I will try meal worms again. Catching wild stuff isn't going to happen right now...Chicago in January isn't so friendly for the bugs, lol. I did try the peach baby food when we first got our female, she ate it like the first day and never saw her touch it since. But I will try with this guy..maybe he's bored of crickets.

Thanks.

not a problem. also check out that site though because he might be dehydrated. but idk. im in ft. wayne and it is definitly no where close to warm. lol.

Im worried about the crushed walnut shell substrate...he may have ingested it while catching his crickets and could be impacted ...Do you use a UVB light?? They are diurnal animals and they need the UVB to process calcium.. ..If you got your anole as an adult, he could be just dying of old age....there is no way to tell how old they are when you buy them....they are always wild caught....well thats all I can think of right now...best wishes with your little anole...

__________________
Warmest Regards from Lyn

His one eye has buggers in it tonite, maybe he's got an eye infection. How the %$#@ to you treat a skittish anole's eye??

thanks, laura

Runny eyes could be a sign of a respiritory infection..or it could be irritated by that nasty evil crushed walnit shell substrate.

Throw the walut shells into the trash, that stuff is a death sentence.
When you are out buying him a new substrate I would get a hygrometer so you can check his humidty levels. If it is indeed a resp. infection it would be caused or aggravated by too high humidity and possibly too low of temps (maybe a cold night, or a draft)

Another thing is that anoles need a strong source of UVB generally those coil lamps just don't put out enough to satisfy the needs of most animals, especially if it is filtered through glass or the screen top.

__________________

"What is now proven was once only imagined." - William Blake

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

what kind of substrate then? I tried the bark chips but the crickets seemed to hide too well in them...

Thanks for the help.