caresheet

The type of terrarium that you put your anole(s) in is very important. Lets start off with the size. A 10 gallon tank is the minimum size, this will house up to 2 lizards, prefrably one of each sex. A 20 gallon will house 3 or 4 anoles, with only 1 male. 30 gallon will hold 6, 2 may be males as long as there is plenty of hiding places. And...well you get the jist of it. Make shure that you have a tight fitting screen cover or else they will escape! The males are very territorial and WILL fight over there space, that is why you need a larger tank if you plan to mix the males. As far as bedding goes just get anything reccomended for reptiles. DO NOT get bedding that you have collected from outside, because it may have bugs in it that can be harmfull to your anole. Green anoles spend most, if not all of there time climbing around in bushed and trees, there for it is very important that you put a few plants in the cage. Aftifficial plants can be baught at a local pet store for only about $10.00, live plants are also good because they give of humidity. BE CAREFULL with life plants, some plants may give of toxins that could be harmfull to your anole.

For your cage you will also need a source of heating, I would not reccomending heat rocks, undertank heaters, or heated caves. You need a full spectrum basking bulb that can be puchased at a pet store, I would reccomend about 60 watts. Place this ontop of the screen cover on one side of the tank, this will be the warm side or your enclosure. On the other side it will be slightly cooler incase they are getting to hot. I also reccomend getting a UVB light, yes i know these can be expensive and they are not needed but it would be good to have one. Leave the light(s) on for about 12 hours a day and off at night, my lizards like it to be pitch black at night, even a light in the next room often disturbs them.

These lizards do need live food, preferably crickets. Most pet stores sell crickets for about $.10 each. Get a little cage for the crickets, about a 2 gallon. I feed the cricets flake fish food and something called Flucker's Calcium Cricket Quencher, ask for it at the pet store. This will keep the krickets alive and provide a healthier meal for your anole. You also may want to dust your crickets before feeding, it is not nessesary, but I would strongly reccomend it after a females lays eggs. Your lizard will acept just about anything it can catch, spiders, beetles, moths, ect. You may also choose to catch wild insects, this is fine as long as they are pesticide free. Avoid fireflies, and lady bugs, because they have toxins in there body that is harmfull to anoles. If you are going to feed you lizard mealworms make shure they are small and try to get them right after they shed so they will be softer and easier to chew for the anole. Feed the lizard 1-2 medium sized bugs a day. You also have to mist the cage 3 times a day with a hand spray bottle, make shure to spray the walls of the cage and the plants, because the lizard will lick the water dropplets off. It is very inportant to provide water, because if an anole gets dehidrated it will most likely die. A water bowl is not nessesary because they rarely drink from it anyways.