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aNisip

aNisip

Well-known member
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Dec 24, 2010
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Location
Gainesville, Florida
As I got out of the car yesterday, I noticed a young Knight Anole barely clinging on to the border above the garage door. And as I approached to get a closer look, he didnt react and let me get as close as i wanted. After further inspection, I noticed many scratches on his head and eye, as if he got attacked by another anole or a predator. So I scooped him up and set up an enclosure for him and fed him a roach. I have no experience with Knight's; I have kept brown and green anoles in the past but these guys are an arboreal species and want to know if I'm doing things right. Thanks!

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The enclosure looks like a good size, for now. It could use a little more foliage to climb and jump from. Maybe a vine from a craft store that you can use suction cups to fasten it to the smooth surfaces.

Anolis equestris can be active lizards and stress easily when handled or even looked at. lol Some lizards will stress more than others. You can see when they are over stressed because they will start looking bad and their skin will darken and be grey, especially behind the eyes(not the normal color change to brown that they do). They are like a mood stone. A nice bright green usually means they are doing well.

Don't forget that they need uvb and a basking light. I have had young ones that got sick fast from just being inside for less than a couple of weeks during winter without the lighting.

You can actually watch the skin darken on the side that they are soaking up the light with, if you bring them into the sunlight. I love the texture of their skin and how soft it feels, even if they are not good for handling.lol

 
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SilentDeviL said:
wow cool ,,, i never see these in the wild in Canada ..... I guess is too cold..
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Definitely too cold. They established here in Florida because of the pet trade. People must have released them or they escaped. Now they are a very common sight in my area.

 
well they have been here as long as i can remember...they are originally from Cuba, but have been introduced like Adrienne said and are doing well here...they are quite beautiful!

 
I have no experience with this species. How cool! I've been to Florida several times but never saw any anoles that looked like that one. I guess I've been looking in the wrong places.

 
that enclosure is way too small for it. I have the same enclosure. It's barely enough for a hermit crab. these knight anoles grow to be around 20 to 22 inches on the largest reports. A minimum enclosure is a 30 gallon tall for a juvenile, and at least a 40 gallon tall for adults, with 55 gallon being preferred for a single adult (some people go as far as housing them in a 120 gallon tank). They need uvB lighting (reptisun 5.0 is perfect) for proper food digestion and Vitamin intake from the light itself.

Green and brown anoles are also considered arboreal but they don't need that kind of room because of their size. Also these Knight anoles can be very agressive when you handle them so be careful. They are also more prone to stress than green anoles so I suggest putting them in a quiet room.

They also need a basking spot of around 90F and around 60 - 80% humidity. this can be achieved by covering half the tank with a towel or plexiglass. leave the other half open for ventilation

Right now he's suffering in that enclosure; he's got no basking spot, no room, and no uvb light. sorry to be the bearer of bad news bud. with you being in florida, he was probably doing better outside =(

he's so pretty.

 
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petoly said:
that enclosure is way too small for it. I have the same enclosure. It's barely enough for a hermit crab. He needs at least a 10 gallon tall all to himself. Brown and green anoles are also considered arboreal. treat them the same way as you would a green anole.
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dude! he just caught the thing

he probably is too busy to just run down to the pet store and get a huge cage

he'll get to it

the anole should be fine in something like that for a few days :rolleyes:

 
Thanks Myke for the criticism I need some help with this as you can see...this setup is only temporary and mainly for a recooperation enclosure.....do those scratches look bad? Does he need medicine or something?

And these guys have been long established here in FL (someone realeased some as pets and they have taken hold in south FL) ....I have several adults (bit bigger than a foot) in the giant Royal Poinciana Tree in the back yard and Oak Tree in the front yard....this guy is offspring of them. And for lighting, I do have a UV light as his heat and light source...you can't see it that well in the last picture, but he is 'sunnin' himself on the wall right where the light was shining...(I turned it off for the picture) ....I only handled him because he was lethargic from the temp and his injuries and my warm hands perked him up...I know these reptiles, I see the adults in the back yard all the time, territory fighting and nomin on some unlucky brown anoles...and I would see the knights up higher on the tree trunk, get a nice fat juicy dubia adult female and let it crawl upwards and they would go bananers for 'em...and he is in a quite room, my bug room....he loves watching the mantids....but when he sees me a commin' he flattens out and tries to go on the other side of the branch ....and I only got him to eat by grabbing a lateralis roach with forceps and holding it up near his mouth and he nom'd it...I plan on moving him into a 40gallon when I can stop by the store and get a screen top. Okay, now having said all that, do I get an A?

 
sorry I didn't know it was a temporary enclosure. All Andrew said was he put it in an enclosure. nothing was mentioned if it was temporary or not. oh and I wasn't criticizing you for grabbing him Andrew. I was just stating in general. I never said DON'T touch him lol.

those injuries don't look fresh at all to me. Looks like he's had them for a while and they healed. I wouldn't worry. do they have a discharge? do they look shiny? from the pix to me they look like they have been there for a while. it could also be a skin infection, but because of the shapes, and the placement they are in they do look more like cuts. I only wrote all that because you said in your first post you have no experience with Knights. I wasn't trying to rag on you. nice find actually lol I wish I had one.

lol I don't really see what help you would need then. you know what youre doing. I just gave you everything that was wrong again because I read you had no experience with them. main thing is I thought you were permanently housing him in there.

yes you get an A

 
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Yeah my bad, I never said anything abt temporary...and some were old scratches and some were new, near his left eye were discharging some liquid, so I dried it with a paper towel then let him bask in the sun...I would like to establish a bond with him and be able to hold him let him chill on me...and for feeding I'm pretty sure it was an accident on his part, I'm pretty sure his mouth was open as a defense response and then "attacked" the roach...how can I get him to actually eat? I just threw in like 4 roaches and they all went to the bottom and are hiding beneath the log...its like whenever I get near he freezes and flattens out so I 'don't see him' so I can't throw food in so he can see it or anything. .. (but I know that the roaches will probably crawl around and get his attention while I'm not there...

 
When i was a kid. i had a cuban anole. At least that what they were called when i was growing up. They live pretty long. I had a female. She used to lay a lot of eggs. I never got her a mate tho. Best of luck with it. The wounds at least don't appear to be life threating.

 

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