tortorino@hamstr.DEC (05/18/85)
Anyone out there a lizard fancier? My son and I just got involved recently. I was trying to discourage him from wanting a rabbit (we live in an apartment complex), so I picked up a book on unusual pets, figuring that it would explain how difficult rabbits are to keep clean. I didn't expect that we would both become enthralled with the section on vivariums. For those of you who have never heard of them (I hadn't until recently), a vivarium is an old aquarium set up as a specific environment for the pet you wish to keep in it. You can have a desert vivarium, a rain-forest vivarium, tropical, etc. One of the easiest is the desert vivarium, and that's the one we chose. I already had a leaky aquarium, complete with light. We bought light bulbs, some #3 gravel, a piece of driftwood, a large piece of slate, a thermometer, and a leafy plant, plus a critter called an anole. The anole is a carnivorous lizard, about 5 - 6" long, and they do extremely well (so I hear) in a vivarium. They have often been sold to people as chameleons, as they do change color at times, but only from light brown to dark brown and occasionally to bright green. They are tamable, and ours has already begun climbing up and down our arms. They eat only live food, generally, so we bought some unsuspecting crickets for him. The leafy plant was specifically for the anole, as they do not drink their water from a dish, but off the leaves of the plant. All you do is mist the plant daily. The large piece of slate was to lean up against the side of the tank to make a sort of "cave" for the lizard to go into if he wants to get out of the light. Setting up this vivarium has proved to be quite educational for my son as well as for me! If anyone has any info (the books don't tell it all!), please send mail and let me know. Any questions, I'll try to answer as best I can. Sandy Tortorino
tortorino@hamstr.DEC (Sandy T., MKO1-2/H32, 264-5977) (05/18/85)
Sorry, I neglected to include my return address on my last message. Send any mail to: decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-hamstr!tortorino Thanks, Sandy T.
lwe3207@acf4.UUCP (Lars Warren Ericson) (05/28/85)
[]
Do the smaller lizards eat cockroaches? Might be more amusing than
Roach Motels. Of course, it means catching the little buggers and
transporting them to the vivarium -- the important question is whether
cockroaches are nutritious.
Lars Ericson
Arpa: ericson@nyu (i.e., New York City)
Usenet: {floyd,ihnp4}!cmcl2!csd1!ericsonwmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (05/28/85)
In article <2780003@acf4.UUCP> lwe3207@acf4.UUCP (Lars Warren Ericson) writes: >Do the smaller lizards eat cockroaches? Might be more amusing than >Roach Motels. Of course, it means catching the little buggers and >transporting them to the vivarium -- the important question is whether >cockroaches are nutritious. >Lars Ericson Actually, I would think the main trouble with this would be that cockroaches in todays urban environment contain a store of various insecticides and poisons, to which they have developed immunity, but which would be passed along to any animals eating them, and which would probably kill your lizard, or cause it ill-health. Maybe if they only got one every now and then, it would cause no trouble, but a steady diet would be dangerous. As far as nutrition, I would think most insects of similar size would be roughly equivalent. (Another thought -- urban bugs probably have large amounts of lead and other trace elements, again to which they have bred tolerance, but which would harm animals ingesting quantities of them.) Might be worth an experiment if you have a source of free lizards, and no concern about using some up... For pet-store-bought (e.g., costly) and really "pet" lizards, I'd avoid giving them "wild" food in a city. If you can harvest country bugs that haven't been dosed with agri-chemicals, maybe that would be OK. (Where would you find organically-grown bugs? :-) Regards, Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA
lwe3207@acf4.UUCP (Lars Warren Ericson) (06/01/85)
[] I got a positive reply on the issue of lizard vs. cockroach question. I can't figure out how to get my mailer to reply correctly. However, our Notes program works well, so forgive me for posting the reply and a question: > From seismo!ut-sally!kvue!spangler Fri May 31 16:55:56 1985 > Date: Fri, 31 May 85 14:28:27 cdt > To: cmcl2!acf4!lwe3207 > Subject: Re: Vivariums > > YES! Lizards love roaches. We had three that we fed > roaches to constantly. And it was well worth the effort > to catch the little buggers and then watch them be eaten. > > The easiest way to catch a roach is with a wooden match box. > Open the box slightly, place it over the running roach, ad > and then close it. Put it in vivarium, open it, then sit > back and watch. > > It helps if you keep the lizards a little hungry if you > invite guests over for dinner...that is...watching the > lizards eat thier dinner. > > {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,harvard,ctvax,nbires,ucb-vax}!ut-sally!kvue!spangler > Telco: 512-459-6521 (Ext. 2068) Lance Spangler > Telco: 512-459-1433 (Pvt. biz line) Senior Producer > KVUE Television > The only thing we have to Austin, Texas > fear is computing itself! <:-)) ((P. O. Box 9927)) > zip------> 78766 The question: What kind of lizards do you have? Did you catch them in the Texas outdoors, or in a pet store? If latter, how much do they cost? How big is your vivarium? What else do you have to feed them? Any medical items? If you don't have the lizards now, what was their ultimate fate? Thanks, Lars Ericson Arpa: ericson@nyu Usenet: {floyd,ihnp4}!cmcl2!csd1!ericson
k9un@ihlpa.UUCP (ague) (06/05/85)
When I was a youth, I had several iguanas. The largest was about 2 feet long tip to tip. I had them for several years and had built a fairly large cage (4' x 2.5' x 2.5') for them. We kept them on mostly a vagetarian diet but occasionally threw in some meal worms. They were fascinating pets and even my parents became fond of them. I eventually gave the whole thing away to the young son of a friend of my parents. He kept them for several more years and finally gave them to the Lincoln Park Zoo's reptile house. The cage was made of masonite with a plate glass front. I had a 100 W light bulb in a reflector at the top of the cage. Newspapers were used on the bottom and daily rations of grated carrots, celery leaves, bananas and other fruit were provided. I think I was intrigued with dinosaurs as a small child, and this was as close as I could get to having one as a pet... I lived in a co-op in Skokie at the time (co-op is a 4-apartment two story where we all owned our own apartments) and was rather limited in the types of pets my parents would allow. That sums up my experiences with lizards as pets.