Thanks for the feedback and kind words. Unfortunately., difficult to diagnose w/o vet, esp. x-rays to check for blockage. Early deaths are common in the wild – developmental abnormalities and such, but captives often hold on longer due to reliable food source, etc. It’s also common for one to be out-competed for food and basking opportunities; basking op or lack there-of is easy to miss, and likely behind quite a few unexplained losses. Separating the weaker one is the best way to rule this out, but of course expensive and so on; perhaps a tank divider?

UVA and B can be used together; some mercury and other bulbs emit both, but separate bulbs are fine.

Please let me know if you need any further information. Good luck, enjoy and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

All the info you have given me is great the babies seem to be doing well but we are worried about one. It doesn’t seem to have as much pep as before and is not eating. we have everything set like you suggested and were wondering if you had any other suggestions, Also can you tell me can having an UVB and an UVA light on at the same time wash each other out

Thanks for the feedback. The amount sounds fine…no need to fine tune too much as lizards seem adjust their growth and metabolism to food availability, within reason. Use small crickets and skip a day or 2 each week-10 days. UVB, if florescent, should be within 6-12 inches of the lizards…if they are not able to get that in the tank, it may be useful to move them to a shallow container for a few hours every so often

Canned insects are fine to use and can be a useful source of dietary variety. Various feeders are often available via interne dealers…check Kingsnake.com, etc. for calciworms, butterworms, sowbugs and so on; they will grow and seem to thrive for quite awhile on crickets alone, but will suffer nutritional deficiencies in time.

Much of the info in this article on Chameleon diets is applicable to your lizards.

Please let me know if you need any further information. Good luck, enjoy and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

Thanks for your interest. Very interesting lizards; they’ve recently been re-classified and placed in the genus Smaug, along with typical Sungazers…please see here for more info.

Unfortunately, there’s not much available in the way of husbandry info that has worked long term. I think increasing dietary variety would be a good idea. This article was written re Chameleon Diets by has some useful information concerning insectivorous lizards in general. Since they are eating from tongs, you can also use canned grasshoppers, silkworms etc. to add variety to the diet.

I would use a Vitamin/mineral supplement 2-3 times weekly in addition to calcium.

I’ll keep mu eyes open for new info…

Please let me know if you need any further information. Good luck, enjoy and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

Thank you for all your help last time I inquired. I do hope that I can obtain a breeding pair of C. Tropidosternum in the near future but a couple of months ago I got two male C. Mossambicus or Gorangosa Girdled Lizard. I have read a couple of post about them but nothing very helpful. For the past couple months I believe they have been doing good. Both males or in a 55 gl. They are regularly eating crickets and mealworms dusted with calcium. Although they are a very shy species, both eat from my tongs. I hope to get two females soon so I can breed them. Do you know anything about these species and there husbandry. I would greatly appreciate your advice.

Thank you

Sam

Thanks Again Ted

Thanks for the update and sorry for the bad news. As for the youngsters, overfeeding is not usually a concern, unless they are not getting enough Calcium/D3. Amounts will vary with individual animals as well as temperature, UVB exposure. Please send some details as to that, as well as their size/age, when you can.

Please keep in mind that crickets alone, even if supplemented, are not an adequate diet.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

Thanks for the update. Adult crickets have powerful mouthparts and carnivorous leanings and sometimes bite debilitated herps or those that are too cool to respond; broken skin and wounds may also be attacked. Smaller crickets are usually safe.

Crickets quickly lose or groom-away coatings of powdered supplements, and so are best consumed quickly. The lizards may be more likely to feed right away if you leave the area and observe from a distance.

An average humidity of 40% is fine; they seem to do fine under drier conditions as well. The terrarium can be misted heavily as long as it dries out thoroughly thereafter.

Please let me know if you need any further information. Good luck, enjoy and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.