| Member |
Message |
|
#1676186
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Whats the best food? 
I feed my plated fruit and cricks. He loves meal worms but I am not sure if he can have them w/out impaction problems. And he smacks me with his tail, is that normal?
|
|
03/26/08 12:36am
|
|
|
#1680246
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1676186
Whats the best food?
is anyone even here? this is a "need to have an answer" kind of thing please!
|
|
03/29/08 06:38am
|
|
|
#1683280
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1680246
Whats the best food?
Sorry i have been away but i do not believe i can answer your questions without a little more information. first thing what kind of plated lizard do you have and approximately how long is it?
I am pretty sure that all species of plated lizards can eat fruit. i would also try offering dark leafy greens. as for the meal worms i do not believe that there are any species of plated lizard that do not reach a size large enough to consume meal worms without the risk of impaction but i cannot give you a definite answer without knowing what kind and what size your plated is.
Sorry if my information is limited at this point but my only experience with plated lizards is with black lines (Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus), and Giant plated lizards (Gerrhosaurus validus).
If you can supply me with a little more information i should be able to answer your questions in regards to your specific species of plated.
MJLI
|
|
03/31/08 07:59am
|
|
|
#1683889
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1683280
Whats the best food?
Hes a full grown Sudan plated lizard. I know he is w/c. He hides his food under the dirt and smacks me with his tail. He can eat the med size meal worms but I wanted to be sure they would not cause impaction. I just found out NOT to feed them to my beardie and wanted to be sure it was ok for him. I have read conflicting things about what to feed. I am feeding cricks, friut and greens. He refuses the greens. I didn’t know there were more than one kind of plated lizard...sorry for the lack of info.
As for an exact mesure on how long he is I can only estimate because he smacks me every time I touch him. So maybe 1 & 1/2ft? I can try for a pic...if he holds still.
|
|
03/31/08 05:06pm
|
|
|
#1684807
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1683889
Whats the best food?
i would say for a full grown Sudan plated lizard you should be able to feed the largest size of meal worms without having to worry about impaction. i have been using super worms with my black lined plated lizards since they were about 15 inches and have never had a problem. both species of plated lizards that i own seem to prefer super worms to crickets, so that is what i feed most often. my black lined plated have on occasion eaten probably 30 super worms a piece and had no problems with digesting them.
i would advise that you watch your plated the first time you feed them to him and see if he "chews" them or not. if the worms are "chewed" before being consumed this will further reduce any issues you may encounter.
as long as the temperature and the humidity levels are correct in the cage i do not believe that you would encounter any problems by feeding any size of meal worms.
please feel free to ask any other questions you may have and i will do my best to answer them or try to find someone else who can.
MJLI
|
|
04/01/08 07:56am
|
|
|
#1685326
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1684807
Whats the best food?
Thanks. He seems to enjoy the cricks and the meal worms so I alternate weekly to mix it up a bit. Thanx for the help!
|
|
04/01/08 05:37pm
|
|
|
#1687530
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1685326
Whats the best food?
Not a problem it is always nice to see others using this forum as a good site for information and not just a place to tell jokes and ask unrelated questions. plated lizards are some of my favorite lizards and it is nice to see someone else who cares as much about theirs as i do mine.
MJLI
|
|
04/03/08 08:07am
|
|
|
#1688474
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1687530
Whats the best food?
I can’t take him out as much as I like due to the tail smacking issue. Is it normal for him to be so aggressive with his tail? When I do get him out he sits on me with me holding his tail {I don’t need a bloody nose lol} Any ideas on how to curb this or are the plateds just prone to smack you?
|
|
04/03/08 10:28pm
|
|
|
#1688823
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1688474
Whats the best food?
Depending on how long you have owned the lizard it could just be the fact that he is still trying to adapt to his surroundings and having to leave the place where he feels the most secure causes him alot of stress. if he was acquired relatively recently my suggestion would be to allow him about a month of hands of acclimation with time in between where he can see you but not interact with you, such as you sitting there observing it from outside the enclosure. this should allow him to see that you mean him no harm and that you dont look at him as a source of food.
After this period of about a month begin to slowly take him out once or twice a week allowing him some freedom, basically meaning dont restrain him the whole time. once he begins to realize you are not a predator he should become less and less skittish around you and you can increase the number of times you take him out to as many as you feel necessary.
this is the strategy i used with all four of my plated lizards and i had success with all four they are now fine with me removing them from their enclosures and have no problem with me being around them when they are in their enclosure.
if this strategy does not work you may have to accept the fact that he may not be okay with your presence until he feels you are no longer a threat. with some animals it takes a lot longer and with some it never seems to happen.
i wish you the best of luck and hope that at some point you will be able to interact with him without having to fear being smacked.
MJLI
|
|
04/04/08 08:02am
|
|
|
#1691339
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1688823
Whats the best food?
Well I have had him for three months now and tried everything including what you said. {our vet said the same thing lol} Its ok though. If he wants to be left alone untill cleaning day then I will. He is a w/c so I assume hes pretty pissed being in a tank. I take him out 3 times a week to try holding him. I have had some succses in the past week. He only smacks at me for the first 10 min or so then looks at me like "ok fine whatever!" Even if I can never hold him like my beardie its ok. Some pets are a look and no touch I guess.
By the way my son named him Mater after the truck in the Cars movie. I don’t have any pics of him just yet.
Thanks for all your advice and I will continue to work with my grumpy boy! :)
|
|
04/06/08 05:27am
|
|
|
#1691596
Reptilius
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1691339
Whats the best food?
For food, mine has so far indulged in just about everything, including lettuce, oranges, crickets, grapes, applesauce, etc. Mine seems to love crickets the most though. About your tail issue, for plated lizards it’s a defense mechanism that they use, rather then biting. Wild caught ones are supposed to be more prone to it, since they weren’t born in captivity. As far as i can figure, mine is captive bred, so naturally it’s more prone to being held, but it did whip me with it’s tail a little when i first got him, but after a couple weeks of daily handling, it’s become incredibly docile and now I can hold him as much as I want, even walk around with him on my shoulder while I do daily household tasks.
|
|
04/06/08 12:25pm
|
|
|
#1691790
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Reptilius In reference to Message Id: 1691596
Whats the best food?
I was told to never feed lettuce to any lizard. It has no value to the animal and can cause loose stool. Just what I was told so if its wrong sorry.
|
|
04/06/08 03:10pm
|
|
|
#1692748
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1691790
Whats the best food?
i would have to agree with snakecharmer on that one. iceberg lettuce has almost no nutritional value and should generally be replaced with a dark leafy vegetable (excluding spinach).
also (reptilus) i just thought i would mention that 99% of the plated lizards in the pet trade are wild caught so the chance that yours is captive bred is very slim. i am not trying to say you are wrong there are some people who have successfully bred them but most of them are imported from Africa. if yours is in fact captive bred i would love to know the name of the breeder from which you got it as i would love to contact them and get some specifics on how they pre-condition their animals for breeding.
since chances are that yours (snakecharmer) is wild caught i was just wondering if you took it to a vet when you got it, because plated lizards are known for carrying heavy parasite loads?
MJLI
|
|
04/07/08 08:00am
|
|
|
#1693242
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1692748
Whats the best food?
Yep! Before he came home I made a pit stop to the vet. I knew most sudans were w/c and the chance of him having parasites was high. I did do some reserch on the breed but most of what you find is no good. I asked the vet about what to feed and even he was stumped. Hes a rep vet but the sudan is kind of a new thing for him. He treats my snakes, frogs and beardie. Oh and why not spinich as a green? I feed it to Mater and Spike {the beardie}. Its baby spinich fresh not canned. If there is a health risk I need to know and I will stop feeding it.
|
|
04/07/08 04:43pm
|
|
|
#1695822
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1693242
Whats the best food?
i am not really an expert on the greens but i have been told that spinach is bad for lizards because the ratio of oxalic acid to phosphorus is not very well balanced, and that this can cause calcification of the soft tissues in your lizards body. this could eventually lead to death in your lizard but that would take a few years and would most likely only occur if you fed spinach as a staple. some other greens i would recommend instead are: kale, endive, escarole, bok choy, Boston lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, or collard greens. like i said since you are not feeding the spinach as a staple in his diet it is really nothing to worry about, but if you do continue to feed it you may encounter problems a few years down the line. hope this was helpful.
MJLI
|
|
04/09/08 07:55am
|
|
|
#1697235
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1695822
Whats the best food?
Wow. Good to know. I feed Mater and Spike {the beardie} mustard greens and friut mostly. The spinach was something suggested to me on the beardie forum. I don’t feed it often and probably won’t ever now. I try to keep my kids as healthy as possible! Mater dose like a pinky once a month and our vet said that was ok. He likes them live so I put it in his dish and the next morning its gone.
And do your plated guys dump there water and sleep in the dish? Or bury the food and eat it later? He is driving me crazy with the water dish! I have to check it 2-3x a day to be sure hes not in it. He is on peat moss {dirt if you ask me} and likes it better than the aspen. Mater also burys himself and refuses to come out and be seen. He is sneeky and comes out in the morning hours...I taped him...its like he hates me! I would never give him up though, he lets me pet him now but still wants to smack when I pick him up.
|
|
04/10/08 04:17am
|
|
|
#1697300
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1697235
Whats the best food?
i have never experienced the dumping of the water bowl issue you are having. probably because i use a large water bowl so that it is heavy enough they cant flip it. one of the reasons that he could be flipping it is if he is digging under it for a place to hide and feel secure and is flipping it when he tries to leave his burrow. have you noticed him trying to dig under any of the cage decorations or trying to wedge himself into tight spaces? if so i would suggest putting some large pieces of cork bark in there on the ground for him to dig under. they can also be half buried to stop him from moving them around. i find that my plated lizards all like to be in tight spaces because they feel more secure. they like to dig under the bark i provide for them and will choose that as a hiding place rather that the cave like hide that i provided for them.
also i have never had any of my four plated lizards bury their food. do you mean that they bury the fruit and vegetables or that they bury the crickets?
hope that some of the information and suggestions i have given have helped to make your plated lizard’s life more pleasant
MJLI
|
|
04/10/08 07:59am
|
|
|
#1698559
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1697300
Whats the best food?
He burys the non living food lol. I think he save it for later? I see him throw dirt in his dish and cover the whole thing! Then later there is no food! I feed him every other day on the cricks so he will eat his friut and veggie mix. I threw out the spinach and replaced it with mustered greens. He has a log hide and hes in it all the time and still flips his dish? He is in a 20 long tank. Can I put him in a 50 or is that to much? And can he have a friend, male or female? Not that I can tell witch is what! I think I am driving you crazy with all the questions...sorry! I just want to know everything about what I can do for him or what I can make better.
|
|
04/11/08 06:28am
|
|
|
#1698603
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1698559
Whats the best food?
since you say that he uses his log hide alot i wold say that another reason could be that the substrate is too dry. you could try raising the humidity a bit but i wouldn’t let it get too high because it could cause upper respiratory complications. as for the tank a larger tank sounds like it would be a good idea. i do not think that a fifty gallon tank would be too large. do you know the exact dimensions of the tank? after i find that out i would be able to tell you whether or not a second plated lizard would be an OK option.
don’t worry about asking too many questions it is always nice to see some one else as interested in getting everything right as i am.
MJLI
|
|
04/11/08 07:55am
|
|
|
#1699282
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1698603
Whats the best food?
I don’t have exact but its a 50gal fish tank. I have to move my big ball to a smaller tub and its going to be open in a week or so. I can’t buy another one fro a bit. Got some new pets coming in and want to qt them first. I do want another one so hes not so alone.
|
|
04/11/08 05:47pm
|
|
|
#1702583
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1699282
Whats the best food?
in a fifty gallon aquarium you should easily be able to house two together as long as you provide ample hides and visual barriers. the only suggestion i would make would be to try to get one of the opposite sex
MJLI
|
|
04/14/08 08:06am
|
|
|
#1703887
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1702583
Whats the best food?
thats what I am concerned with. I am not too sure he is a he and if the shop can get me the right one. The owner just gets in one or two a year so its hard to say if I could get it right. I may just let him have the 50 by him self if thats ok? Give him more pete and more hides and clutter the tank up. Would that work?
|
|
04/15/08 03:29am
|
|
|
#1703953
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1703887
Whats the best food?
that would be a good idea. the more space, obstacles and cage decorations you can give him the better. the extra things to climb on or over provide mental stimulation and will allow him more choices on where to lay. don’t over do it and completely cover all the floor space but put in enough so that he always has something to do.
MJLI
|
|
04/15/08 07:48am
|
|
|
#1705186
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1703953
Whats the best food?
Ya this will take me a bit to fix up. I got to get the ball out of the tank so he can go in it. I will try to get pics up of him asap.
|
|
04/16/08 07:10am
|
|
|
#1705204
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1705186
Whats the best food?
i think it will be worth it in the end. both the ball python and the plated lizard will benefit from a little more space. I’d be interested in seeing some of the pics when you get them up.
MJLI
|
|
04/16/08 07:48am
|
|
|
#1705545
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1705204
Whats the best food?
Got a new camera. Give me a day or so and I will get Mater to calm down {ha ha} He is a nice reptile and has an awesome attitude! I like the "don’t mess with me" tail whip
|
|
04/16/08 03:05pm
|
|
|
#1706380
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1705545
Whats the best food?
yeah plated lizards generally have very good personalities after they get used to you being around them. can’t wait to see those pictures.
MJLI
|
|
04/17/08 07:48am
|
|
|
#1707986
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1706380
Whats the best food?
He is being dificult....can’t get him out yet...sorry
|
|
04/18/08 02:40pm
|
|
|
#1710963
Mjli nuogenerm
View Profile
|
Message To: Snakecharmer713 In reference to Message Id: 1707986
Whats the best food?
i wouldn’t try to pull him out as this will only cause further stress and make him less trusting of you in general. just try to get pics of him when he is out doing his daily activities such as eating or basking.
MJLI
|
|
04/21/08 07:48am
|
|
|
#1712098
Snakecharmer713
View Profile
|
Message To: Mjli nuogenerm In reference to Message Id: 1710963
Whats the best food?
SORRY have been away for a bit. I am trying to work more with him everyday. He seems better and I am trying to get pics but I think the noise of the camera scares him? So now I am trying to get a decent pic through the glass. He is a booger....hope to have a new post soon.
|
|
04/22/08 05:43am
|
|
