my lizards Podarcis sicula
|
many pictures of my lizards more images FAQ housing gender mating pictures winter food heating, light humidity and other things live webcam diese seite auf deutsch |
ganz.jpg(476kb)
|
i keep my lizards (lacerta sicula sicula) in this home-brew terrarium. material: metal, plastic, acrylic glass, wood, screws, hinges, sand, stones. dimensions: it is 98cm long, deep 50cm and 115cm high. the whole left and right side can be opened. so i can reach every corner of the terrarium. if you construct a terrarium it is important that all hiding places can be controlled easily.
|
gender.jpg(213kb) |
usually males are bigger and stronger than the females.
males can be recognised easily. they have glands on the back of the hind legs it looks like fringes. the picture on the right shows a male lizard. Images of the violent mating behaviour |
 |
during the winter i put my lizards in the cellar. i put each one in a plastic box with filled peat. this box goes in a hibernation case made of wood, isolated with polystyrene and filled with peat. the cover is isolated too. the whole thing is put in the cellar for 2-3 month. 4°C to max.12°C. important: you have to bath the lizards in tepid water every day one week before shutting-down heating. this is important to void the digestive system. otherwise rests of food inside the stomach of the lizards will go bad during winter. after the bathing week you can switch off the heating and wait until the animals get stiff. afterwards you can put them in the winter-case as described above. in springtime you will have to do the bathing sessions again. do not feed them before that! this time the bathing is meant to reactivating the digestive system of the animal. snakes will die if you do not bath them. after it they will eagerly eat. | ||||
|
|||||
| food | heating and light |
|
i give each of them every second day one or two crickets. sometimes moths and seldom meal-worms
because they are greasy. i put multi-vitamin powder (from the pet shop) on the crickets before feeding. lizards do not eat only meat! they like ripe fruits. such as crushed apples, pears, strawberry, seldom bananas because they cause constipation and other crushed fruits. you can experiment with what they like but do not give milk products and take care that nothing goes bad or moldy. there are individual differences in what they like. bigger lizards are more likely to eat more fruits and small ones do not eat much fruits. there must be always water for them to drink. i put calcium and vitamin d3 for infants in the water to prevent deficiency symptoms. specially important for young lizards because of bone growth! i offer them several fruit juices. |
the terrarium should be placed at a sunny location near a window. i have hidden a heating cable buried in the sand. neon and spot lamps for plants are placed on the top of the terrarium . at noon a infrared lamp is activated. it is set at a distance of 1 m. the are temperature should be min 26°C. (at nights the temperature can and should be lower.) specially heated spots can reach temperatures of max. 36-40°C. if the weather is bad and the light intensity is low for long time, i use an "osram ultra vitalux"(300 Watt, E27 ) UVB lamp once, twice or three times a week for 10 minutes. distance min. 2m |
|
vit.jpg(63kb)
|
on the right you can see the multi-vitamin (3x), calcium and Vi-De 3.
i use products from different companies and composition. |
draussen.jpg(115kb)
|
on the right side:
in the summer if the weather is sunny i put them out in a simple cage. sprinkle water every day! for additional humidity i use an air humidifier. it is placed near the terrarium and it produces steam. a CPU-fan blows the steam in to the terrarium. the CPU-fan dilutes the steam and makes it less hot. in this manner the lizards are not in danger to get burned. the steam humidifier is activated every few hour for 30 minutes by a timer. |
|
pictures of the humidifier setup |
 befeuchter.jpg(27kb) |
 befeuchteroben.jpg(42kb) |
 befeuchterblick.jpg(126kb) |
 befeuchtergitter.jpg(56kb) |
| www.lacerta.de - very good lizard page.. |
