Feeding baby anoles

Anole Care | Wilmette Pet Center

Anole: Anolis carolinenis

Adult Size
6+”, males up to 8:

Life Span
4 Years, possibly longer in captivity

Male/Female Differences
Males anoles are larger than females and have a dewlap, a flap of skin at the base of the throat. Males have a more oblong skull than a female does.

Compatibility
Males fight for territory, so keep a few females for each male. Mixes well with other lizards or amphibians, like tree frogs, that have the same needs and are not large enough to eat them.

Origin
Southeastern United States.

Climate
Hot and humid tree tops and bushes.

Day Cycle
Crepuscular, being more active in the morning and the evening.

Temperature
Maintain a temperature of 80 degrees or higher. Low temperatures adversely effect their energy and digestion. Use a combination of a heating pad and basking lamps to
provide daytime heat, and just the heating pad at night to maintain at least 70 degrees.

Lighting
UVB lighting is needed to stimulate a natural environment, to stimulate hunger, and to help assimilate calcium and vitamin D3. Provide a small basking lamp above branches to allow them to warm up.

Humidity
Keep humid; either mist with a spray bottle several times a day or install an automatic misting device. Providing a waterfall not only provides a drinking place for the anole but also increases humidity.

Habitat/Territory
These small fast lizards make their home among the leaves and vines of trees.

Substrate/Bedding
Substrate is less important here as these lizards will spend almost all of their time in the plants or on the walls. Gravel can be used, as it is easy to clean, while shredded coconut bark helps maintain humidity. Cage carpet can be used as it
is easy to clean and reduces mites. Cover with moist moss to maintain humidity.

Hiding Place/Den
Provide plenty of hiding places with plants, either real or artificial, rocks, wood, vines, or even baffles made of cage carpet.

Cage Type
Glass terrariums are ideal for anoles, as they hold in humidity and are easy to clean. It should be large enough to create plenty of hiding places. Aquariums can be used, too.

Diet
Anoles are insectivores, so feed small crickets, a few mealworms, and flightless fruit flies. Anoles are also nectar drinkers, and can be fed small pieces of fruit and small amounts of fruit puree, such as baby food. These foods must be removed soon or they will attract fruit flies (which can be eaten by the anoles).

Supplements
Additional calcium and vitamin powder can be lightly dusted over the crickets occasionally – it is recommended to alternate days of vitamin powder and calcium powder. Since crickets are naturally high in phosphorus, choose a
calcium powder that lacks that mineral.

Diet Precautions
Too much phosphorus, as excess phosphorus will be absorbed instead of calcium. Avoid too many mealworms, as these are hard to digest.

Feeding
Feed about 3 small crickets a day. Gut load the crickets with nutritious cricket food to give additional vitamins and minerals to your anole.

Water Source
Anoles rarely drink from water bowls. Mist several times a day or use a slow drip system to mimic the dew they drink in the wild. A waterfall also provides a drinking place.

Grooming
Anoles need humidity to help shed their skins. Their grooming needs are minimal.

Oral and Foot Care
Toes can get caught in loose strands of cage carpeting; check your cage carpet when you clean it. Anoles can develop mouth rot from unsanitary conditions.

Proper Handling
Most anoles are nervous and very fast, making them difficult to hold. When tame and used to you, they can sit in your hand. Handle gently, as their tale can snap off as a defense mechanism.

Habitat Maintenance
Clean the cage weekly, spot clean soiled areas daily.

Health Concerns
Dehydration is a risk as these lizards need moisture.

What Do Baby Anoles Eat? (Complete Guide)

So, you got yourself a baby green anole and you have no idea what to feed it.

Baby anole lizards are just a wee under 2 inches in size.

And their mouth is less than a few centimeters at this point!

They don’t have that big, smiling face to gargle down large items (yet).

Then what are you supposed to feed your baby lizard at this point? Miniature food? Kind of.

Let’s dig in and find out!

Table of Contents

What can I feed my baby green anole?

So, what do these lizards eat when they’re small?

Baby anoles should be fed small, live insects. Preferably, they should be gut-loaded pinhead crickets.

These contain a delicious glob of nutrients anoles need to develop a proper skeletal system.

After all, the baby anole will continue to grow from 2 inches to around 5 inches, where it’ll be considered to be an adult.

These baby crickets are often called “pinhead crickets,” which is referring to their small size. You may see them sold as miniature, mini, or small crickets in pet stores.

Since they’re so small, your newborn anole can easily fit them inside their mouths. It’ll also help introduce it to live prey, hunting and foraging, and prey stalking.

Crickets should be gut-loaded (fed a diet that’s high in beneficial nutrients) regardless of size.

Crickets are the staple that both newborns and adults will gladly eat and should make up the majority of their live prey requirement. They should also be dusted with high-quality calcium.

Check the label for dosage, frequency, and application.

Note that reptile calcium is NOT to be used every feeding. This is a supplement that should only be used once in a while, based on the label.

Where you get the food matters

Where you get your live crickets matters.

Most large chain pet stores all source them from a cricket mill.

While this is generally safe, if there were to be a disease, fungi, or bacteria that broke out, your anole may be the end recipient of them.

These crickets are bred with a low quality diet and don’t come gut loaded as well, so you’ll want to gut-load them first before you feed.

They have a poor nutrient density out of the store, so it’s your job to raise them for a week or so and load their insides up with nutritious foods.

Gut-loading is a different topic altogether that you can find more info about on this site.

How often do baby anoles eat?Their mouths are just too cute.

Baby anoles (2-3 inches in size) should be fed on a daily schedule.

Do NOT just toss in random food at random times. And DEFINITELY don’t just feed without measuring the amount of food you’re giving it.

You can count by number or weight or volume. This is helpful for determinig if your anole is stressed, as they eat less when they are.

For example, if you notice that your anole usually eats 3 crickets within 3 minutes, but then it suddenly drops to 1 cricket every hour, you may suspect that it’s stressed.

To get these precise and handy estimates, you need to get a ballpark feeling of how much your anole eats and how quickly it does.

Some owners will leave behind a large amount of food in a food dish or directly into the terrarium.

Avoid doing this, because it builds a poor appetite habit and teaches them not to eat opportunistically (since food is always available).

Feed 2-3 pinhead crickets daily, and assess how quickly it eats them.

Crickets should be gut-loaded and calcium dust should be added 2-3 times per week.

If it devours the food, you can increase it by one until it starts to take its time.

When it avoids the food, you know it’s reached the limit.

The trick is to feed it one less cricket than when it becomes full. This is why you should feed at the same time every day so you can experiment, rather than feeding it until full randomly.

Think about anoles in the wild- they don’t have food available 24/7. Try to reproduce this in the habitat by creating an environment where food is scarce but available like in nature.

The same goes for your tank setup. It should only have what’s available in the wild. Automatic feeders, drip watering systems, and other fancy equipment aren’t necessary.

If your lizard avoids it entirely or misses a feeding, that’s OK.

Offer pinheads every 3 hours past its feeding time until it eats. It may only prefer to eat at night, early morning, or afternoon. It’s all about finding out through trial and error.

You can also give it alternative live foods if it doesn’t seem interested in the pinheads. Variety will help satisfy the nutritional diversity.

Can you overfeed a baby lizard?

Anoles have been known to eat more than they need as they’re not picky eaters.

The more you offer, the more they’ll eat if their appetite has been conditioned correctly. This leads to overfeeding.

Remember the rule- feed one cricket (or whatever you’re using) less than when it starts to slow down pouncing on its prey.

Baby anoles can be fed more often since they’re growing, but overfeeding should still be avoided.

Don’t leave crickets running around the terrarium if possible.

Although this may help build hunting skills, live prey will poop and pee all over the tank, which can introduce bacterial or viral pathogens to your lizard.

This is especially true if the prey has been housed in a farm (e.g. a cricket farm). It also reduces the risk for injury.

Do I need to worry about live prey hurting my anole?

Pinhead crickets also have a VERY low chance of doing any harm to your anole.

So even if yours is extremely shy or still learning to catch its food, the tiny cricket won’t be able to do any damage. The major sources of damage come from the eyes.

Other than that, there’s not much to worry about- even if your anole sleeps with live pinheads running around.

Mealworms are harmless. They won’t be able to do anything to your anole other than provide a low-nutrient snack.

Remember to NOT rely on just mealworms and only use them as a supplement to mix up the diet.

What can I feed my baby lizard besides bugs?They’re not picky, so be careful about overfeeding. Don’t give in.

If your anole doesn’t eat and refuses the food, you can offer alternatives to crickets.

It’s also good practice in general to vary the diet so it gets as many nutrients from various foods as possible.

Crickets don’t supply everything it needs to thrive- it only has as much as you gut load it with. and even then, the food has been digested inside the cricket so it’s not as bioavailable as feeding fresh, wholesome pieces.

Anolis carolinensis is an opportunistic feeder, meaning that it eats whenever the opportunity presents itself. In the wild, they bask and forage for food. If food is available, it’ll eat.

This makes it a balancing act to provide enough food, but not overfeed.

You can experiment with the following live foods instead of crickets:

Waxworms
Butterworms
Small spiders
Earthworms
Fruit flies
Small caterpillars
Small cockroaches
Ladybugs
Moths
Mosquitoes
Small grasshoppers
Mealworms (should be avoided because it contains little nutritional value)
Sowbugs (roly polys)
Slugs
Snails
Spiders

Some people will feed whatever they have around the house, such as maggots, flies, or even cockroaches (dubia roaches being very popular).

This can introduce harmful pathogens to the baby’s body, so it should be avoided unless you’re completely sure it’s “diet-approved.”

There are too many different household pests to get a checklist going, so you need to do your due diligence if you decide to go this route.

But you must gut load them and supplement them with calcium dust weekly. Consider rotating the food to keep it interesting to the baby anole.

Fruits and vegetables can be offered, but shouldn’t be the staple of the baby anole’s diet.

You can supplement with these foods:

Apple slices
Strawberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Honeydew
Peaches
Bananas
Carrots
Kale (without stalk)
Lettuce (no nutritional value)
Oranges
Zucchini

These are to be used as treats. They should never replace the protein they need to grow.

Always cut down fruits and veggies to small, manageable bites for the baby lizard to consume. If it refuses, do not leave it in the vivarium. Remove it and dispose of it.

Reduce sizes by slicing or dicing it to pieces less than a centimeter to be safe. This will reduce the chance of impaction.

Leftover fruits or veggies can be kept in the fridge for later feeding.

Foods that were offered, but not eaten, should be disposed of. Don’t leave fresh fruits or veggies to rot. This will introduce bacteria and mold which can hurt your lizard.

Be sure to wash them before feeding, just as you would for yourself. Remove all seeds, rinds, or indigestible parts.

Organic baby food can also be used sparingly because it’s easy to chew and nutritious.

But again, only as a treat. A baby anole’s diet should consist of protein first, calcium second, and fruits/veggies last. Feed your lizard the right portions.

Wild anoles don’t eat fruit but may extract flower nectar rarely. So they don’t eat this in nature.

When in doubt, think if your reptile would be doing whatever in the wild.

No? Then you shouldn’t try to replicate it in captivity.

Thus, you should never offer them fruits or veggies in frequent numbers.

It’s just like humans- we shouldn’t be eating desserts as our main course! But a little bit in moderation is OK.

Can baby anoles eat ants?

Yes, baby lizards are capable of eating household common ants without any issue.

If you can catch some live ones, they make good practice targets for them to pounce on.

Since they’re so small, your lizard may have difficulty seeing it.

Even though they can eat them, you should avoid using ants as the main source of food. They’re no substitute for a gut-loaded meal but can make a tasty treat to keep the food intake varied.

Common ants are high in protein, which makes up about 40% of their nutritional value. They also have a wide variety of essential minerals like zinc, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Feed anywhere from 3-7 ants per day.

Make sure that you’re feeding them the typical ant and not termites, fire ants, or red ants.

The ant should be narrow at the waist and less than a centimeter in size. Adult anoles (greater than 5 inches) can tolerate bigger ants.

Carpenter ants are fine to feed in small quantities.

But remember- these don’t replace a gut-loaded dubia cockroach or pinhead cricket! No sir.

Feed your baby lizard the right foodsThanks for taking care of your baby anole.

Now you should have a clearer understanding of what you can feed your baby anole (and what not to feed).

Stick with the basics that you plan to feed it as it grows into an adult anole over time so it gets used to them.

Calcium dusted, gut-loaded crickets will always be appreciated.

Toss in some fruits, veggies, and maybe baby food. Then you’re set for a nice balanced anole diet.

That’s all there is to it. Easy, right?

What do you think? Have any questions? Post a comment and ask away!

Further reading

xyz

About the rules for preparing a child for a blood test

Hello dear parents! I would like to tell you about the rules for preparing a child for a blood test:

A blood test is a good way to get detailed information about a person's health. However, if a child is to take blood from a vein, it is advisable for parents to prepare their baby for this procedure.

Rules for preparing a child for a blood test.

1. Physiological preparation:

Make sure that the child's diet meets the required analysis. With a general blood test, you should not feed the child in the morning before the analysis. Sweet drinks are also contraindicated. But at the same time it is possible, even recommended, to give him water to drink. When examining blood for various diseases, such as infectious diseases, the child should not be given fried and too salty, sweet or fatty foods during the day before the analysis.

If possible, choose the right time for analysis. It is better to take it in the morning so that the child does not remain hungry for a long time.

Ideally, if the blood of a small patient is taken not from a finger, but from a vein. The fact is that when taking blood from a finger, the nurse has to press on the finger. This can lead to hemolysis, the destruction of blood cells in the sample. Due to hemolysis, the result of the analysis may turn out to be incorrect. In venous blood samples, hemolysis occurs many times less frequently. Another reason is that with any damage to the vessel, the mechanism of blood clotting is triggered.

Venous blood does not come into contact with air and immediately enters the test tube, where it is mixed with an anticoagulant that prevents the formation of clots. In capillary blood, the risk of formation of microclots that reduce the accuracy of the study is much higher.

Drawing blood from a vein is a safe and virtually painless procedure that does not cause any serious discomfort. Modern disposable vacuum systems for blood sampling allow you to take blood very quickly - the child does not even have time to feel anything.

2. Psychological preparation, no less important:

Before going to the test with a child, you should talk to him. If the parents remain calm and unflappable, then the little patient perceives the procedure without fear.

Discuss what will happen with a child who is older than preschool or school age. You should not frighten him, especially if he donates blood from a vein for the first time.

However, explain that, unlike a fingerstick test, a vein test takes longer. You can also warn that, most likely, the child will have discomfort. In some cases, analogies help. For example, sensory analysis can be compared to a mosquito bite. Such comparisons are understandable to the child and help set him up for a calm analysis.

All preparation of the child for any manipulation should be carried out through the game method. Only during the game can the child relax and accept everything that is said to him. Therefore, if you want to prepare the baby, then try to play "hospital" with him. And as the game progresses, you can have fun exploring the stage of taking tests. And he will no longer seem intimidating to the child.

For very young laboratory patients, it is good to use distraction manipulations at the time of blood sampling. For example, to draw the child's attention to some toy. Make sure that the child does not get bored in the queue while he is waiting for a blood test. Take with you a book, his favorite toy, a coloring book with felt-tip pens - depending on age. This will not only take his time, but also will not allow him to concentrate on the fear of the upcoming procedure.

Decide if you need to be present in the office during the analysis. Of course, it will be needed if the child is very small, but for some schoolchildren the presence of parents can only interfere and provoke tears or protest. Focus on the psychological characteristics of the child. After the manipulation, give the baby pleasant emotions - hug the baby, do interesting things, for example, play or watch your favorite cartoon. Then the negative from the procedure will quickly be forgotten.

Have a nice day. Sincerely, Kochetkova M. V.

How to prepare a child for blood sampling?

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Laboratory diagnostics

2253 20 September

Preparing for blood sampling in children from 1 day to 12 months:

Try to donate blood before the next feeding.
30 minutes before the procedure, it is advisable to give the child some water (up to 50 ml).
At the time of blood sampling, the child's hands must be warm.
Immediately before the procedure, position the child so that he is as comfortable as possible.
Make sure the child is calm. It should take a couple of minutes before the nurse starts drawing blood.

Preparing for blood sampling in children under 14:

Remain completely calm. Tell your child in an interesting and accessible way what will happen in the laboratory, why tests are needed. Warn that he may have discomfort, but they will pass quickly.
If necessary, stay close to the child in the treatment room.
Hold small children during the procedure.
It is advisable not to start drawing blood immediately after entering the treatment room. Give your child time to calm down and settle down.

IMPORTANT!

The information in this section should not be used for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. In case of pain or other exacerbation of the disease, only the attending physician should prescribe diagnostic tests. For diagnosis and proper treatment, you should contact your doctor.
For a correct assessment of the results of your analyzes in dynamics, it is preferable to do studies in the same laboratory, since different laboratories may use different research methods and units of measurement to perform the same analyzes.

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Dear patients! Please note that it is recommended to donate blood for laboratory tests in the morning on an empty stomach, after an 8-12 hour overnight fasting period. If the patient does not have the opportunity to come to the laboratory in the morning, blood should be donated after 6 hours of fasting, excluding fats in the morning meal.

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