fence lizards as captives

Captive care and husbandry.

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mikez
Posts: 201
Joined: October 3rd, 2010, 6:43 am
Location: north central Ma

fence lizards as captives

Post by mikez »

Has anyone had experience keeping fence lizards in captivity?

I've always loved those guys, actually baught one in a pet store maybe 40 years ago or more but it didn't last a couple months.
Later, a fence lizard was the very first lizard this northern boy ever caught as a kid at Disney with my folks. That one came home with me but also failed to thrive.
Fast forward to adulthood where I learned to keep all kind of herps including many similar lizards. Still, after a trip to NC, I brought home a couple and they alone among the skinks and anoles I kept failed to thrive.

Am I missing something?
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Kelly Mc
Posts: 4529
Joined: October 18th, 2011, 1:03 pm

Re: fence lizards as captives

Post by Kelly Mc »

Hi Mike, i have found sceloperus very UV-centric, and seem to do best in cages where the walls are inlaid w cork or stone, anything toothy they can zip across, in segway with their other cage structures.

The opprtunity to duck in and out of crevices is good for them. Not like the commercial hide logs put on floor of env but actual crevice like spaces and caverns. They change stations frequently when in the pink and have good light. I am speaking of my caretake of Clarks and Magnificant Spinys. It would be same for the smaller spiny peeps.
simus343
Posts: 566
Joined: March 30th, 2014, 1:16 pm
Location: Okaloosa ca, Fla.

Re: fence lizards as captives

Post by simus343 »

I have used cages that, like kelly suggested, I glued bark to the sides of. I went out to collect fallen pine bark in my neighborhood and glued the bark to the sides. I then placed 2 cuts from a wooden fence about 4 inches in diameter in the cage diagonally. UV 10.0 Bulb and a 100watt heat bulb from when I woke up to when I went to bed worked well. I had 1 male and 2 females for 2 years and got 1 egg clutch. I fed them locally caught moths, small crickets about "medium" size, and small meal worms. I got rid of them, as they were WC from my yard, when I needed a cage to care for an injured Eastern Ribbon Snake. The eggs didn't hatch as I did not know how to properly incubate them at the time.
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Nature Nate
Posts: 510
Joined: August 24th, 2010, 10:14 am
Location: San Diego

Re: fence lizards as captives

Post by Nature Nate »

I've lived with fence lizards in my yard my whole life and enjoyed their company while outside but I've never kept them long term. I have, however, housed a young spiny with my uromastyx in the past but the supposed herbivorous uro turned omnivore :shock:. The eggs are pretty easy to incubate. I accidentally unearthed some eggs in my yard while doing yard work. I put them in a deli cup with the same moist DG that I found them in and left them on the top shelf in my herp room. They all hatched a few months later and were released in my yard. I know friends who have kept them to scent pinks with in the same conditions as uromastyx. I would use that setup as a baseplate to start with by only reducing the hot-spot temp by about ten degrees.
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