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Legality of horned toads

spawn

spawn

mossy frogs are the hardiest frogs
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So I read some time ago Texas horned toads (the horned lizards that occur in some of the southern US states that eat ants) are illegal to sell across state lines, or even keep in captivity.

I just wanted clarification on this. Is this ONLY the Texas native horned toads? I saw quite a few companies with ads popping up with these guys and thought it was important.
 
There are several species of Phrynosoma, and the laws differ by state. To my knowledge, only certain Southwestern states address these animals specifically (CA, UT, TX, AR). The Texas horned lizard (P. cornutum) is indeed protected and cannot be collected. Most of what you see for sale are P. platyrhinos, which can be collected, but quantities are limited.
My personal experience: I keep a group of P. platyrhinos. I am in complete agreement that they are only for very advanced keepers. They will eat anything that moves, but if not supplied proper amounts of formic acid, they will die within a year. (I have females that will be 4 years old this summer). When I started keeping phrynos, I ordered ants for them for the winter months, and they lived in an outdoor pens with wild ants in the warmer months. I did find that they did very well with our St. Louis ants. Repashy has come out with a formic acid supplement which I tried this past winter, and with some tweaking, the animals did very well on it (I weighed them monthly). That made things far easier. They're back outdoors right now, chowing on ants that are attracted to pieces of melon I place in the enclosure.

Noelle
 
Very interesting Christine! I long wondered how so many people kept these in captivity but I just assumed most were dropshipping/getting rid of them quick because I kept coming up with 'they need ants'.
 
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