Proper Care for an Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

[Riyeko]

So my mother in law and her son went out to a lake or something about a month ago.
They caught an Eastern Fence Lizard while out there, and decided to take it home.
Personally I think they should have checked her out and watched her for a while, and then let her go, but they kept her and brought her home.

They have cared for anoles before, but I assume that not all lizard types need the same kind of care.

My mother in law told me that the lizard seemed to be doing fine for the first couple of weeks that they had her... in a cage with moist dirt/wood mixture for bedding, a few branches, and a live plant (i checked, its not poisonous and you can house this type of plant with reptiles).

They of course have a small dish that they used for water.

Then came the surprise... she lost a lot of weight and was eating crickets, but they werent sure what was going on...
About a week after that, there were babies all over the tank.

They removed the babies from the tank and put them into a small pet carrier, and had been taking care of them that way, but the babies have been slowly dying over the last two weeks.

Personally I felt they shouldnt have caught the mother in the first place, but oh well, the damage is done.
So I finally talked my mother in law to giving me the last of the babies (i thought there were four, turns out, two of them died and were just laying in the carrier itself).

I have them in a carrier that gets sunlight (our reptiles only need heat, none of the UVB/UVA required), and also that sits on a heating pad thats turned down to the lowest temperature since they are so small (bout the size of my finger nail).

I have seem them eat some of the smaller meal worms that we took from our own collection, but i need to know more.

I need to know what else they will eat, what are the ideal settings such as humidity, heat, what to put into the terrarium with them.. etc.

I can find basics of stuff, but the babies continually sit in the water dish and I wonder if they need humidity (since most places are "i dont know if they dont" or "not sure").

So if anyone can give me any tips on care for these small things, i would be most appreciative.

Thanks.

Riy

 

[MDC_Ophiuchus]

I actually would set them up very similar to an anole, in terms of lighting and humidity. Sounds like you're doing well. Yeah, I would definitely mist them daily if not more. Try smaller pinhead crickets for the babies if you haven't already.

You may just want to play with the temps a little. If they're squatting in the water all the time, the heat pad may be making the bottom too warm, so you might just want to unplug that. As long as they have a temp gradient and access to UVA/B lighting, that should be adequate.

 

[anolelover]

Hey, everybody. Thanks for that. I posted something very similar to this, and I think my female Eastern Blue Bellied Fence Lizard might be pregnant, too...