Scientific Facts
| Common Name | Green Anole or Carolina Anole |
| Scientific Name | Anolis carolinensis |
| Life Span | 3 to 6 years (longer if it lives in the wilderness) |
| Size | 5 to 8 inches (depends on the gender) |
| Habitat | Forest areas where trees are abundant (Arboreal creatures) |
| Country of Origin | Southern United States |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern |
Physical Description
One of the most unique lizards that exist in the modern world, Green Anoles have been widely known as one of the best reptiles to be kept at home and consider as a pet. This lizard is endemic in the United States, though because of domesticating this type of lizard, the species have spread widely across the American continent.
Its striking color from lime to emerald green is deeply associated with the way of this lizard’s hunt for food as it can be used for camouflaging and even self-defense from the predators who seek to eat their kinds. Another exciting feature of this lizard is the male’s striking and vibrant dewlap, displayed for specific moments in an anole’s life.
They all have long and slender tails to keep their balance and homeostasis in stable condition, as well as their wonderful clawed pads for effective climbing. Contrasting its dominant green color is its white belly and lips. Its eyes have unique blue spots on its sides and unlike the other animals, they can move their eyes independently from one another, each powered with a high resolution that can see UV rays before them. They can even see colors better than how we see.
Its size also matters for those who want to keep it as a pet, especially that reptile lovers will not be required to give so much horizontal space for the animal, instead, it needs a high caging system due to its arboreal way of living in the wilderness.
They can be perceived as kind, but these lizards are highly territorial, especially the male ones, to the point that it can kill another Green Anole, just to keep its territory be unharmed from any invasion.
Luckily, determining a male from female anoles is easier by looking at its physical size. Male anoles are relatively bigger than the females, ranging from 6 to 8 inches, compared to 3 to 5 inches. One thing to check is the presence of a stripe located at the back of an Anole. Female anoles have this stripe, while males only have the pinkish to reddish dewlaps. Another trait to consider is your lizard’s sex organ underneath its belly. Male anoles have 2 postanal scales and the female has none.
However, these indicators can’t be detected easily as you need to wait for a year before confidently finding out if your lizard is a female or a male one.
Types
There are no subspecies with the Green Anoles. However, they are directly related to the other anoles scattered across the globe. These anoles are all classified under the following Scientific Classification:
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Reptilia |
| Order | Squamata |
| Suborder | Iguania |
| Family | Dactyloidae |
| Genus | Anolis |
Despite being related to the other species of lizards, Green Anoles have differences with the other creatures. This difference relies on the geographical location where it endemically lives. Green Anoles are natives of North American subtropical forests. They are abundantly reproducing in the Atlantic side of the United States, from Florida to North Carolina. Their habitat extends to the Gulf Coasts of Alabama to Texas. Aside from the United States, there are endemic kinds of them living in the Caribbean countries of Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Haiti, Barbados, and the other island nations in the said region.
Upon human development and migrations, Green Anoles have been introduced to Hawaii and Bonin Islands of Japan.
Life Span
Green Anoles’ life span ranges closely the same as the other lizards of the world. Based on Scientific studies during the earlier times, researchers have noticed that Green Anoles live longer in the wilderness than those who live in captivity.
Having been mentioned about its life span, Green Anoles share the same life cycle with the other lizards in existence:
1) Eggs
Like the other reptiles, Green Anoles start their lives in the eggs where they will eventually hatch and start to live lives on their own. During a breeding season, female anoles give birth to a single egg, once every two weeks, or 15 to 18 when the summertime comes.
The eggs have been laid by the mother Green Anoles in places where the moist is ideal for them, burying it under leaf litters or in shallow logs. Unfortunately, Mother Green Anoles are known to be not affectionate with its children, abandoning them sometime after they lay their eggs. Take note that the hatching time happens 5 to 7 weeks after the actual laying. These are the most crucial times for all anoles, considering that to be a child brings so many disadvantages and unfortunate events in the wilderness.
Some lizards hunt for baby and unborn lizards, as well the birds and other possible carnivorous animals in the wild. With this condition, there is a high chance of mortality rate for the baby anoles, with the worst cases of all the eggs failed to hatch because the expected babies were killed by the merciless predators- their eggs were crushed or consumed completely.
Another challenge to face is the scarcity of food right after they came out from the eggs. The new hatchlings have to find the food for their own, as their mothers simply don’t care with them at all or they were just simply forgotten forever by their moms, which in turn, can be included in the list of their predators.
2) Young anoles
If an anole has surpassed the critical stage of being a hatchling, it has to continue on living and learn all by itself. They are trained on how to be independently great in adapting to the ever-changing habitats and weathers, as well as on how to effectively hunt for food, despite their early ages.
If you think that they have already passed the trial of being eaten too early. Think again. Some predators are badly delighted with the taste of young anoles, considering that they still have softer bones, younger skins, and more tender muscles. It is a great hazard that they have to face before living a normal life. Apart from it, young anoles must find their spot to live and settle for good as they are known to be semi-territorial species of reptiles.
Young Green Anoles are known to eat insects such as ants, beetles, spiders, and moths. There are cases where they are seen eating butterflies.
It is in this time that the young anoles develop their ability to enlarge their dewlaps for males, and create significant backline for females. Apart from it, they are also learning how to apply the camouflaging technique in their lives, protecting them more effectively away from their potential predators. During their relaxed time, their color ranges from light green to yellowish-green. With their mad moments, male anoles turn into a brown lizard and display more aggressive behavior.
Like a child innocently curious about everything, these young green anoles live their lives to the fullest. It is in this time that Green Anoles develop their familiarity and adaptation to their home, being arboreal lizards, or those who want to live on trees.
As they have to develop and grow bigger, they experience frequent shedding of their skins as many as several times a year. All of these molting processes have been useful for them, giving them a bigger space for growth and nutritious food to digest during this tiresome moment of their lives- their skin.
3) Adult Anoles
As they grow older, they are now more able of anything, quite experienced to everything, and probably, shook off tens of death threats surrounding them in the wilderness. It is in this stage that all Green Anoles are more able to defend and fight for themselves. Also, they experience seldom skin shedding, with some as rare as once a year or longer.
They have mastered the art of preying smaller creatures for their food, living under unfavorable weather conditions, suffered injuries because of the uneven terrain where they live and have established its sleeping cycle completely.
They are known to directly confront their prey and kill them with their sticky tongue. This way of predation is common among the lizards, especially the bigger ones. Upon sticking with their tongues, Green Anoles chew it slowly until it can be swallowed completely. Worrying about it chewing some toxic insects? Well, you don’t have to as these reptiles have a strong immune system to combat strong strains of venom embedded in some of their favorite diets.
Eating Habits
Green Anoles are not opportunistic predators, they simply eat the creatures which they can eat, unlike the lizards who love to eat animals bigger and heavier than them. They love to eat other smaller insects such as bugs, grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes, and even spiders. They also eat maggots, cockroaches, crickets, and all kinds of worms.
Their best asset for eating, aside from the camouflaging technique, is their tongue which sticks offer a perfect adhesion to anything it touches, like the preys. Once that a prey stuck with the tongue, there are no more possible chances of the prey running away for its life.
These lizards are stealthy in movements, creating a surprise and stunning attack for their prey, and the prey they target are trapped in helpless situations aside from submitting themselves to be as foods of these lizards. This effective survival by Green Anoles are largely credited with the power of their eyes and feet which moves in perfect coordination, creating a strong and a crystal clear live visualization on what happens on it surrounding, and its feet which can stick strongly with the branches and barks of the trees and plants where it jumps off.
Sleeping Habits
Green Anoles are among the reptiles that follow a Diurnal Cycle, wherein they are widely awake during the day and sleeps at night. They enjoy basking under the direct sunlight to keep themselves warm and safe from any immediate temperature drop, considering that the place where they are endemic in status, have shorter summer periods compared with the other sub-equatorial countries that enjoy tropical weather conditions.
One should also remember that the place where a species lives greatly affects its way of sleeping. In the Gulf States, the places where Green Anoles reside rarely or does not experience winter spell at all, making them not to be required in undergoing Brumation Cycle. However, Green Anoles living in Northern Carolina might need this reptilian pause to conserve their energy and well-being as the winter season takes off. It may not snow in North Carolina, but the cold breeze of air makes it powerful enough to make all creatures go home and stop living normally because their sources of food have to wear away and prepare for the upcoming Spring Season.
Hydration
Green Anoles are not excused with the natural condition that they bear for being ectothermic animals or cold-blooded creatures. They can’t be able to sweat off the excess heat that they have absorbed in their surroundings, making them required to take some dips in natural ponds for better thermal regulation.
They need water for hydration as well, to keep their body function well and the rest of its organs function with enough hydrating volumes and retain their strength in doing well, even while being stressed and challenged.
Development and Reproduction
Green Anoles are one of the unique species of lizards on the planet. Though they carry the striking color of bright green, they can change their color and create another set of colors by the time they grow older. The sexual maturity of a young Green Anole starts when they are only 8 to 9 months old. It is in this time that they can more sense the changes in their surroundings, gain better knowledge with predation and the other essential components in their survival kit.
When a young Green Anole grows older, it can now already defend itself against any possible dangers, and start to build its territory- this is another crucial part of their lives. In gaining territories, a male green anole should fight for another one and justify its supremacy above its opponent. The fight is relatively harsh but not as bloody as the other animals, but the result in defeating this event may have a long-lasting effect on a male anole.
Little do we know, the male Green Anoles are polygynous, considering that their territory can be crossed by a lot of female anoles during the breeding season, both in search of their perfect partners. Contrary to this sexual aggressiveness, the female anoles are faithful to a single male anole and rarely interacts with any other male anoles, impressing their way out for the sake of sexual satisfaction and biological reproduction.
Their breeding season primarily falls during the summertime, when the testosterone and progesterone levels of both sexes are at high levels, originating from the better physiological developments of their sex organs.
In this season, male Green Anoles are showcasing their best talents with the help of their body languages, such as head bows and their much-awaited dewlap display. Their dewlaps have these vibrant and unique red, white, and orange-like colors, differing far from their abundant green body and white bellies. If a male anole has captivated a female’s attention and won its approval, the two will seek shelter from any possible predators and start to move for their mating course which lasts for several minutes.
As a reptile, it is a privilege for female Green Anoles to keep the sperm cells of their partners and use it anytime, favoring their conditions and their future hatchlings. Mostly, five to seven weeks after the breeding season or mating moments, a female anole lays its eggs in areas where she chooses to be a permanent nest. In a year, a female green anole can lay eggs up to four times with an average of 6 to 9 eggs, with a single egg or a pair being laid per each birth delivery.
After laying its eggs, the mother Green Anole stays for a while to check its babies but soon will abandon them, to train the future babies in living independently in the wild, even in captivity. Because of this reptilian culture, the mortality rate among the babies becomes high, leading to a possible total wipeout to all the eggs being laid by a mother anole during a certain year.
On the other hand, during its fertility and egg-laying in captivity, female anoles tend to find for a cup-like area with a shallow pit for the eggs to get laid and hatched. As the female anoles control the fertilization of their egg cells in their body, their times for giving birth will be in episodes. The uniqueness here is that, despite their multiple times of laying their eggs, they do it in the same nest, if human intervention is prevented.
Behavior
Most of the Green Anoles are territorial, just like their cousin anoles. Male anoles are known to be courageous enough to fight for their land, even though death can be its replacement. Their strong behavior starts to be shown during their younger years wherein they have to find their shelters, away from their siblings. This expedition could lead them to harmful places as they have to enter another anole’s home and make their ways out if they can’t win that piece of the plant.
Their territorial contest includes an invitation to physical fights by showing their dewlaps, bowing their heads and biting their opponent directly. With some adding their sharp nails and scratch their opponent’s face until it surrenders and runs away.
They are assertive of their territories as this means a lot for each anole. Aside from giving them pride, considering that a single male Green Anole could own a single territory with an average size of 50 to 100 square meters, it also gives them the food that they need, and the attention that they earn from different women crossing their homes in search of the same food sources. One must also remember that the larger a male Green Anole is, the higher the chances of its more aggressive behavior and owning a bigger territorial space, thus correlating its territory to its size.
The aggressiveness of a male anole is not only limited to other roaming males, but also with the other females. This encounter might be rare in a year, but it happens during the time that all reptiles prepare for the upcoming winter season and requires them to eat many before pausing their lives and sleep for a long time.
Despite this aggression, they are generally shy with humans. It has been proved a lot of times, specifically to those who are living in the wilderness together with the other animals. However, they are considered to be clever and wise, and can be trained upon captivity and may establish a good connection to its owners and other humans trying to interact with them.
Breeding Techniques
Before anything else, check the legal status of your area on keeping reptiles as a domestic pet. One should be careful in keeping animals in their home, as this move can lead someone to be imprisoned and fined with a huge price to pay.
As an owner aims to breed its anoles, one must remember that the breeding technique is easy to prepare for them, but the hatching of the eggs is harder than what you can expect. In a terrarium, make sure that the anoles will have this arboreal setting with a tree-like structure as its center of attraction.
During the mating season, male anoles are searching for higher grounds to display their prowess as males, display their vibrant dewlaps and do their head gestures to impress and turn-on female anoles. As the setup is completed, be sure to check the anoles regularly in the provided cage as they may end up fighting and may affect the female ovulation. After the bold move by a male, a female anole gives hints on whether she is ready to mate with the male and start breeding. A male anole will bite the back of a female one, moves a bit on its side and start to penetrate its sexual organ to the female’s cloaca until it gives off its sperm in the female’s body. In return, the female has its ability to control the sperm of her partner and use it for her ovulation and successful egg fertilization. It can be kept for a year until another mating season arrives.
As the female lays its eggs, one must get ready to take the eggs and place it in another container or terrarium for proper incubation under favorable conditions.
The eggs placed under incubation will hatch after four to six weeks, considering that the temperature inside the box will be ranging from 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit or 26 to 29 degrees Celsius. The humidity of about 80% for this process is critically important, as the baby anoles have to drink immediately after they hatch from their eggs and start looking for food and hydration. It is relatively high but this humidity is the ideal component for their hatchlings upon starting their lives away from their eggshells.
Health Concerns
Green Anoles share the same life cycle with the other reptiles living on the planet. Despite their natural mechanisms to make their bodies adaptable to changes, they are still subject to different illnesses caused primarily caused by their biological lifestyles, especially with the foods they eat.
1) Mouth Rot
This is one of the common sicknesses of Green Anoles both in captivity and in the wild, just like the other reptiles existing in both living conditions. It is the infection of their oral cavity, characterized by pus on their lips and in their mouth. If the worst possible case happens, an anole suffering from this condition may have a swollen mouth and will show difficulties in breathing.
This sickness is not a primary condition but is an underlying problem to a bigger issue such as overcrowding, improper nutrition, and sudden changes with the temperatures or climate.
2) Lack of Color Change
Just like Mouth Rotting, the lack of Color Change is caused by several vital factors affecting their growth- stress levels and malnutrition. This is a good indicator of whether your Green Anole is working and living well or not in your provided terrarium for it. Changes in the pigmentation of its color may happen from time to time, depending on the temperature and season. However, these changes should be good temporarily. If these pigmentations will not recover its healthy condition, then chances are that your Green Anole needs to eat nutritious foods, such as any insects but sprinkled with special nutrient powders.
This has been an effective way to retain the good health of Green Anoles in captivity, done by other pet owners.
3) Intestinal Worms
This health condition is caused by an unsuccessful transition of your Green Anole from the wild to captivity. This stressful transition may have caused by the improper treatment of the Green Anole, as well as the source of the foods that it has to eat during the said activity. This is one of the hard conditions that can be met with the anoles, considering that they can’t simply survive the process of deworming, or make them critically ill in the long process if the worms are not removed from their body and just kept in them despite their nutritious food intakes.
Another thing to consider with this sickness is its high-cost treatment. Some may find the price too absurd, especially that these lizards are low-cost animals and can be bought at too affordable prices.
4) Respiratory Ailments
This problem can be considered as rare, but when it strikes, it gives a potential way for another set of illnesses to engulf your poor Green Anole. This ailment is caused by too much humidity and coldness in the terrarium, making your lizard experience difficulty in breathing with a partially-opened mouth to take the air better.
Aside from reducing the volume of humidity levels in the enclosure, it is best to seek for nearby veterinarians for a more proper way of handling this ailment.
5) Bone Disease
Aside from respiration, your Anoles may experience a serious illness where they grow thinner, have puffy jawlines and develop weak legs. This is considered as the Metabolic Bones Disease. Despite its serious condition, one can simply help the anoles recover from this illness by sustaining a stable source of UV-B rays in the enclosure of your animals. Apart from UV exposure, they should eat superior nutritious foods to keep their skeletal and muscular strength in stable and increasing conditions.
Preventing and Curing Sicknesses
Just like the other reptiles, your Green Anoles must be treated from their sicknesses before anything gets worse and put your favored animal to a more serious problem. They are known to be low-cost animals, especially that they don’t require us to create fanciful cages for them nor offer a spacious enclosure for them.
1) Cage
A Green Anole demands a proper cage with medium to large sizes, given the fact that they grow rapidly and reach their sexual maturity, seven to nine months after its birth. It must not live with another male anole inside a cage as this will surely mean death for one of them. Remember that they are very territorial and loves to live alone on trees.
2) Water and Light
Just like us humans, Green Anole needs water for the hydration and regulation of body temperature. Looking at their skins, one can say that an anole will not produce its sweat. With this, they will rely on water for cooling down and body system regulations.
Another unique thing with these lizards is their dependency on UV rays coming from the sun during the morning.
3) Temperature and Humidity
Green Anoles are scattered across the forests of Southeast USA, living with arboreal setting and heavily relies on the trees that they will consider as their home. However, as they try to survive for a lifetime, they must keep their ideal body temperature to function well, especially that they are fast and quick to intercept changes in their surroundings.
Remember the magic digits- 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit or 25 to 29 degrees Celsius with 80% volume of humidity inside its cage.
4) Nutrition
Green Anoles are carnivorous and do not eat any vegetation at all, even in desperate cases. Because of this, one is highly advised that he or she must be knowledgeable about what kind of animals do Green Anoles eat.
One must avoid giving any insects from uncertain sources, which can harbor diseases to the lizards themselves. They may have an effective immune system against other illnesses and other defense mechanisms to dominate over possible chemical dangers, but an anole can be weak in dealing with viruses and other related microorganisms which carry fatal sicknesses.
Brumation Cycle
Some Green Anoles are living in the northern part of the United States which experiences winter season, requiring them to go brumation.
Brumation is caused by the ectothermic condition of the reptiles or simply being cold-blooded animals. Green Anoles are no excuse for that condition and because of this, they heavily rely on the environment to successfully regulate their body temperature and manage to live longer.
It is in this time that Green Anoles become lethargic and completely stops in doing any daily activities to save their body in sustaining colder temperature which is hard to eradicate in the middle of the winter season. Unlike the other reptiles, the anoles group themselves under the old barks of trees or unused tree logs and sleep together side by side, as the winter commences and their body falls under a biological spell which lets them sleep for a long time, lasting for weeks, even months.
During captivity, there are reports that lizard owners try to stop the cycle by simply adjusting the room temperature in the terrarium and keep the anoles awake. However, it is highly recommended to let the lizards continue practicing this important biological cycle to keep the lizard healthy and live for a longer period.
Changing this cycle may have a bad impact on their health, thus leading to serious and chronic conditions. Despite their diurnal practices, it is best for these lizards to continue living with the said cycle, keeping their health in good condition, their bodies in great shapes, and their movements in refined quality.
As the Anole experience the Brumation Cycle, it will eat lesser, sleep longer and gradually stop on making its daily movements and keep on sleeping inside your provided rocky shelter. During the brumation cycle, an Anole will not gain nor lose weight because of sleeping for a long time. This cycle only pauses the life of a reptile, not completely changing it at all.
Shedding
Like the other reptiles, Green Anoles are required to undergo the process of molting or skin shedding to offer bigger space for their body growth and development. Remember that as the Green Anole age younger, the molting process happens more frequently. As they grow older, the process takes place in a more periodical process, or sometimes, in rare conditions.
Habitat
Since Green Anoles have their vibrant green in color, they blend perfectly with the leaves where they usually jump and crawl, as they search for the potential preys while living in the wild. They are arboreal species, tending to live on tree branches and seek higher grounds to avoid bigger predators.
One must remember that the terrarium to be given to these lizards must be placed 5 feet higher than the ground and the tank, vertically spacious, giving them higher spots to roam and live, imitating the true habitat when living in the forests of Southeast United States or in any other forests around the world where they currently exist.
Green Anoles are shy with humans and usually run away if they sense a human interaction will happen close to their location. While in their territory, they seek for hiding spots to protect themselves from humans, just like how they find for effective protection against the bigger predators.
Lighting and Humidity
Green Anoles are diurnal animals, making their daily activities to be heavily dependent on daytime due to the presence of the Sun. While in the wilderness, Green Anoles can withstand different heat volumes from the Sun, enduring the typical summer day with 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit or 23 to 29 degrees Celsius, and can also drop up to 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees at night.
Despite these ranges of temperature, Green Anoles cannot withstand lower temperatures due to their ectothermic condition and body size which lacks protection against external pressures and harsher conditions. However, they can endure higher temperatures of up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius during the Summer season, provided that they have to find colder spots to hide from direct sunlight and may burn their skin easily.
When confined with a terrarium, the ideal temperature for them every day and night must always be within the range of their temperature experienced while living in the wild. Also, one must remember that the ideal humidity level for their terrarium must always be 60% to 70%.
Temperature
As mentioned, the ideal temperature for Green Anoles are as follows:
| Time of the Day | Fahrenheit | Celsius |
| Early Morning to Early Afternoon | 75-85 | 23-29 |
| Late Afternoon and Night | 68-73 | 20-22 |
One must remember that the basking spot for the lizards in the terrarium should always be the hottest point inside the cage and its ground must be colder. Because they are arboreal species, Green Anoles always go in the highest points of trees to catch some sunlight and make their cold-blooded bodies warm. After some moments of basking, they may seek some shelter or food as these are the effects of rejuvenated body temperature for them, keeping them active for the rest of the day.
Always have 2 thermometers inside a cage- one for the basking point, the highest point of the tank, and the other one for the base of the tank, for the ground temperature.
Tank Bedding and Accessories
The best ground condition for a Green Anole is the same as the best favorable to the trees. The tank bedding must be full of coconut fibers or mosses with a couple of inches thick and planted with tree branches for the lizards to climb upon.
The Green Anoles, having their arboreal discipline in living, prefers to climb regularly on the higher grounds to bask better with direct sunlight. Remember that your light bulb inside the terrarium must be radiating light with UV rays to keep the reptiles more confident to live inside.
With this natural condition, it is best advised to keep the higher branches of the tree in a terrarium be exposed to warmer temperatures, making the Green Anoles be encouraged to keep on living its normal life with the wilderness inside the tank provided for them.
Also, one must take note that the Anoles prefer living in normal leafy branches than those dried ones amid a desert.
Sanitation
Green Anoles are easy to keep clean. They just need an adequate amount of water for them to take some water breaks to drink and clean themselves, before going again on the higher spots and enjoy the sunlight.
The challenge is to keep the humidity and temperature warm, without allowing any fungal species to proliferate inside the terrarium. Keep the tank enclosed to avoid any foreign infiltrations, as well as keeping the tank itself, placed on the higher grounds of an owner’s home.
Keep the branches cleaned or simply replaced once every month or depending on the condition of the branches, provided that the Anoles did not set up their nest yet for the egg hatching activity which happens after their mating season. In cleaning the tank, one must prepare another container for the anoles to be temporarily stored. This process can be stressful with the Green Anoles, that’s why the temporary cage must have the same elements as that of the main tank to avoid any harm that can be induced to the anoles.
Natural Environment
The Green Anoles live in the forests where the trees grow in robust conditions, as well as on the higher grounds where the amount of sunlight that they need is abundant and sufficient for them.
Due to their love for warmth, Green Anoles are capable of existing and reproducing in the islands where subtropical and tropical forests exist, such as in Cuba and the other Caribbean Islands.
Availability
Green Anoles are easy to find in numerous pet shops in the United States, considering that they are the most loved lizards of the American people. What made the Americans fall in love with these lizards is the ease of taking good care of them, their abundance and importance in the wilderness, and their distinct and vibrant colors, which the other lizards do not possess.
How to care for a Green Anole
Taking good care of a Green Anole has to be linked to how to take good care of the other reptiles. Remember that a Green Anole must have the following conditions at all times:
- Experience minimal human physical interaction to avoid stress and possible body infections
- Live in relatively warm places
- Eat clean foods, just like us humans,
- Mist the lizard regularly thrice a day
- Offer them the best higher spots for sunbathing during the day
- Regulate and keep the ideal temperature and humidity at all times
- Give them safe foods to eat
- Do not let male anoles live in the same terrarium
- Help the lizard shed their skins faster by giving them stable water supply and mist them, or keep the humidity high
- Keep their future babies placed in a different tank in the time that a female anole laid its eggs
FAQs
Are Green Anoles eating bigger insects?
Most of the time, no. They are not opportunistic predators such as the snakes because of their limited jaw endurance and flexibility. However, they love to feed on insects which can give problems to us humans, especially those who work for the agricultural sector.
Do I have to give them a complete bath every day?
No, it will give them too much stress. Instead, let them bathe by their own thru simply providing the clean water supply and apply mist on them thrice a day.
Can I place them in a small container instead?
No, it will give them the inability to climb and may create anxiety with the lizards, as they can’t do the activities that they usually do while living in the wild. However, it is advised that if you only have a small container, it is best recommended to avoid keeping the Green Anole at all.
Do Green Anoles cost too much?
No, they are affordable! Most of the pet shops in the United States only sell them for around $20 to $50. This is the good side of considering Green Anoles as your household pets- they can be bought at affordable prices, easy to keep, and budget-friendly as they will not require you to give them well-pampered lives.
Is there a way that I can make my Green Anole grow bigger?
Unfortunately, its genetics has already designed for such body mass. This condition is attributed to the way they live an arboreal life in the forests.
