anole baby!

[Octothorpe]

Ok, so my male and female anole have been caught in a few compromising positions over the last few months.



I've seen her eggs in a few non-appropriate positions throughout the tank over the last couple of months, (propped in between the leaves of a tsilandia air plant, floating in the water in the bottom of a bromeliad, etc.) and they have generally just rotted out before I remove them.
Yesterday, I was doing some rather major revisions to the electrical layout of the tank connections, and when I slid the tank back into place, I saw something I couldn't believe: A little BABY anole!

Check this out:



I think that it's due to the fact that it's finally become warm enough through the night here for a more appropriately placed egg to have incubated.

Well, of course I freaked out. It's not a great shot in terms of showing how small the little gaffer is, (that's the momma on the orchid leaf above her) the male is larger than the female, and there's also two fire-bellied toads living down in the bottom right "wet side" of the tank. More than enough things in there to eat her.
I had to get her out of there.

So, after a couple of failed attempts sticking my hand into the tank, where she immediately dashes for cover into the depths, I ran off to the local pet store and bought a tiny little fish catching net, and a small plastic "critter keeper".

I caught her, and got her into the critter keeper. SAVED!

Now the biggest issue is what next? The local pet store doesn't have a supply of pinhead crickets, and for the first time in my life I don't have ANY fruit flys in the apartment.

I do, however, have ants outside. Any suggestions on where in Vancouver, BC I can get a hold of pinheads or wingless fruitflies?

[beckdg]

sorry i cannot advise on where to get in Canada. i will say ants are not a good idea. they are carnivores.

[ike]

Canadian here, but other end of the country. I just had the same situation, but with a baby longtailed grass lizard and got a lot of help here from some of those in the know, so check out their answers under "Baaaabbbbyyy" (or something like that). I had to order fruit flies from the local herp store and will be going to a place in Michigan tomorrow to stock up on supplies. Pinheads had to be ordered in quantities no less than 500! Didn't go that route. Did you try The Pet Boutique (820 Marine Drive, North Vancouver. 604-987-8711) or Fin-omenal Fish and Exotics (160 - 8180 No. 2 Road, Richmond, 604-274-1602). Just checked online that they seem to have a lot of reptiles and mention live food.
In the meantime, I've been hunting small moths and bugs outside ("be vewwy, vewwy quiet - I'm hunting bugs! Heeheeheehee!"). I've found that little Peewee will eat most tiny moths (including seed moths, if you're "lucky" enough to have them), gnats, small flies, aphids (only on unsprayed roses). I wouldn't go near ants - not only would the smell of them put him off, but they can be very aggressive towards small reptiles. My acreage is pesticide-free, so I haven't had to worry about that problem.
Anyway, good luck and I hope this helps!

[Octothorpe]

Thanks for the input on the ants. (Right after I posted the original story, I had a flash back to our cabin in Hawaii: There was a super cute little baby gecko in the bathroom near the window on our first night there. The next morning when I went into the bathroom, there was a "highway" of ants in a line up to the window sill where she was sitting, and the only thing left of her was the skull. I have obviously re-thought that idea.)

So anyways, I got the 'Critter Keeper' set up with a small amount of moistened Forest Moss, and a small amount of old shredded coco-hust substrate I had laying around. I snipped a long curly sprig of a ficus vine I have growing in the dining room and threw that in there as well (to give her some green).
Then, I got about 30 1 week old crickets from the local shop here, (the smallest of which is about 1/4" in length). I gut loaded them over night, and threw a couple into the small critter keeper this morning. To my surprise and pleasure, she immediately honed in on one and attacked! The crickets body was just a little longer than her head, and it took her a little while to chomp-chomp-chomp it so that the legs were the only thing left sticking out of her mouth, but she gulped the thing down!

I set up the day-glo basking light above the critter keeper using an old office desk lamp with the gooseneck. She proceeded to hunker down on one of the ficus leafs, she closed her eyes while her body went from light-brown to lime-green... and she promptly fell asleep with the fresh and tiny bulge of that cricket in her tummy. She's big enough to take the one week old crickets, so I don't need to hunt for pinheads.

Now, 4 hours later and $150.00 poorer, I'm home from "Mr. Pet's" on Commercial drive with a brand new Exoterra "Rainforest Habitat Kit". it's 12x12x18, it's got the light top, some fake plants, a fake jungle vine, a water bowl, the 'stick on' thermometer, the 'stick on' hygrometer, and a block of "Plantation Soil".

GF is going to kill me when she gets home, but hey... you gotta do what you gotta do. We saved a little life here.

(I'm a bit surprised that the original vivarium that I built to house these critters took me like 3 months to construct,Custom sized terrarium build log with pics and yet in an emergency I was able to get a perfect housing together in less than a day.)

[beckdg]

yup... learnin folks does take some time... lol. once you got it though it's pretty straight forward.

she's a fighter... that's a good sign. got her coloring too... very good.

[darc]

Hah, glad to hear its working out so far : D
-darc

EDIT : O, and in regards to the first pic... giggity giggity....

[Octothorpe]

oh my god. I found ANOTHER baby!
Thank god I bought this little fish net. I scooped this one out and put him/her into the exoterra rainforest habitat with the first one.
I gotta tell ya, watching those two lil gaffers sort out their territorial battle for the first 20 minutes was hilarious! Tiny little head bobs, miniscule dewlaps flared... I'm thinking they're probably both male. (I don't see a white stripe down their backs, but on the other hand, their snouts are very short -- like the mommy -- so who knows. Perhaps they're too young to really show sex yet).

So dang, seems like I have quite the breeding situation goin on here. Hopefully I don't get too many more babies, cuz I really wasn't thinking I was going to become Anole Central around here.

I was just lucky enough to get a 500 lot tub of pinheads from Aquariums West here in the west end, I dusted about 60 of them and threw them in the viv.
Man, I could sit there for hours and watch those little guys hunt. They're just like kittens: when they see a pinhead, their little tails start goin all freakout flipping back and forth and curling at the tip, and then they get all tense and do this big dramatic explosion launch.
I should try to get some of that action on video.
None-the-less, this is going really really well now.
Thanks y'all for your input!

Here's a couple shots of their new home:


and a close up of 'Skeeter Marie', (baby #1)

[froggsong]

awesome!!! keep checking for more babies, you never know how many you might find, especially since the parents are obviously so healthy, judging from the pics.

[beckdg]

bow chicka wow-wow. and as far as the giggity giggity... goo. lol. looks like daddy's having all the fun and mommy's just along for the ride. i guess it's a good thing though... maybe not for your wallet. i'd keep an eye out for more babies though and a place that will continue to take them. this is bound to happen again.

[ike]

Great setup for the babies! I think I'll get the slightly smaller Exo-terra one for my guy/girl. I was able to get more fruitflies and some pinheads at a really great herp store in Livonia, MI (just across the border from here), so this baby has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Originally Posted by beckdg

i'd keep an eye out for more babies though and a place that will continue to take them. this is bound to happen again.

Yeah, good advice. I've found 18 eggs since I found the baby....I kid you not.