how to keep cat off lizard cage?

[nekkiddoglady]

I recently aquired a few anoles.. my BIL moved up here from TX and these lil guys hitch hiked a ride in his pick up. They are basically wild-caught. I think they are still a lil stressed about the "move" (they were frozen when I found them!).. and about their new environment.

Chloe keeps jumping on top of their cage and tries to get them to move.. I think this stresses them.. they see it as a predator. I also dont want her potentially knocking the cage over, or knocking the light over.. I dont want broken glass! (UVB lights are NOT cheap either- I will be quite mad if it breaks!).

I spray her with water when I catch her up there.. but I cant always catch her up there.. any suggestions for something I could up on top of the screen lid to make it less pleasant for her?

 

[strange_wings]

Anoles are actually difficult to keep because they're easily stressed and need a fairly large enclosure - more tall than long.

One quick question. It's usually more common to catch/come across male anoles. Are you 100% certain that you do not have two males or even a juvenile male? They cannot be together if so because they are very territorial. That alone will stress the heck out of them.

If you have pictures of their enclosure and of them, or can take some, I'd like to see them and can give you some tips. I kept some many years ago.

As for the cat. You can't. There's no way to keep your cat away from the lizards and still be able to access them yourself. The only safe way to do this, and ensure that nothing ever gets broken and the lizards are not stressed, is to put their cage in a separate room with no cats allowed. I myself have a separate reptile room. It's not fair to expect my cats to know better and stop their instinctual urge to go after my geckos, so I avoid the stress on everyone.
On the plus side, if you can spare a room with good lighting you can also make it your plant room.

And before anyone says Ssscat. NO!. They are not compressed air, they are compressed gas with a chemical propellent in there - difluoroethane (type of refrigerant). You cannot use them around fish aquariums, birds, or reptiles without potentially killing them no matter what it advertises.

ETA: Also, since they are wild caught and stressed look for the possibility of their natural parasite load to possibly overload them. They may need vet care and deworming to keep them alive.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

I have them in a 20 long.. I have lots of fake plants and such for them to climb on, a UVB light and a heat light. I dont have any pics uploaded of their enclosure. I did originally have them in a 10 gallon (I had to try to pull together a cage pretty quickly, since they were unexpected guests)

They are eating good, I can put 2 dozen crickets in the cage and they disappear within a few days.. they have a nice appetite.. but I would like to seem them staying the nice pretty green color more than they do.

How do you tell if they are male or female?


I dont really have a spare room to put the cage in, unfortunantly. I have considered getting some feeder mice to put in the old 10 gallon tank and placing that on the bottom part of the stand.. my thinking was that perhaps if there was something more interesting than lizards, the cats would ignore them.

 

[ducman69]

That may have been true at some point, but SSSCAT uses tetrafluoroethane and is non-toxic to inhale.

So the SSSCAT would be perfectly fine provided the noise of the SSSCAT doesn't stress the reptile (no clue in that department, sorry).

 

[strange_wings]

^I've been trying for a few weeks now to remember what they used. I think it used to be difluoroethane which is why I remembered coming across that listed a few years ago. Either way, I wouldn't use tetrafluoroethane (and which one is it, btw?) around birds, and thus not reptiles, due to their sensitive respiratory and nervous systems. Add in the high heat of a heat light and it's even more dangerous.

Originally Posted by nekkiddoglady

I have them in a 20 long.. I have lots of fake plants and such for them to climb on, a UVB light and a heat light. I dont have any pics uploaded of their enclosure. I did originally have them in a 10 gallon (I had to try to pull together a cage pretty quickly, since they were unexpected guests)

They are eating good, I can put 2 dozen crickets in the cage and they disappear within a few days.. they have a nice appetite.. but I would like to seem them staying the nice pretty green color more than they do.

How do you tell if they are male or female?


I dont really have a spare room to put the cage in, unfortunantly. I have considered getting some feeder mice to put in the old 10 gallon tank and placing that on the bottom part of the stand.. my thinking was that perhaps if there was something more interesting than lizards, the cats would ignore them.

Addressing the biggest problems here first. With reptiles you put no more insects in the cage than can be eaten within 15 minutes, the only exception to this is if the insect can be contained in a bowl that they cannot climb out of. The reason for this is that stray insects in the cage will bite lizards and stress them out.

A 20gal long is not appropriate for an arboreal reptile. Height is more important than floor space. And because of this it makes it harder to keep the cages within safe temperatures for their habits if they can't go up or down and instinct tells them to. What wattage and brand of bulbs are you using and do you have thermometers with digital probes to measure the cool and warm ends of the cage? Do you have a hydrometer?

Sadly a free lizard or two, like this, costs close to $150-200 to properly set up a habitat for.

It may not be so much that your cat is stressing them to stay brown as much as it is just the environment/care. It's a learning process, so this isn't your fault unless you choose to do nothing about it.

Males have a throat dewlap and femoral pores along the inside of their back legs, and in mature males it's hard to miss the hemi-penis bulges. Females and juveniles will have a white stripe down their backs. Another way to tell, and this is harder for new keepers, but females have more feminine faces than males - that's the only way I can describe it. Their faces are slightly shorter, less angular, and more rounded. Males are all sharp angles with that distinctive anole stare that looks almost condescending for a lizard.

Size wise, mature males are larger and longer than a smaller more compact female.
Look up "sexing anoles" to see if you can find pictures. Once you figure out what you're looking for and at, you'll be able to sex a lot of lizards.

For a reptile, they do have fairly decent ability to hear. So some noises will scare them badly. If you can use a stand(s) that allow absolutely no room to sit around the cage and no foothold to make it easier to jump on top, that will help. You can also tape paper or cloth around the sides of the cage. This obscures your view, but the cats and the lizards along with it and for some reptiles makes them feel a bit calmer.

Figure out what you have and then figure out your caging requirements. But chances are you have boys. They just seem to get themselves into more trouble since they're so much bolder than the females are.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

Ive been learning as I go.. I had listed an ad on CL that I wanted a larger tank, and a guy contacted me about the 20 gallon, lid, and stand for cheap.. I wasnt expecting it to be a 20L, but we got there to pick it up, and I couldnt really pass the deal up.. a 20L is better than a 10!

I will have to keep my eye out for a taller cage, or perhaps try to build something.

I was told that I could dump a dozen or two crickets in the cage, as long as they were able to eat them within a few days. They are not too eager to "hunt" in front of me.. I've yet to actually see them eat a cricket.. but the fact that they dissappear (and the lizards are not loosing weight) shows to me that they are indeed eating them.


Im not too keen on the idea of using any kind of chemical.


Yes, I know these lil guys are not cheap.. the light fixture and UVB bulb alone was over $50! I dont have any kind of thermometer or hydrometer.. I mist the cage down twice a day to provide moisture. I have a red heat bulb that I leave on 24/7.. the UVB bulb gets turned off at nite.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

red heat bulb is a flukers 60w

UVB bulb.. offhand I dont remember.

 

[strange_wings]

Go get a digital thermometer with probe ASAP. If they're too hot you'll eventually kill them. And who's giving you reptile advice? The person at the petstore selling you crickets and supplies?

Never trust someone out to make money on you. Get a cricket keeper for your pinhead crickets (nothing larger for an anole) or use that spare 10gal and use veggies and a bit of cricket food to make sure they're nice and healthy. And no, not the dyed cube junk - it's full of all sorts of preservatives and chemicals. Cricket foods can be homemade or purchased online.
Only put in 2-3 crickets per lizard and keep checking back to see if they're being eaten. You should actually hear them if they're catching the crickets - there will be a rustling and a thud.
If the crickets are in the cage for several days and "disappearing" they're more than likely dying.

You also need 3 different vitamin/mineral supplements. A multi-vitamin, calcium with D3, and plain calcium. I use Rep-Cal brand. Dusting schedule depends on how well they eat. But generally it's once a week with the D3, once a week with the multi (which has low amounts of D3, too), and calcium for the rest of the days. You can also put a little milk jug cap of calcium in their cage, but try not to mist it.

Depending on ambient home temp, you may not need a light on at night. With reptiles like that a normal (for their region) temp drop at night is natural to them. Of course, I try to keep my home around 75F at lowest because I have reptiles and like to be warm myself, other people like to freeze though.

Oh! you updated after I clicked to reply. A 60w for a shallow tank like that is very likely much too hot. You may be getting temps exceeding 100F on the end it's over if you're not careful.

And try the suggestion to tape some paper around the glass, at least a few of the sides. It will calm the lizards some.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

I was using a regular light for heat and turning it off at nite, they seemed to perk up abit more when I got the red bulb and left it on all the time. We keep our house a comfortable temp for ourselves, but lizards from TX are not accustomed to OH weather. I was advised that red was good to leave on at nite, because they couldnt "see" the red light, and it would give them a sense of night and day.

Im getting advice from various sources... so hard to determine whats right and what's wrong. I was told that too many crickets would bite them, but this is the first I heard that I shouldnt put in more than what can be eaten within 15 minutes.

Some of the crickets may be dying in the cage, but I'd also assume that if the lizards were not eating, they'd be getting pretty thin. Im not seeing ribs.. actually when I first aquired them, I could see ribs on the one- not now.

The petshop I get the crickets from gut loads them. They said they use a mixture of fresh fruits and veggies as well as rabbit pellets and cat food to feed their crickets.



I will see about getting a thermometer. Someone did tell me I could get some kind of thermometer with a digital probe at walmart for around $10 (lawn and garden section)

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

^I've been trying for a few weeks now to remember what they used. I think it used to be difluoroethane which is why I remembered coming across that listed a few years ago. Either way, I wouldn't use tetrafluoroethane (and which one is it, btw?) around birds, and thus not reptiles, due to their sensitive respiratory and nervous systems. Add in the high heat of a heat light and it's even more dangerous.

Its HFC-134a, nonflamable, but can warns not to exceed 120oF storage temp since under pressure.

 

[Willowy]

Originally Posted by Ducman69

That may have been true at some point, but SSSCAT uses tetrafluoroethane and is non-toxic to inhale.

So the SSSCAT would be perfectly fine provided the noise of the SSSCAT doesn't stress the reptile (no clue in that department, sorry).

Birds and reptiles (who are very similar in a lot of ways) are sensitive to a bunch of things that are perfectly safe for mammals. You really have to be careful what you use around them. Just the fumes from something "normal" like Lysol can kill them.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Ducman69

Its HFC-134a, nonflamable, but can warns not to exceed 120oF storage temp since under pressure.

Did you know that if the vapors of it hit a high heat source it changes them into more dangerous fumes? Such as spraying near/over a heat light. I read through DuPont's safety and handling info on it last night, they did several animal studies at different concentrations. Birds were tested and found to be very sensitive to it.


Back to anole info: While its true that they shouldn't see the red bulbs some of the manufacturers make them so bright that reptiles can. I can't remember how bright the flukers are, it's been so long since I dared use their products. (The Flukers activities in the pet/repitle industry are very unethical.)

Cat food and rabbit pellets are great for those species, but would you feed that to a lizard? Look up cricket gut load as there are plenty of recipes for it and some site that sell it premade.

 

[cat person]

I have always had cats and birds/reptiles. Grant you due to the fact I breed the birds and reptiles they are kept in a separate room. But the cats do sneak in more then I care to admit if I am not paying attention.

So I try and keep duck tape sticky side up on the reptile tanks so that way if one of the cats jump up on the cage they "stuck". This has taught my cats to leave the reptile tanks alone.

Hope that helps

and congratulations to the hitchhiking Anole friends

.

 

[cococat]

My reptiles had to get their own room once the cat settled in.

 

[cococat]

Originally Posted by nekkiddoglady

I was told that I could dump a dozen or two crickets in the cage, as long as they were able to eat them within a few days.
.

I don't recommend that. I also keep reptiles. Crickets can and will eat lizards while they are sleeping. That is why it is important to remove crickets at night.

Glad you are caring for this little creatures. Strangewings advice is right on for them to live long, happy, and healthy lives.

 

[strange_wings]

^I wouldn't say "long life", without knowing the anoles age but guessing at 1-2 years already, that puts them with the possibility of living another 4-6.

Originally Posted by Cat Person

So I try and keep duck tape sticky side up on the reptile tanks so that way if one of the cats jump up on the cage they "stuck".

What reptiles do you keep? This sounds like a potential and possibly deadly hazard to have around a cage where the lizards are flighty and can jump. I have some golden geckos myself that while they can get used to people, don't actually tame. Occasionally one of them will make a break for it and I have to coax them down from the ceiling.

Years ago when I had anoles they were much the same. Just imaging one of them landing on duct tape would be horrifying, it would shred their delicate skin as they struggled to get free.

...Aside from that I have a few cats that love to chew on tape and will attempt to eat it. Whenever Tomas hears me unrolling duct tape he'll run over in hopes to get at it.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

double sided tape may do better than duct tape.. no? Its not quite as "sticky" as the duct tape.. but may still be unpleasant enough for the cat to discourage her.

I'll keep in mind that Fluker's are not considered ethical.. I "think" my other bulb is a zoo med. I know the light fixture itself is from Zoo Med.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

do you think they'd like meal worms or wax worms? I thought about getting some, and putting the worms in a bowl so they dont crawl about and bury themselves in the substrate.

 

[nekkiddoglady]

they are wild caught- so, no I dont know their age. They look full grown to me.

The care they've gotton from me so far is better than the alternative- one of them was found frozen solid in the bed of the pick up and was almost left outside in the snow. I brought it inside to thaw and see if it revived. The other lizard was found the next day in a box while unpacking... should have seen all of us and the cats racing about to catch it!

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by nekkiddoglady

do you think they'd like meal worms or wax worms? I thought about getting some, and putting the worms in a bowl so they dont crawl about and bury themselves in the substrate.

You can try a few mealworms, but I suggest you raise them yourself as you are very unlikely to get anything but medium-large ones. This is incredibly easy, though, and if they'll eat the worms you'll always have a backup food source.
Wax worms are all fat. They're raised on bran and honey, so they're basically sweet insect junk food for reptiles.

Best to not bother with them.

If you're interested in what Flukers have done/are involved in, you can PM me. I don't think it would be wise to list some of it out publicly and risk making anyone mad.

If there's a lip/shelf around where the cage sits you can try stacking magazines so that they're just barely balancing on the edge. If a cat tries to jump up they and the magazines fall. It doesn't work on determined cats very well, though.