Mountain Horned Lizard

[GartenSpinnen]

I just went to the pet store and i have been wanting to get a lizard for awhile because im not allowed to keep snakes at my apartment (my girl hates them anyways) and i had to get rid of my more venomous critters (scorpions, seeing how all my tarantulas were species like OBTs, and cobalts, yea them too...) but anyways, went into the store and was looking at the cheaper lizards and noticed a "Tokay Gecko". Well ive never heard of such a lizard and it was beautiful and was very very cheap for its size, so i asked to hold it. The owner was like NOooooooooo they are like the OBTs of the lizard world! So yea.... forget that crap! (By the way are Tokays that bad?).... well my other 2 options of what i looked at was a savannah monitor, but i was told they get pretty big and the one i held today wasnt shy about biting my finger which felt like someone taking vice grips to my finger and this thing was only like a foot long! So i was like screw that, whats gonna happen when it gets a lot bigger with teeth and i upset it! It seems it would be like a small alligator? No thank you. So my last option was this Mountain Horned Lizard, which was very nice and gentle and not at all skittish i was hooked! So for 30.00 and shelling out 22.00 for a nice heat mat, then buying a water dish, tropical substrate, screen top, 10 gallon enclosure, etc... i walked out with my little guy. Well now that i have him he is probably one of the neatest pets ive ever had, right now hes in my bedroom sitting on the window sill staring out the window. Very neat animal. Anyways, does anyone have any good information or links on these wonderful creatures? It would be much appreciated .

 

[Gigas]

I see members of the horned lizard family for sale occasionally here, but they esat tonnes of ants a day, I don't know if this diet can easily be replicated in captivity.
I have read you can substitute alot of the diet witth other insects but ants are a key part of the diet.

 

[LeilaNami]

Mountain horned are really sweet. They like to jump. A lot. My friend's likes to sit on the top of my head with an occaisional dive into the snack bowl

You know they are already tropical. They are arboreal as well. Just feed them crickets. When it comes to babies, I always give them two feedings and drop it to one when they mature. Check kingsnake.com for some information on them.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Tokays are DEFINITELY that nasty, as are big monitors. I'm always seeing articles by experienced keepers arguing that Nile and water and sav. monitors and whatever other mean ones there are should just be BANNED from being sold in pet stores. Kinda like Burmese pythons in Florida, people get 'em as tiny babies and then freak out when they have a six-foot monster that just tore two of their fingers off.

But yeah, Tokays are lovely, but mean as hell. I read a thread on another forum where a guy got bit through a rubber glove while doing maintenance, managed to get his hand out of the glove (bloodied and bruised), and just left the glove in there. The tokay tried to kill it for like the next six hours. A few rare ones have been tamed down, but that's luck and a lot of patience...and a good tolerance for pain.

 

[AneesasMuse]

I have a Tokay gecko, and yes... they are really "that bad" My guy is beautiful... all turquoise with coral spots... but mean as MEAN can get! At least, the little beast barks before he pounces and starts trying to eat my hand.

Sorry I don't know anything about Mountain Horned Lizards... have you googled? Maybe ask on www.pangeareptile.com/forum

 

[GartenSpinnen]

This lizard is amazing! I dont think im making its space requirements according to the guides on the internet, but it dont really matter cause he roams free most of the time anyways, and im getting him a nice size palm tree to live in. I would rank this one up there with the bearded dragon as far as personality goes, very layed back. Earlier he crawled on my head and fell asleep, and then my girlfriend was throwing live crickets on me and he was running around eating them off of me. Amazing animal!