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Eleanor   ReptiGal94   Eleanor   Melonhead   Kibalus  
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 #1844168


Eleanor
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 Need help with my agama

My roommate worked at a pet store and saw this agama, Eleanor. If you look at this picture, she has no "fingers" on her front feet, and her back feet move funny. She kind of skitters around her tank. So my roomie brought her home because the pet store was going to freeze her (they didn’t think anyone would buy her) Shortly after, my roommate moved out and left me with her. I’m told she is a butterfly agama. Can anybody tell me what I can do to best take care of her.

She is in a 10 gallon tank. I have calcium sand for the substrate. I provide fresh water and keep the environment about 90 degrees. She gets UV light and eats mostly mealworms, occasionally crickets if she can catch them.



08/27/08  02:15pm

 #1844846


ReptiGal94
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   Message To: Eleanor   In reference to Message Id: 1844168


 Need help with my agama

Aww poor baby.About her back legs and how she walks funny, what kind of UV light does she have?
Second, unless you want a plugged agama, switch her off of sand and onto repticarpet.Do you dust her food?
Mealworms are not high in calcium but mainly for weight gaining purposes only.Try offering less meal worms and more crickets or if you have them, roaches.Dust them with calcium twice a week.



Good luck with her,
JoAnne
08/28/08  05:26am

 #1845140


Eleanor
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   Message To: ReptiGal94   In reference to Message Id: 1844846


 Need help with my agama

She has a 5.0 uvb light. I will try to feed more crickets, but honestly sometimes I wonder if she is a little blind too :) Shes my special little lizard. We built her a handicapp ramp so she can get up higher in her tank. I will switch to carpet, thanks for letting me know.
08/28/08  03:06pm

 #1859590


Melonhead
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   Message To: Eleanor   In reference to Message Id: 1845140


 Need help with my agama

get her a heating pad it will warm the ground and will be good for her feet.



09/14/08  05:54pm

 #2078165


Kibalus
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   Message To: Eleanor   In reference to Message Id: 1844168


 Need help with my agama

I have one of these special agamas too! And just like yours she is missing all her digits... except she doesnt have her back toes either. And I also got her more or less as a rescue from a petstore. The broken fingers are most likley due to excessive digging. The species is well known to dig deep burrows in the sand and so they don’t do very well in captivity where their ability to dig is very limited. Its very common that a BA will dig to the bottom of the tank and keep clawing away at the glass/wood which will over time destroy its bones... Another reason is that she has MBD (metabolic bone desiese), which is what mine has aswell. I posted a long description of the desiese on a board just for Butterfly agamas so if you want to learn more just check that one out. It’s basically when your lizard is calcium defficient since they werent under proper lighitng/mineral intake when young (this is VERY common in petstores). You cant really do anything about it just make sure that you sprinkle her food
with vitamins (D3), that you have a UV lamp and that you avoide feeding her certain foods which will cause the body to waste precious Calcium (again to read more go to the BA thread) like corn and mushrooms.

As for the space I’m afraid a 10gal tank is quite small. They’re a very active species and I keep mine in a 50gal on her own. It’s dimensions are (100x40x50cm or about 39.9x15.7x19.6in lxwxh) it doesn’t really have to be THAT big but 20gal at least. Mostly lenght.
I also use an undertank heat mat thats turned on 24/7 under her water bowl (since she digs underneath it and sleeps there) so bascially where her hide is. And I have a 100W spotlamp on the hot side of the terrarium that also includes all the vitamins she needs to get through light (basking spot should be about 30C or 86F) but since your viv is a lot smaller i wouldnt recomend such a large lamp as it would make the whole terrarium unberable due to the heat. The cold end is around 23C (73F) but the sand is always warm due to the heat mat. I also have a UV lamp over the cool end to make sure she gets all the ’sun’ rays she needs.
I keep mine on mainly crickets (she eats from 4-7 a day) medium size. Shes an adult btw about 5 years old. I hand feed her everyday out of the cage so I dont have crickets running all over my room when they escape. Also she LOVES mango (im pretty sure all BAs do), plums, cherries and basically all juicy/soft fruit. I give her some kind of fruit/veggi every two days at least to vary her diet and keep her happy. Lettuce is also good but mine doesnt seem to like it much.

Well anyways heres some pictures:


This is my baby. You cant really see it but she has the same stumpy feet as yours. And this pic was taken about a year ago, she has no digits left on her back feet now... But shes still very pretty and i love her lol xD

and this is her setup:


As you can see its quite big. and you can see all the spots i mentioned above. Ignore the small cage ontop. Thats my arizona king’s temporary setup. Hes getting a 50gal tank too soon

anyways i hope this helps C:



09/29/09  10:49am


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