# Desert Horned Lizard



## LouiseK (Mar 17, 2007)

Ok, so my local rep shop has three of these little guys in. My fella thinks they are adorable so i thought i'd check out caresheets etc but there only seems to be a few and they aren't very specific and then as per they have conflicting information...

So far i have -
They are very idle, they like to hide, they squirt blood from their eyes, they only eat ants, they eat any slow bug, they don't mind viv-mates, they like sand, they're from mountainous regions (sand?)...

There just doesn't seem to be anything definate on enclosure requirements... at the petshop they just seem to have a typical desert enclosure but i also read they require a specialist environment...

Does anyone keep these or know anything about them?


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## liam.b (Sep 2, 2006)

i think it depends on what species of dessert horned lizard for the specific care,i thnik they all eat ants! lol


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

Hi.
they only eat ants and eat any slow bugs? lol... 

there isnt much info on them cos not many ppl keep them, and even less with success long term.

all I know really is that they eat ants in the wild, but for sucessfull captive keeping it kinda relies on whethe ryou can get them eating crix etc.
i think you have to supplement them with phosporic acid as this is what the ants they eat in the wild contain lots of.

Theres a couple ppl on captivebred.co.uk forum who keep them.
There is a member here who had soem until recently, I will pm him and make him aware of this thread but i dotn think he coems on all that often.

About thier set ups.. i think its standard desert but i think they ar emore often than not kept in open top vivs.. i dont know why although supose it may be due to them liking a lot of ventilation.

I do not expect them to survive long in apet shop unless its a good one.
I think the first thing you shoudl do is ask the shop staff what they know about them, they may be bang on it, at the very least id make sure they are eating on whatever before considering purchasing, i expect they would be wild caught so the normal things to check out there.
I wouldnt also hope anyone selling them would be soemehat aware of them usually only eating ants and the supplementation of the phosphoric acid whether considered necesary or not.
if none of the info is available fromt eh shop they will prolly be dead soon enough.


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## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

you sure you've got the right sort of lizard, as theres 2 really simular ones a horned lizard and the others a spiked lizard or somthing i belive. One of which only eats ants and im pritty sure isnt available out side of austraila. the other is occasionally available and feed of ur usual live foods. 

Jay


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

If they're the ones that look like little pancake lizards with crowns... they're what I grew up calling "Hornytoads". 

Some of them can be converted to eating small crickets. 

When I used to catch them, they were in hardpan desert, a little loose sand but not sand dunes, plenty of scrub and basking rocks to hide under. They ARE desert animals - UV and a high basking temperature are required.

The Australian species is a "Thorny Devil" - and they look like a rosebush and a uromastyx got into a romantic entanglement.


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

Squirting blood from there eyes? This is a first :S​


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## ash2 (Sep 11, 2007)

lol yeh i watched a program and they can squirt blood defense mechanism i think


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## bolawan (Sep 3, 2007)

good luck getting a steady supply of their staple diet (harvester ants) but i found a couple of things that might help you out.

hornedlizards - Care Sheets Information about Horned Lizard-sp. Phrynosoma ( aka Horny Toad ) Lizards hornedlizards ,characteristics and sexing, Description of Diet, Diet-Carnivorous,Supplements, Nutrition and Usage - calcium and vitamins, Lighting a

and because they mostly require Harvester ants as a staple diet, here's a care sheet on those aswell.

horned lizard care sheet


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

ash said:


> lol yeh i watched a program and they can squirt blood defense mechanism i think


That said, I've picked up dozens in the wild and never once saw them do it...


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## xXFooFooLaFluffXx (Aug 4, 2007)

i really wanted some but was told they are a complete pain in the *rse to keep so didnt bother.....not to put you off or anything lol

Cat x


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

YouTube - Squirt of Blood Is Lizard's Secret Weapon

EEWW​


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## Ally (Mar 8, 2006)

I think these guys have a worse reputation than they deserve...
Their needs just have not been understood very well in the past.

Desert set up - they appear to like digging down into sand until just the eyes poke out to watch what's going on, a few rocks to bask on, a nice high rated UV... (as fo specific temp, I can't remember - Google should help!)

Feeding is where they are mostly misunderstood. They do not *need* ants (unlike the Austrailian Thorny Devil, which does - that's where people get confused I think) but will eat any insect that fits in their mouth. Variety and volume is the key. Keep it varied and feed lots - at least twice a day and trickle feed if possible (Exo Terra feeding rock or something similar like a cricket tub with a small hole work wonders). They just seem to need to eat little and very often. This keeps the weight on them no problem - one big feed a day and they will often waste away.

(writing this down, I'm reminded very much of another species that was thought to be very difficult until similar little-and-often feeding habits were discovered - Seahorses!)

As for the possibility of breeding, I don't know, they'd possibly need cooling over winter? Looking at the weather patterns of the natural habitat will help there.

Hope that helps!


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

The guy who had soem recently who i pm'd got back to me with the following
--------------------------

hi mate
there are quite a few species that will only eat ants,all of which are protected by state laws and not available in the pet trade,the 2 species you see for sale here are p.modestum(i havnt seen any for sale for about 2 years so maybe this one is protected locally as well now) and the commenest sp. is p.platyrhinos,these are ambush feeders that will eat anything thats moves in front of it.
i have kept both on numerous occasions over the years and platyrhinos is the best suited to captivity.
i would say a absolute must is 2 10.00 blubs,1 isnt enough.
food wise i find they get bored very quick with the same prey items,and they eat huge amounts for there size and have big turds too!
this is what i would feed my last pair
hatchling locusts,mealworms,waxworms,bean weevils,hatcling black crix,2nd instar brown crixs,medium lobsters,i think if you had to buy in the food they would cost you about 10 quid to feed a week!
as for the acid thing,not needed , as i said this species is not a specialist ant eater ,i did feed the odd ant when i could catch them in the garden but did not bother with a ant farm,a waste of time i think.
if you are gonna buy some ,get the smallest youngsters you can,adults dont do well and will die due to dhydration and shock,they WILL be wild caught.
not really summit you want to buy mail order ,you really need to see a few and go through a shipment and pick out the best ones
a summarry for you.
they are hard work,but really really cool to watch,
99% will be wild cauhgt,and you will lose them if you are not used to acclimatizing wild caughts.
any thing else feel free to ask,
still hope we are on for basildon,as long as no juicy paying job comes up
i have quite a few various gecks for sale,hybinos,albinos,blizzards,fat tails ,all adults was hoping to get a table at the norwich show and sell them up there,if you have any spare cash you can have first pick on them: victory:
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If that helps atall.


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## MPF (Aug 12, 2007)

you can gutload crickets wiv nettle tea as drink and nettles as food as the nettles have the acid needed for them in it, so feed the crix nettles n feed em to da lizy but its laborous and you need a good supply of fresh nettles


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

well done on that one, i heard that soemwhere before but had forgotten, good stuff.

I think it depends on what species of them it is though, for whether they need it or not, but defo fo rthe ones that do need suplementing and i reckon it wouldnt do harm to any of them, but not certain.


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

MPF said:


> you can gutload crickets wiv nettle tea as drink and nettles as food as the nettles have the acid needed for them in it, so feed the crix nettles n feed em to da lizy but its laborous and you need a good supply of fresh nettles


No a problem if you live "in da valleys! :mf_dribble:


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## fundo (Feb 7, 2007)

MPF said:


> you can gutload crickets wiv nettle tea as drink and nettles as food as the nettles have the acid needed for them in it, so feed the crix nettles n feed em to da lizy but its laborous and you need a good supply of fresh nettles


You stole that from me!! :Na_Na_Na_Na:

But yeah, they need formic acid to help with digestion. This is found in ants but also in a couple of other easily accesible items such as stinging nettles.

If you can liquidise the nettles you can give it to the crix to drink or coat them in it. I didn't have a liquidiser in the shop though so I just fed them on it which seemed to work.

For a drink I gave them nettle tea, but try not to let this boil when you're preparing it as it diminishes the amount of formic acid in the tea.

Horned lizards also spend a lot of time running from one ant hill to another so it would be a good idea to put a few 'ant hill' type ornaments in the viv e.g. the exo terra feeding rock. Our horned used to sit on the rock waiting for some crix to come out then run over to the next one and begin waiting again.

They also need quite a deep sand substrate as their main form of self defense is to bury themselves completely - except for the head. They will squirt blood, but they favour running and hiding first.

Due to the burrowing behaviour, make sure that any ornaments are on the enclosure floor before adding sand so that the horned lizard doesn't burrow under them.

Mark: victory:


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## MPF (Aug 12, 2007)

fundo said:


> You stole that from me!! :Na_Na_Na_Na:


yeye lol:mf_dribble:


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## LouiseK (Mar 17, 2007)

Thanks for all the replies guys  Sorry i've been absent the last couple of days.

That was a great movie! It looks just like them... but i'm guessing they're the ones that aren't supposed to be available in the pet trade.

Thanks for PM'in that guy Dean  They are babies... I'm gonna try and get some pics of them. All the pics i've found of them all look the same to me.

At least i've got a lot of info to work from now if i took the plunge, but i think they're a bit beyond me... i think they'd be amazing to keep.


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## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

Absolutely, im hoping to keep them at some point also.

Look forward to pics.


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## LouiseK (Mar 17, 2007)

I just told my fella we're off to the rep shop tomorrow to take pics and he reckons they're gonna be pissed if they catch us :grin1:

I always wanted to be a secret agent... although i don't do subtle very well, so will have to see :Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## LouiseK (Mar 17, 2007)

Ok, here are some pics. 

They're a bit crap, but i'm only short and this viv was the top of the stack... There used to be one that sat at the front looking alert but it's gone.

Which type are these guys? They're only babies i think, about 3 inches long.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

horned lizards. i've never kept them but have collected several. yea, harvester ants are what they are supposed to eat. kind of a speacialist. they stay small, maybe 4inches was the biggest i ever caught. here, in the states you can order ants easily and cheaply. cute little buggers. they ain't much to them, they always seem dried up a little. but they'll lap up ants big time. i don't know how important formic acid is to them but it might be possible to get the to thrive on mostly crickets...i don't know. i do know that they are hard to find, they blend in so well. i got all mind in 29 palms california, where they lived in the very same habitat as chuckawallas and desert iguanas. there are several different species but i can't tell them apart. good luck, www.kingsnake.com might have some info?


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## Scree (Sep 7, 2010)

I just got one... He's damn cool... :2thumb:


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