yellow plated throated lizards

Question
QUESTION: Hi my name is Belinda and Im 14 and I was just wondering if you could tell me what kind of fruit yellow plated throated lizards eat.Because I was on google looking at what I could feed my lizards and every website that I looked at saied that the yellow plated throated lizard love to eat fruit but what kind of fruit?I was also wondering how you tell the genders apart because I have two lizards and one is bigger than the other.My last question is with the different size would it be safe to put them togther in one tank? please help me by answering these few questions so that I can act for the best of my lizards.





ANSWER: Hello Belinda,

Great you are getting started with Reptiles at a young age.  
Are you housing two of them together?  Keep in mind, that they can reach up to 3 feet in length in some instances so their housing requirements are large.  The length of the tank needs to be at least 48 inches long & 24 inches wide & 18 inches in height.  That is the minimal requirements.
The males will usually be a little larger.  They have fringes on their back legs & the females don't, or they will just have stubs & are usually smaller.
They can have peaches, nectarines, bananas, grapes, cooked sweet potato, a variety of squashes, collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, & melon varieties.  
Make sure to supplement with calcium 5 times per week if they are younger than 1 year.  You can cut it back to 3 times per week once they reach a year old or so.  
Also, are you using a full spectrum UVB light?  They do need that in order to absorb calcium properly & to maintain their bones.
Let me know if you need any other help.

Tracie

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QUESTION: WHAT IS A UVB LIGHT AND SOME OF THE WEBSITES THAT I HAVE RED SAY THAT THE YELLOW PLATED LIZARD LOVES WATER BUT THE PET STORE THAT I BOUGHT THEM IN SAID THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE WATER SO CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME ONE MORE TIME AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TELLING ME WHAT THEY CAN EAT?.BUT HOW CAN YOU FIND THE FRINGES ON THEIR BACK LEGS AND WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?

ANSWER: Hello Belinda,

They do need humidity to be around 40% or so.  You should keep a nice water bowl in there for him.  
Well, the fringes are referred from the femoral plugs/pores that get long to where they are referred to as fringes along the inner thighs.
Females have pores but not nearly as prominent as the males do.

Tracie

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QUESTION: yes I am housing two of them together so when you told me the length,height,and width would that be doubled?I was also wondering if you could tell me how to tell if my two lizards are sick and thank you again for answering my questions please write back soon.

Answer
Hello Belinda,
You definitely need to try & figure out the sex of your lizards.  If you have 2 males, that will not be a doable situation by housing together.  A male & female will breed too early, so you might need to put a divider in so they don't breed too early.  Two females are fine with housing together.  
Well, basically yes, the dimensions would need to be doubled if you are housing 2 of them.  That was for one adult.  If they get up to 3 feet, obviously that is pretty large.  A good rule of thumb is that they need 2 times the length of their body for the length of their tank, & at least 1 to 1/2 times their length for the width of the tank for turnaround space.  The height is not as important, it depends on what type of lighting you are going to want to use.  They like to dig so you will need some type of dirt or substrate so it will need to be at least 18-24 inches tall.  
Keep in mind that they do need to be within a good proximity of their UVB light.  If you are going to get a mercury vapor bulb like a Megaray, they have distance requirements.  That is a good bulb to look into for a large tank.  
Well, the best way to tell if your lizard may be sick is to look at their eyes if they are sunken in a little bit.  Also, their coloring can be off, as well as the stools will be runny & smelly which would indicate parasites or smellier than normal.

Tracie