Enclosure:

 

All the experience I have with horned lizard enclosures is with indoor setups. In general, the more space the horned lizard is given, the happier it will be; remember that in the wild they will range over large areas looking for food. However, the minimum size I would recommend for the enclosure is 20 gallons per lizard. Custom cages are best, but failing that, the Abreeder@ style terrariums are what work best for horned lizards, since horned lizards need space for running not climbing and that is what the “breeder” tanks are set up for. Be sure not to build horned lizard enclosures from fish aquariums, as they are deeper than they are wide and, as I mentioned, horned lizards do better when they have lots of space to roam over: since horned lizards do not really climb at all, they do not need the extra height. In addition, the higher glass walls that characterize fish aquariums tend to retain more heat from the lamps, meaning the aquariums will heat up faster, dissipate the heat more slowly, and retain it longer after the lamps are shut off. This can lead to uncontrolled and prolonged temperature spikes throughout the enclosure, which can potentially cook your lizards alive. Even if the temperature does not rise to dangerous levels, the taller glass walls of the enclosure will maintain higher temperatures into the sleep cycle, which will also stress out the lizards, disrupting their daytime behavior as well. Be sure that the walls of the tank are at least 12 inches high, as I have had some pretty nimble and acrobatic lizards who have managed to jump out of their enclosures when the wall height drops below 6-8 inches. I have even watched one of my lizards jump up the wall, catch the lip of the enclosure, and do a pull up over and out of it. 

 

The regions that provide the optimum habitat for desert horned lizards are characterized by the presence of fine sand and gravel, flat arid stretches of land where there is an intermediate dispersion of larger rocks and scrub vegetation. You should try your best to mimic this kind of environment when considering what to put in your horned lizard enclosure. For substrate, if you don=t live in an area where horned lizards naturally occur, I recommend between two and three inches of jurassic red sand, as this is similar to the type of sand that predominates in areas where desert horned lizards naturally occur. The areas where desert horned lizards occur in nature usually have very fine sand, normally red or white in color, peppered with small gravel. I do not recommend including small gravel in the enclosure, though, mostly because this makes removing fecal pellets and general enclosure cleaning much more difficult. 

 

You should include one or two larger rocks (between 1-2 lbs of weight) at one end of the tank with a heat lamp set up over or near at least one of them. If possible, make sure these go all the way to the bottom of the enclosure; this way you will not have to worry about your lizard digging under the rocks and possibly being crushed or smothering under the rocks. You can also put some smaller rocks in the enclosure to add some more variability to the environment and make it appear more natural to the horned lizard, because despite being captive hatched they do have instincts and preferences concerning what is the safest habitat for them to be in. If they are not satisfied, they will become stressed and decline in health. Also, a small resin Arock@ cave may be a good addition to give them some place to completely hide if they want to, or to provide an area where temperatures are consistently cooler so they can more efficiently thermoregulate. These caves can be purchased at any pet store that sells reptile supplies. 

 

To simulate the scrub vegetation characteristic of an arid area, several small pieces of drift wood should be used instead of live plants, as these can be hard to maintain in an indoor enclosure. These pieces of drift wood should be arranged in such a way that the horned lizards can hide among them, as they would under and among the dense, but small, scrub bushes in their natural habitat. These areas should also be away from the heat lamps, as these are also areas horned lizards seek out to escape the heat of the day and where they prefer to bury themselves when they sleep. Both horned lizards I now have were captive hatched and have never been out in nature, and both of them immediately started sleeping under the drift wood Abushes@ as opposed to under/around the rocks or under the open sand. Be careful when arranging the drift wood bushes that their tops do not come too close to the enclosure=s rim. I have not once observed this species climbing up vegetation, as Texas Horned lizards are sometimes known to do, so having them escape this way is not really a concern; however, having crickets, beetles, or worse, the harvester ants climb up and out of the enclosure in this way is. Be sure to create one bush in this manner for each horned lizard you have, as they may compete with one another for this space if there is only one. Mine did. 

 

In general, adding a water dish to the enclosure for the purpose of providing water for the horned lizard is unnecessary, since I have never seen any of my horned lizards drink from a pool of water. Mostly, they just stand in it and go to the bathroom, creating a potential source for disease and infection. I do, however, recommend that a shallow water dish containing a very small amount of water or cricket food be put in the tank for the purposes of keeping the lizards= food hydrated. Adding rocks and other features to the tank can give it character, but it is important to make sure it does not become overcrowded, as this will stress out the lizards. Also, horned lizards do much more digging than the more common lizard species kept as pets, so you will have to rebuild your setup on a fairly regular basis. So avoid unnecessary aggravation; keep the setup simple. Remember that these horned lizards prefer to have flat open spaces to run around in, so most of the tank should be designed with this type of feature in mind. 

 

Finally, putting up some sort of blind around the enclosure is advisable, as it prevents you from accidentally disturbing, frightening, or startling the lizards as you walk through the room. Something simple, like brown paper or cardboard, will work; however, if you want something a little more real that will add more character to the setup you can also print out desert-scapes from the computer or buy them from a local pet shop. 

 

Lighting: 

 

Lighting for desert horned lizards is much the same as it is for most other lizards. My experience with lighting for desert horned lizards is that it is best, regardless of how many lizards you have in one enclosure, to have at least two heat lamps per setup, one on the larger basking rocks and the other focused on the open sand, as horned lizards will begin their days usually basking on rocks and later in the day move to the open sand to bask. If you have multiple lizards, having the lights arranged in this manner will give your lizard basking options so as to avoid territory conflicts. They seem to have no problems basking on the same rocks or on the open sand together so long as they have the option of avoiding each other if they want to. Everyone needs some alone time, and they are no different. If you have more than one large rock, then arrange one heat lamp in the general area as close to all the basking rocks as you can. Horned lizards have a much greater tolerance for high temperatures than do other lizards, so as long as you have a fairly cool area in the tank there will be no danger of their overheating and dying. Basking temperatures should range between 102 and 116 degrees Fahrenheit, and the cooler regions, preferably under and around the Ascrub brush,@ should range between the high 70's and mid-eighties during the day cycle. 

 

Horned lizards, like all reptiles, need to be exposed to UVA and UVB light. Preferably, you should place the tank where it can get unfiltered (as in not through glass or plastic) sunlight. If that is not possible, then full spectrum bulbs can be purchased at your local pet store. Be sure that the bulb emits both UVA and UVB light. Florescent as opposed to incandescent bulbs are more effective. However, over time the florescent bulbs will no longer emit the UV rays as effectively and so should be changed every three to six months. 

 

I usually keep the lighting cycle between 10 and 12 hours of daylight and between 12 and 14 hours of night depending on the season. My lizards seem to prefer this setup, and as long as there are cooler spots within the enclosure they will go to them to sleep if they want to. My female usually un-buries herself before the lights turn on and buries herself after they go off, while my male lizard un-buries himself about an hour after the lights turn on, sometimes takes naps throughout the day, and about half the time buries himself for the night between 45 minutes to an hour before the lights go out. 

 

Feeding:

 

This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of owning horned lizards. This is true in part because ants, their natural food, are difficult to come by. Other major problems include often contradictory accounts of what they will and will not eat in captivity, and the personality of the horned lizards in question cannot be ignored either. Again, this section is made up of information about methods that have worked for me in caring for my horned lizards. 
 

Let me first begin by dispelling the common misconception that horned lizards will not survive in captivity on the food commonly available in pet stores for lizards, eg meal worms and crickets. I kept my horned lizards on a diet made up almost exclusively of crickets, mealworms, beetles and a few local carpenter ants for almost 2 years before I found a place that sells live harvester ants. While it is true that horned lizards= diets are composed mostly of ants, it has been found that anywhere between 10-40% of their diet is composed of other insects like crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. So they will eat them. 

 

Horned lizards prefer food that moves around a lot, so it is important to give them only healthy, active food items that will move around a lot and attract the lizard=s attention. Since a diet composed mostly of crickets and meal worms will be deficient in many essential vitamins and minerals, things they normally could get from the ants they would eat in the wild, it is important to give the crickets a healthy dusting of vitamin and calcium powder to make up for this deficiency. Also, gut-loading the crickets with cricket food prior to feeding them to the lizards will help keep them healthy. Cricket food and vitamin and calcium powder are available at local pet stores, and always buy the highest quality available. It=s a good investment since it will help keep your lizards healthy, and the lizards eat so little of it at a time that you will not have to buy more for a long time. 

 

When feeding your horned lizards, especially this artificial diet, it is important to Alisten@ to what your lizard wants to eat. Each lizard has its own individual tastes and likes, and just like a finicky child, if you try to feed it something it doesn’t like then it won=t eat it, but unlike a child the horned lizard can refuse to eat until it dies. Some horned lizards prefer crickets, some prefer meal worms, and some have a decided preference for beetles. If you concentrate on feeding them food they like, you can occasionally entice them to eat some items they would normally be less inclined to. For instance, my male horned lizard prefers meal worms and beetles to crickets, but neither meal worms nor beetles can be dusted effectively, so I concentrate on feeding him those items and then throw him 3 or 4 dusted crickets which he will then eat and in this way he stays nutritionally well set. Also, some horned lizards won=t mind if you watch them eat; others won=t eat if they can see you, so again, you have to pay attention to what your lizards want and then give it to them. If you are afraid one lizard is not eating, then you can remove the lizard you know is eating, or set up a partition between them in the enclosure using a small pane of glass or similar material, and then feed the lizard you fear is not eating; this way, whatever food disappears you know was eaten by the lizard you intended it for.

 

Of course, your lizards= eating habits, general health, and vitality will improve if you can give them even a few ants in their diet. One thing I discovered with desert horned lizards is that if you do not live in an area where their preferred prey of harvester ants lives, then black carpenter ants work quite well as a substitute. They are larger and therefore have a higher protein and fat content than the harvester ants do, so you don=t need to feed as many to your lizards. The addition of ants to your lizards’ diet, even carpenter ants, will help increase the lizards’ appetite and activity. Of course, harvester ants are still best and should be used whenever possible; they can be ordered on line at www.antsalive.com. If you can=t afford to order harvester ants and are fortunate enough (or unfortunate, as the case may be) to live near a carpenter ant nest, just remember that some ants are better than none. 

 

Here are some final bits of general feeding information for desert horned lizards. First, desert horned lizards usually feed continually throughout the day, so giving them smaller feedings throughout the day will work better than one big feeding event. Along the same lines, horned lizards have evolved an instinctive respect for the natural prey and will avoid large masses of insects, be they ants, crickets, or any other food item you decide to give them. So, again, smaller amounts of food numerous times a day are best, and be sure to put the food into the tank at a point furthest from the lizard or lizards. After all, having your meal dumped on your head is not a pleasant experience by anybody=s standards, and the same is true for your horned lizards. Also, unlike with most pet lizards, it is ok to leave food items in the tank for long periods of time, since, as I mentioned earlier, horned lizards will hunt and forage throughout the day, so this is actually beneficial for them. Mealworms can be left in for days, since they cannot hurt the lizards in any way and survive well in the relatively austere conditions of the tank and so will give them a fairly constant food source to exploit. Thus, in case there is a day when you are not able to feed them because of work or some emergency or other such event, they can still get food. This will only hold them over for a day or two, so don=t go on vacation, leave them a few mealworms, and expect them to be all right when you get back. Crickets, beetles, and ants should not be left in the tank overnight, as horned lizards may not always completely bury themselves and could be attacked by their intended meals. Supplemental powders, such as the vitamin and calcium powders, stay on crickets for a long time in an enclosure filled mostly with sand, so re-dusting is not much of an issue. Delicate items such as wax worms should be given to horned lizards infrequently, since their high fat content could make them hard for the horned lizards to digest if given to them too often. They should be removed immediately if the horned lizard is not interested in them. Finally, if your horned lizard is reluctant to eat anything other than ants or crickets, a little trick that works well for me to expand their diet is to mix in a few meal worms with the ants when I feed them to the horned lizards. The ants attack the meal worms, causing them to thrash about wildly, which will get the horned lizard’s attention very quickly. The horned lizard will then usually rush over and eat the whole mealworm-ant complex in one bite. Afterwards, they may be more inclined to eat meal worms placed in front of them. Repeat as necessary. 
 

Watering:

 

As mentioned earlier, having a dish of standing water in the enclosure is fairly pointless, as I have never once observed a horned lizard drinking from a pool of water, either in captivity or in the wild. More often than not, they will use a pool of water as a toilet, leading to an increased chance of disease and infection. The only good use I have noted for a water dish in a desert horned lizard enclosure is as a means of keeping prey, such as crickets and ants, hydrated long enough to be eaten. This can be done by putting just enough water in a shallow dish to cover the bottom, or putting a small sponge or bit of cricket food in it and placing it in a cooler area of the enclosure. 

 

In my experience, there are two major methods of watering horned lizards that get the best results. The first method is to mist them with water from a spray bottle twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, three to four times a week. This may seem like a lot, but as long as you do not soak the tank most of the water will evaporate, both from the sand and from the lizard, in very short order, minimizing any risk of respiratory tract infections or bacterial/ fungal infections that can occur when too much moisture is present in the horned lizard enclosure. Also, a great deal of the water that horned lizards drink in the wild comes from dew collected in the morning when they wake up, and occasionally they will drink droplets that gather on scrub vegetation or rocks. So this manner of watering is very natural to them; despite their likely initial reaction of running around the enclosure, they seem to enjoy it. 

 

The second manner of watering horned lizards mimics rain fall. When it rains, horned lizards will position their bodies one of two ways, either with their faces pointed as straight up as they can, or hunching their heads down slightly between their front legs. These positions cause the water to run along the spines and horns towards the mouth, and then they drink from this resultant stream. For this method all you need is a medicine dropper and a container of clean water. Simply position the dropper above the animal=s head, making sure to keep the dropper tip out of the enclosure, and drop one drop of water onto their heads. Aim for the tip of the snout or the back of the neck, towards the base of the skull and the main cranial horns. Keep about one second between drops and do not squirt them, as this will cause defensive behavior and defeat the purpose. Be sure to drop a few drops of water over their bodies as well, as this will help to stimulate drinking behavior. The horned lizard may initially be startled by the drops of water and run, but will usually calm down after a few seconds and will then stop and drink normally. If they do not, then stop watering them immediately, wait about an hour, and then try again. This time, drop a few drops in front of the lizard to simulate the first few drops that fall from the sky before a storm, and slowly move the drops closer to the lizard. Drop a few drops on its tail and back before aiming for the head region. This slower method of watering should work on even the most skittish of lizards. Perform this method of watering once every one to two weeks. 

 

For the best effect use both methods. Despite being arid animals, desert horned lizards need to be kept hydrated and can easily become dehydrated if neglected. Once becoming dehydrated, the lizard must be isolated from the other animal(s) in the tank and watered once or twice daily. Desert horned lizards will not eat when dehydrated, so these animals must be given a dose of emergency medical reptile treatment supplement, which will keep them fed and help them rehydrate. In emergency circumstances, take the horned lizard to the vet for an injection of electrolytic solution to help jump-start the rehydration process, then proceed as directed above and your lizard should recover with time. Signs of dehydration are similar to those of starvation, which dehydration will lead to if left alone. Symptoms include lethargy, a shrunken shriveled appearance to the skin (hard to notice in horned lizards), sunken eyes, excessive sleeping, and decreased size of uric-crystals (the white material on the fecal pellet) and pellets of reduced size. An early sign of dehydration is instant and vigorous drinking when sprayed or when water is dropped on their heads. I lost one lizard and almost lost another because I did not recognize, or insufficiently responded to, the symptoms when they presented themselves.