*Updated* Green and Brown Anole Care!

TortoiseRacket

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Dec 26, 2018
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Location (City and/or State)
New York
For everyone who has or had anoles, you probably found care sheets that summarize the two into “one care sheet”. His is important- DO NOT GO BY THESE ARTICLES!!! I don’t care if it’s reptiles magazine, some breeder, or other, it is FALSE. When I was in Florida, I was measuring heat and humidity of different spots where I saw the most green anoles, and brown anoles. What I found were the brown anole spots had humidity at about 40-50%, and the green anoles were about 60%. Many care guides will say 70-80% but that is too high for the whole day. I also measured wetter areas near lakes and such and the humidity was about 70%. But the thing was, there were barely any anoles here! To summarize, different anoles=different humidity %.


Next, many care guides for BOTH green and brown anoles said you should have many branches. For green anoles, perfect. But for brown anoles, ehh...nope! The most brown anoles stayed in a sandy, not grassy terrain near scrub bushes. Occasionally, I’d see one at the base of a tree. But NEVER did I see a brown anole in a tree. They may run up one in fright, but a bush is always preferred, and they would come back down after a few minutes. However, for the green anoles, they were always in the palms of the trees.

And finally, diet. They eat crickets, right? Well yes, occasionally. I saw many brown anoles eating hoppers and crickets, but when I dissected a dead green anole I found, what did I see? No crickets! But flies. All flies.



So I just wanted to share to you the differences in the green and brown anole care and how many care guides summarize care, which we know, isn’t good.
 

TortoiseRacket

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
259
Location (City and/or State)
New York
As I was writing this, I forgot to mention differences in substrate. I did mention that brown anoles like a dryer substrate, but that was about it...


Substrate:
As mentioned before, green anoles are from the trees. So with green anoles, a mix of aspen shaving/orchid bark and leaf littler will work just fine. With green anoles, I noticed that there is sandy areas in their “tree tunnels”, hence why aspen is appropriate. Many times, reptile aspen shavings mold in humid conditions. I have been using the hamster and rabbit aspen by kaytee, it is the same thing as reptile aspen-there are no added chemicals- but it doesn’t mold.
Brown anoles will do fine on an aspen bedding, but NOT an orchid bark bedding. Although they don’t show it, their feet are not designed to grip bark, and where they come from, it is mostly sand and dead weeds. Mulch is not a favorite of anoles, but is acceptable as long as it doesn’t have big chunks and is MIXED with sand, aspen, etc.


IMPORTANT—THIS CARE GUIDE DOESN’T APPLY TO CUBAN GREEN ANOLES, HOUSE GECKOS, TREE FROGS, AND CUBAN BROWN ANOLES—ONLY THE INVASIVE FLORIDA BROWN ANOLES. (they have been in Florida for so long their care “changed” based on the physical features of Florida)
***Cuban and Green Tree frogs do not apply to this care***

KNIGHT ANOLES CAN BE KEPT ALONG THE GUIDLINES OF A GREEN ANOLE—BUT FED LARGER PREY ITEMS AND A LARGER ENCLOSURE.



Knight anoles require a cage minimum of 3’x2’x3’ for 1-3 animals

Florida Green anoles require a cage minimum of 12x12x18 for 1-2 animals

Florida Brown anoles require a cage minimum of 12x12x12 per animal

Cuban tree frogs require a cage minimum of 12x12x18 per animal

Cuban brown and green anoles require as much space as the Florida green anole.

House geckos require a cage minimum of 12x12x24


Carolina’s green anoles can be kept in a 12x12x12 ABSOLUTE MINIMUM.

Green anoles and Florida brown anoles cannot be happily kept together.
 
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