I came home today after a weekend away to find my female green anole dead. I'm really upset. I left on saturday afternoon after misting the tank and watching both lizards take a drink (she shared with a male green anole). There was plenty of food and food for the food, and their UV light is on a timer.
My housemate was left with instructions to mist the tank twice a day, I stressed the importance of that because they don't use their bowl and it's been getting pretty hot in the mid afternoons.
I came home, and the first thing I did was look in to the tank. The leaves were bone dry. Doug looked fine, glared at me and turned brown. I searched for Jade and found her in the ivy next to her favourite basking spot. There are no injuries on her, she's still bright green, and she looks like she just went to sleep. Her legs were stretched out like she does when she's pretending to be a branch. The only odd thing was her eyes were really, really sunken in her head. Could she have died of dehydration? It looks like the spray bottle was never moved. Could she possibly have gotten that dehydrated in 2 days? Like I said, Doug was fine but he's a lot bigger than her, about the size of a small mouse compared to Jade who was about the size of a small pinky, just a bit longer (she was approximately 7 months old).
I don't think Doug had been bothering her, I never saw them really interacting. There were plenty of hiding places and basking spots. I did briefly suspect she wasn't eating but she wasn't emaciated, just not exactly fat either, and there was plenty of food around. There was literally no sign anything was wrong with her when I left, she was bright green, had her active moment but mostly hid in the fern or the ivy.
Also, this may sound totally heartless (I am pretty broken up but also thinking practically), I've put her in the freezer for now. If she did die of parasites or some illness that didn't show any signs, will the freezer kill that off? I have a corn snake that won't eat anything not anole scented...and...well, I'm sure you know where I'm heading with this...
My housemate was left with instructions to mist the tank twice a day, I stressed the importance of that because they don't use their bowl and it's been getting pretty hot in the mid afternoons.
I came home, and the first thing I did was look in to the tank. The leaves were bone dry. Doug looked fine, glared at me and turned brown. I searched for Jade and found her in the ivy next to her favourite basking spot. There are no injuries on her, she's still bright green, and she looks like she just went to sleep. Her legs were stretched out like she does when she's pretending to be a branch. The only odd thing was her eyes were really, really sunken in her head. Could she have died of dehydration? It looks like the spray bottle was never moved. Could she possibly have gotten that dehydrated in 2 days? Like I said, Doug was fine but he's a lot bigger than her, about the size of a small mouse compared to Jade who was about the size of a small pinky, just a bit longer (she was approximately 7 months old).
I don't think Doug had been bothering her, I never saw them really interacting. There were plenty of hiding places and basking spots. I did briefly suspect she wasn't eating but she wasn't emaciated, just not exactly fat either, and there was plenty of food around. There was literally no sign anything was wrong with her when I left, she was bright green, had her active moment but mostly hid in the fern or the ivy.
Also, this may sound totally heartless (I am pretty broken up but also thinking practically), I've put her in the freezer for now. If she did die of parasites or some illness that didn't show any signs, will the freezer kill that off? I have a corn snake that won't eat anything not anole scented...and...well, I'm sure you know where I'm heading with this...
