Green anoles are great lizard pets that don’t require too much care and maintenance. However, they are more sensitive than other lizards in terms of environmental conditions and diets, so they may need personalized care overall.
Today, we will discuss green anoles breeding and egg-laying behavior in case you plan on breeding them. This is quite likely, given that green anoles can live in pairs and groups and are always eager to breed, given the right circumstances. So, let’s get to it.
What do Green Anole Eggs Look Like?
Green anole eggs are small and white, sometimes with light-brown spots all over their surface. They are generally 6 millimeters long, and 14 millimeters in circumference and are easy to miss, especially due to the female burying them inside the substrate or under leaves.
Green Anole Egg Laying
Green anoles lay one egg per week during the breeding season over the course of 15-18 weeks. Sometimes, the female can also produce 2 eggs at once, although this is typically rare. The ideal temperature is between 82 and 85 °F, which typically signals to the females that the warm season has begun. This is typically what sets green anoles in their breeding mood.
The female will always look for a warm, humid, and soft spot in the substrate to lay the egg. Upon laying it, the female will no longer care for it or the resulting hatchling. Furthermore, green anole babies are often attacked and eaten by adult lizards. This is why you should invest in a nursing tank if you’ve decided to breed your green anoles.
Green Anole Eggs Care
Green anoles rank as easy breeders, but the breeding process isn’t as smooth as you’d think. The primary reason for that is the lizards’ lack of parental instincts or skills. They don’t care about their eggs or babies, causing inexperienced breeders to have problems keeping the babies alive.
So, a nursing tank is necessary when breeding green anoles. With that setup, you have other aspects to look into, such as:
Handling
This is your first contact with anole eggs, so you need to act with care. The goal is to relocate the eggs into the nursing tank, which is often easier said than done. That’s because the eggs are frail and can break if mishandled. To prevent such a scenario, make sure you’re taking the right precautions.
These include using a long tool to scoop the eggs into the breeding tube rather than grabbing them with your fingers. Tupperware tubes are usually the tools of choice, given their reliability and ease of use. You simply need to fill the tube halfway with dirt, scoop the eggs in, and poke holes in the sealing.
The holes ensure proper aeration and prevent excessive humidity, which can lead to mold and bacterial formation. I also recommend covering the holes with a mesh material to prevent insects from coming in.
Incubation
Now that the eggs are in the right place, safe from the adults, you need to learn the proper maintenance routine. Fortunately, anole eggs don’t need any special care. The temperature should be set to around 80-85 °F with 12 hours of UV light per day.
Humidity levels aren’t fixed, but I suggest keeping them in the 75-80% range. You should spray the eggs twice per day, once in the morning and another time before bedtime. Don’t overdo it, either. 2-3 small puffs are enough to provide the eggs with all the moisture they need. This, combined with stable temperatures and proper aeration, creates the perfect incubation environment.
Hatching
Green anole eggs take approximately 4-7 weeks to hatch, depending on the environmental conditions. If humidity and temperatures are optimal, the 4-week mark is more likely. You don’t need to do anything in this sense; the eggs will hatch when the eggs hatch.
Once they do, your next concern is to care for the baby lizards. I suggest having a nursing tank ready with optimal environmental parameters to house your tiny lizards until they reach their juvenile stage. Don’t relocate them to the adult tank; your adult green anoles might eat them.
Keep in mind that baby anoles eat the same thing as adults, except at a different scale. After all, these newborn lizards are often below 2 inches in length, so they can only consume small insects. Baby anoles eat 1-2 meals per day, depending on their appetite, with live crickets being the food item of choice.
Gut-loading and calcium dusting are necessary to keep your anoles healthy and avoid nutritional deficiencies.
How to Tell if Green Anoles Eggs are Fertile?
You can’t rely on the egg’s color because all anole eggs are white. Instead, you should hold the egg so that it’s between you and a light source. An infertile egg is clear, while a fertile one shows a shadow inside, sometimes with blood vessels visible as well. The difference between fertile and infertile eggs becomes more obvious by the one-week mark.
At this point, if the egg is fertile, you should be able to spot the embryo forming inside in the form of a dark disk. An infertile egg will remain clear, turn a yellowish coloring, and even cave in and accumulate mold.
Conclusion
Green anoles aren’t too difficult to breed. The real difficulty comes from these lizards showing no parental instincts, which means that their babies require extra care and protection. Fortunately, you now know how to go about it.