HELP! Frozen Brown Anole male! Super skinny!

[Cacti3]

So, I was walking around my neighborhood when I found a brown anole male on the sidewalk. He was just laying on the sidewalk. I picked him up and thankfully he was alive, but he was so skinny and cold. I took him inside and put him in a little butterfly cage since I don’t have any other cages currently.

When I took a closer look at him, he was so skinny that his body had flaps of skin hanging off and his torso was just organs and nothing else. His tail is extremely skinny too.

When I put him in his cage, I left him in there for about an hour or so. I came back and he still didn’t move at all. I eventually put a tiny hornworm in there and a mealworm for him. He did move a bit but he was like hopping.

I will add some pictures of him. It’s kind of hard to tell how skinny he is since of the bad angles but he is not supposed to be that skinny.

He is also refusing to eat anything. He isn’t interested whatsoever.

 

[MissSkittles]

Poor guy. You’ll have Just keep some tiny feeders in there for him and maybe take a leaf from one of your plants and lightly spray it with some water for him to drink. Put him somewhere where he can gently warm up. Being so cold, he needs his metabolism to get working before he’ll feel like eating anything. Hopefully he can recover. If he does, you just might have another critter if you live somewhere where they aren’t the usual fauna. Do make sure to keep him quarantined and follow strict precautions to prevent spreading any parasites he may have. Good luck! Keep us posted how he does.

 

[Cacti3]

Yeah, I’ll most likely be keeping the guy for good. I am definitely not going to release him until he starts to eat again. I may try to actually buy a set up for him depending on how well he does after a week or so. I’ll also need to do good research on them like how I did before I bought Spyro or I may not house him correctly.

I have been keeping his little cage on a table closer to a window so he might get some sunlight but not too much. I’ll hopefully post here daily or every other day for updates on how he’s doing. He hasn’t moved from the same corner since I took the photo

 

[Cacti3]

Tommorrow I will also be going to my local pet store to get the anole some little crickets ( and big crickets for Spyro lol ) and maybe some things for his temporary cage.

 

[Carlton]

A severely dehydrated, low body fat critter like an anole is going to look very skinny. Dehydrated herps (pretty much any creature) can't digest or metabolize food well at all. The first thing I'd focus on is careful re-warming and re-hydration. Don't overwhelm the system...be gentle. You can always add some nutrition and electrolytes to water you drop on his snout (let him lick it) or dropper feed him some diluted Pedialyte to get some energy into the poor little guy while you're getting his metabolism going. Once it is, he'll be better able to handle that complex lump of nutrition called a feeder. You don't know how long he was exposed to low temps or what his condition was before that. There could well be irreversible organ damage that might take a while to manifest itself.

 

[Cacti3]

Thanks, currently it is nighttime and he is asleep so I’ll try either putting a small leaf or plant in there or drop feeding him water tomorrow. Last night it was about 29-32 degrees outside so it was pretty cold for them. Unfortunately all my crickets also froze to death since I keep them outside luckily I didn’t have too many and was running out anyway.

I have also been looking into many Reddit posts and videos about brown anoles in case I’m keeping him permanently. If I do, I will keep him in an 18 by 18 by 18 or a 12 by 12 by 18.

 

[Cacti3]

Update!

When I woke up, I went to prepare his water. I got a mister and a syringe ( about 1-2 centimeters wide ). I took a pothos leaf from Spyro’s cage and I misted it with water and out it in the anole’s cage.

He actually moved to run away from I opened his cage which is good.

I then used the syringe and dropped little bits of water on his snout, and when he opened his mouth I squirted some water in there.

I continued this for a little bit, until he stopped opening his mouth lol.

I then made him a hide out of cardboard and he went to hide in it which is good.


I also added a stick so he could climb up since anoles like vertical space.

oh, and I think I saw him trying to eat the tiny hornworm which is good.

 

[kinyonga]

Word of warning…don’t squirt water into its mouth…you may make it aspirate the water into the lungs and kill it.

Looks much better already. It maybe that you have a new pet!

 

[Carlton]

Word of warning…don’t squirt water into its mouth…you may make it aspirate the water into the lungs and kill it.

Looks much better already. It maybe that you have a new pet!

Agree, especially if he's a bit under the weather. Better to mist gently from above and let "rain" droplets fall on his face. He can lick the droplets running down his face and collecting along his lips at his own pace.

 

[GrannyK]

I’m getting my hopes up this little dude is gonna be ok and have a new home. good work

 

[Cacti3]

Guys today I tired to feed him a meal worm and I had to hold it so he could see it moving. He looked interested in the worm but he didn’t go to eat it. I waited for 10 minutes before just putting the worm back in the cage.

Also, during the day when I got back after watching a movie it was about 3:00 pm and his eyes were closed until I moved his cage a little and it made me nervous. I don’t know if he is still dehydrated or what

 

[Cacti3]

I’m getting my hopes up this little dude is gonna be ok and have a new home. good work

Yeah, when he gets better I probably will keep him since I have been looking up how to care for anoles and appropriate enclosure sizes and bugs ( which are basically the same as chams ) and I have leftover sticks and plants so it’ll be fine.

And I wouldn’t release him back anyway because he could easily freeze again. I also don’t think he was finding enough food

 

[MissSkittles]

I’m not sure wild anoles recognize mealworms as a food at first. I’m not really sure what their wild diets consist of, but I’d guess it’s more like beetles, flying things, crickets, maybe ants and things that move more. Whenever I catch one that’s in poor shape from being trapped in my house, I offer it some baby mealworms and hydration before setting it free. Usually the mealworms are uneaten so get released outside along with the anole (or gecko or frog). Do keep a small bowl of a few and hopefully he’ll recognize he can eat them.