how to keep cat off lizard cage?

Anoles are actually difficult to keep because they're easily stressed and need a fairly large enclosure - more tall than long.

One quick question. It's usually more common to catch/come across male anoles. Are you 100% certain that you do not have two males or even a juvenile male? They cannot be together if so because they are very territorial. That alone will stress the heck out of them.

If you have pictures of their enclosure and of them, or can take some, I'd like to see them and can give you some tips. I kept some many years ago.


As for the cat. You can't. There's no way to keep your cat away from the lizards and still be able to access them yourself. The only safe way to do this, and ensure that nothing ever gets broken and the lizards are not stressed, is to put their cage in a separate room with no cats allowed. I myself have a separate reptile room. It's not fair to expect my cats to know better and stop their instinctual urge to go after my geckos, so I avoid the stress on everyone.
On the plus side, if you can spare a room with good lighting you can also make it your plant room.

And before anyone says Ssscat. NO!. They are not compressed air, they are compressed gas with a chemical propellent in there - difluoroethane (type of refrigerant). You cannot use them around fish aquariums, birds, or reptiles without potentially killing them no matter what it advertises.

ETA: Also, since they are wild caught and stressed look for the possibility of their natural parasite load to possibly overload them. They may need vet care and deworming to keep them alive.

That may have been true at some point, but SSSCAT uses tetrafluoroethane and is non-toxic to inhale.

So the SSSCAT would be perfectly fine provided the noise of the SSSCAT doesn't stress the reptile (no clue in that department, sorry).

^I've been trying for a few weeks now to remember what they used. I think it used to be difluoroethane which is why I remembered coming across that listed a few years ago. Either way, I wouldn't use tetrafluoroethane (and which one is it, btw?) around birds, and thus not reptiles, due to their sensitive respiratory and nervous systems. Add in the high heat of a heat light and it's even more dangerous.

Addressing the biggest problems here first. With reptiles you put no more insects in the cage than can be eaten within 15 minutes, the only exception to this is if the insect can be contained in a bowl that they cannot climb out of. The reason for this is that stray insects in the cage will bite lizards and stress them out.

A 20gal long is not appropriate for an arboreal reptile. Height is more important than floor space. And because of this it makes it harder to keep the cages within safe temperatures for their habits if they can't go up or down and instinct tells them to. What wattage and brand of bulbs are you using and do you have thermometers with digital probes to measure the cool and warm ends of the cage? Do you have a hydrometer?

Sadly a free lizard or two, like this, costs close to $150-200 to properly set up a habitat for. It may not be so much that your cat is stressing them to stay brown as much as it is just the environment/care. It's a learning process, so this isn't your fault unless you choose to do nothing about it.

Males have a throat dewlap and femoral pores along the inside of their back legs, and in mature males it's hard to miss the hemi-penis bulges. Females and juveniles will have a white stripe down their backs. Another way to tell, and this is harder for new keepers, but females have more feminine faces than males - that's the only way I can describe it. Their faces are slightly shorter, less angular, and more rounded. Males are all sharp angles with that distinctive anole stare that looks almost condescending for a lizard. Size wise, mature males are larger and longer than a smaller more compact female.
Look up "sexing anoles" to see if you can find pictures. Once you figure out what you're looking for and at, you'll be able to sex a lot of lizards.

For a reptile, they do have fairly decent ability to hear. So some noises will scare them badly. If you can use a stand(s) that allow absolutely no room to sit around the cage and no foothold to make it easier to jump on top, that will help. You can also tape paper or cloth around the sides of the cage. This obscures your view, but the cats and the lizards along with it and for some reptiles makes them feel a bit calmer.

Figure out what you have and then figure out your caging requirements. But chances are you have boys. They just seem to get themselves into more trouble since they're so much bolder than the females are.

Go get a digital thermometer with probe ASAP. If they're too hot you'll eventually kill them. And who's giving you reptile advice? The person at the petstore selling you crickets and supplies? Never trust someone out to make money on you. Get a cricket keeper for your pinhead crickets (nothing larger for an anole) or use that spare 10gal and use veggies and a bit of cricket food to make sure they're nice and healthy. And no, not the dyed cube junk - it's full of all sorts of preservatives and chemicals. Cricket foods can be homemade or purchased online.
Only put in 2-3 crickets per lizard and keep checking back to see if they're being eaten. You should actually hear them if they're catching the crickets - there will be a rustling and a thud.
If the crickets are in the cage for several days and "disappearing" they're more than likely dying.

You also need 3 different vitamin/mineral supplements. A multi-vitamin, calcium with D3, and plain calcium. I use Rep-Cal brand. Dusting schedule depends on how well they eat. But generally it's once a week with the D3, once a week with the multi (which has low amounts of D3, too), and calcium for the rest of the days. You can also put a little milk jug cap of calcium in their cage, but try not to mist it.

Depending on ambient home temp, you may not need a light on at night. With reptiles like that a normal (for their region) temp drop at night is natural to them. Of course, I try to keep my home around 75F at lowest because I have reptiles and like to be warm myself, other people like to freeze though.


Oh! you updated after I clicked to reply. A 60w for a shallow tank like that is very likely much too hot. You may be getting temps exceeding 100F on the end it's over if you're not careful.

And try the suggestion to tape some paper around the glass, at least a few of the sides. It will calm the lizards some.

Its HFC-134a, nonflamable, but can warns not to exceed 120oF storage temp since under pressure.

Birds and reptiles (who are very similar in a lot of ways) are sensitive to a bunch of things that are perfectly safe for mammals. You really have to be careful what you use around them. Just the fumes from something "normal" like Lysol can kill them.

Did you know that if the vapors of it hit a high heat source it changes them into more dangerous fumes? Such as spraying near/over a heat light. I read through DuPont's safety and handling info on it last night, they did several animal studies at different concentrations. Birds were tested and found to be very sensitive to it.


Back to anole info: While its true that they shouldn't see the red bulbs some of the manufacturers make them so bright that reptiles can. I can't remember how bright the flukers are, it's been so long since I dared use their products. (The Flukers activities in the pet/repitle industry are very unethical.)

Cat food and rabbit pellets are great for those species, but would you feed that to a lizard? Look up cricket gut load as there are plenty of recipes for it and some site that sell it premade.

I have always had cats and birds/reptiles. Grant you due to the fact I breed the birds and reptiles they are kept in a separate room. But the cats do sneak in more then I care to admit if I am not paying attention.

So I try and keep duck tape sticky side up on the reptile tanks so that way if one of the cats jump up on the cage they "stuck". This has taught my cats to leave the reptile tanks alone.

Hope that helps and congratulations to the hitchhiking Anole friends .

My reptiles had to get their own room once the cat settled in.

I don't recommend that. I also keep reptiles. Crickets can and will eat lizards while they are sleeping. That is why it is important to remove crickets at night.

Glad you are caring for this little creatures. Strangewings advice is right on for them to live long, happy, and healthy lives.

^I wouldn't say "long life", without knowing the anoles age but guessing at 1-2 years already, that puts them with the possibility of living another 4-6.

What reptiles do you keep? This sounds like a potential and possibly deadly hazard to have around a cage where the lizards are flighty and can jump. I have some golden geckos myself that while they can get used to people, don't actually tame. Occasionally one of them will make a break for it and I have to coax them down from the ceiling. Years ago when I had anoles they were much the same. Just imaging one of them landing on duct tape would be horrifying, it would shred their delicate skin as they struggled to get free.

...Aside from that I have a few cats that love to chew on tape and will attempt to eat it. Whenever Tomas hears me unrolling duct tape he'll run over in hopes to get at it.

You can try a few mealworms, but I suggest you raise them yourself as you are very unlikely to get anything but medium-large ones. This is incredibly easy, though, and if they'll eat the worms you'll always have a backup food source.
Wax worms are all fat. They're raised on bran and honey, so they're basically sweet insect junk food for reptiles. Best to not bother with them.

If you're interested in what Flukers have done/are involved in, you can PM me. I don't think it would be wise to list some of it out publicly and risk making anyone mad.

If there's a lip/shelf around where the cage sits you can try stacking magazines so that they're just barely balancing on the edge. If a cat tries to jump up they and the magazines fall. It doesn't work on determined cats very well, though.

No. Because it's empty calories besides fat. Crickets, small mealworms, and small roaches are the best for small lizards like that. If you're not careful and too much weight is put on, and worse you create a picky lizard they can go off food and you face dealing with hepatic lipidosis. I bet you didn't know that reptiles could get that, too.

One thing you might try, for a treat, is small amounts of fruit baby food - no sugar added, of course. Apricots and peaches are usually well liked. While it won't give them much nutrients, you can hide vitamins in it.

You may just have to try to find a better alternative for a stand. But again, sex them and then worry about caging and how you'll cat proof it. There's no sense in going through a lot of trouble now if you're going to have to turn right around and separate them.
One option is to get a used 40+ gal aquarium and use a solid divider. If there are two males you don't want them seeing each other.

To be grammatically correct I meant as long of a life as possible with good care

Yes, they like some fruits. How much they like it is individual taste. Some will lick a little and others really love it.

Take some pictures, from above and behind through the glass. If the pictures are clear eenough I'll tell you what you have