150 TERRARIA 



Feeding in the Terrarium. The different occupants of the terrarium 

 naturally require a varying range of foods. Terraria containing chame- 

 leons, frogs, toads, tree toads, do well on flies. It is a good plan to have 

 a fly trap which can be emptied into the terrarium. It is quite an amusing 

 thing to see the animals waiting for the flies to emerge after they have 

 learned that they are fed in this manner. The dexterity with which they 

 are caught and eaten is a never-ending marvel. While these animals can 

 live on little, they ought to be well fed in warm weather, giving them 

 once daily all the flies they can consume, which will be found to be a 

 considerable number. In winter when flies are scarce they may be fed 

 on meal worms and meal bugs, which are easily cultivated in bran flour, 

 once a small stock is started. Particular care should be taken not to 

 allow any of the meal breeding stock to escape into the house, as it is 

 liable to become a pest in the kitchen. Roach traps are useful adjuncts 

 in providing food for the larger lizards and insectivorous snakes. 



As with -the aquarium, particular care should be exercised not to 

 allow any excess of food which is liable to decay, all surplus being 

 removed immediately after the feeding hour. 



Alligators, carnivorous turtles, newts and salamanders are fed on 

 bits of meat, fish, oysters, scrambled egg and worms. Aquatic turtles 

 and alligators can swallow their food only under water. 



Aquatic turtles should be provided with facilities for crawling out 

 of the water. They should not be kept with fishes, as fish is part of 

 their natural diet. This is also true of salamanders and newts. 



Snakes and lizards require large and small insects, worms, small live 

 fish, toads and animals. 



Box tortoises select their food from a large menu. They like almost 

 anything that man eats and a few things besides, including, in the last, 

 slugs and earthworms. Thick, sour milk is taken eagerly, also bread 

 soaked in milk. 



To winter box tortoises dig a hole in the ground to a point slightly 

 below the frostline. Place two inches of excelsior below and above tortoise. 

 This supplies air and acts as drainage. The head should be sloped 

 slightly upward. Cover over with earth, heaping it up into a slight 

 mound. Place more excelsior on this to a diameter of about two 

 feet and cover over with newspaper, held down by stones or boards. The 

 tortoise should be buried after the first light frost and dug out after 

 danger of frost is past, say, October 10th to April 10th for the hibernating 

 period in average climate in the Middle States. The author has kept 

 one tortoise in this way for over thirty years. When active they should 

 always have drinking water available, especially in hot weather. 



