Mountain Short-Horned Lizards

[_Sam_]

Oooookey dokey. These guys are incredibly cool.

So I recently came across some "Mountain Short-Horned Lizards". I havent really seen them personally before, so I am so fascinated by them. They are about 3 inches long at the moment, and I think they might both be males.
Anyway, I got into an argument with one of my coworkers because he kept telling me "that is not a mountain horned lizard" (because there is a type of lizard that is called that and also called "mountain horned dragon" -they kinda look like water dragons) so he kept telling me it was just a "horned toad" (Texas Horned Lizard). The thing is, I do know that there is a sub-species of Horned Lizard that is called the mountain short-horned. Anyway, I know that Texas horned lizards are extremely hard to care for in captivity because they are picky eaters that pretty much only eat ants (which arent so easy to come by all the time), but the research i've done tells me that Mountain-short horned are much less picky and will eat other small insects, and I've watched these two devour small crickets like none other. So would these guys be hardier in captivity than the Texas Horned Lizard? they are eating well and are pretty active, but do spend a typical amount of time burrowed with just their head sticking up.

Just to be clear, I do not have these yet, but I was considering them. This particular sub-species maxes out at about 5 inches, so I know i dont need anything too huge to keep one or two in. What kind of enclosure would i need for them if i was to decide to get them? There doesnt seem to be many caresheets for them, and there's not a lot of information about keeping them in captivity.

this is one of them:

[spike06]

theyre pretty cool looking. im really not sure on what kind of environment u would need to set up for them

[spix14]

Are those the ones that can squirt blood from their eye? Or is it the australian something-or-other that can do that? Looks kinda similiar.

[Hairless]

By reading your post...you know more about them than I do.
Very cool. Get em cc, or let me have them.

[_Sam_]

Originally Posted by spix14

Are those the ones that can squirt blood from their eye? Or is it the australian something-or-other that can do that? Looks kinda similiar.

Yes, some species of Horned Lizards do have that ability, though Mountain Short-Horned Lizards are ones that do not seem to be able to.

Another tidbit- about half of the Horned Lizards are live-bearing lizards, the other half are egg-layers. I do believe that Mountain Horned ones are live-bearers.. weird, right?

[_Sam_]

Originally Posted by Hairless

By reading your post...you know more about them than I do.
Very cool. Get em cc, or let me have them.

hahaha.. I want to, but I'm not quite there yet, LOL. I need to know their space requirements before I can seriously consider it..