My new baby "Dragons"

Umm.. I hate to tell you, but the reason he turned brown and blended with your shirt is because you are stressing him out.
"When a green anole turns brown, it is a sign of severe stress. Stressed anoles may turn green at night when their lights are out and they are asleep, but will turn brown again once they wake up and start the new day," (Kaplan)
I beg you not to keep them in that little carrier you got for them. If you want them to live, please go get them a proper set up (which may be pricey).
Melissa Kaplan is fairly respected in the herp world. Here's her thing on anoles
[linkhttp://www.anapsid.org/anole.html]http://www.anapsid.org/anole.html[/link]

We  used to catch those things in our backyard all the time. I think I had like 10 once, but I let them all go within the day. I never knew you could actually keep them as pets. What kind of stuff do you need?

Aina- No matter what the people selling them may say, they're not exactly "easy" lizards. They are probably good for first time owners, but differently not easy. You need a big tank, of course and lots of different lights, for nigthtime and day, and heating lamps. Plus plants, food, etc. And they do NOT like being handled that much, like griffinej5 said, it stresses them out (The reason i was holding mine was because i had no place to put them at the moment while fixing the temporary tank)
 
But I cant exactly agree with the brown color means they are stressed out thing. I had 3 of them before in the same tank, at times one could be completly brown while the otheres were bright green.  The whole time I was handling the female she stayed the same color, the male was the only one that changed. No one really seems to know exactly why they change colors.

Anoles are not chameleons. Just because they're in a tank doesn't mean they're not stressed out. If they don't have an appropriate place to hide, or are exposed on all times, they get stressed out. Additionally, three lizards in a small container can be VERY stressful. In the wild they can spread out and don't have the same competition for resources. These are not pack animals, and they are not "friends." People anthropomorphize too much.

I'd argue that this is actually a terrible lizard for first timers. They stress out and die really easily, and it's hard to get them to be friendly without them being so malnourished that they're just too weak to fight back or run away. They bite, and eat live food (which most first timers don't want to deal with).

To be quite honest, for someone who's really interested in keeping reptiles, the best intro lizard is probably a Bearded Dragon. The appropriate setup for a beardie isn't much more than for an anole, and they can easily be weaned onto pellets and greens... and actually, as adults they really shouldn't eat much in the way of live food (except for maybe "exercise"). If raised appropriately, they're handleable and friendly.

But there's no such thing as an "easy" lizard. Snakes, on the other hand, they can be super easy...

We've had a snake before, they are easy. I doubt I'd actually keep oan anole though, because if I want to see one I can just go outside. And then I don't have to pay for food, lighting, or keep up their cages.  They hang around my tortoise's area a lot so I see them there.  They also like the prickily bushes in front of my window, so I see them there. When we were younger there were a few that we always saw and they had names. They are interesting creatues, maybe when the babies hatch in spring I think I'll get some pictures of the little ones near my tortoise's hole.

Umm... i'm pretty sure everything I have ever read has told me that if a green anole is brown, it is indeed stressed. I may have too much faith in Melissa Kaplan, but for the most part, I believe what she says. I have much respect for her work. I find her a bit fanatical at times, but I respect her work. The reason you could have had one anole brown before and the others green could have been that the brown one was 'low man on the totem pole' so to speak. It could have been getting the least food, it could have been forced out of the good hiding spots, or any number of other reasons. Nonetheless, if the anole is brown, that's a message that something is wrong, and something needs to change. A green anole is a happy anole, and a brown anole is not. 

I love herps of every kind but please listen to the advice above. Lizards are very sensitive to their environment and each needs a setup unique to the breed you have. My experance is with iguanas, they are the same way with colors, greeen=happy, brown=something is wrong. I have fostered and owned a few herps, they can be easy to care for once you know what you are doing and as long as they are not sick. It's almost impossable to find a vet for exoits so try to keep them healthy to advoide high vet bills.

They are very cute and I hope you the best of luck with your little "dragons". []

Spazzy, I've no knowledge of herpes at all ... but if you want some dragon names you might read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series -- according to the books these would be more 'fire lizards' than dragons -- and the name Ramoth comes to mind first, except she was a gold, not a green.  (but all dragon names seem to end in 'th').   Good fun if you're into dragons. 

ORIGINAL: calliecritturs

Spazzy, I've no knowledge of herpes at all ... but if you want some dragon names you might read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series -- according to the books these would be more 'fire lizards' than dragons -- and the name Ramoth comes to mind first, except she was a gold, not a green. (but all dragon names seem to end in 'th'). Good fun if you're into dragons.

Sorry, but I have to say it: herps, not herpes. >.< (I work with reptiles and amphibians, so that's one of my arbitrary pet peeves that most people don't understand and I don't expect them to, but I still feel a need to say something. Heh...)

Hehehe...I hope Callie and Spazzy don't have any knowledge of herpes [sm=rofl.gif]

ORIGINAL: griffinej5

Hehehe...I hope Spazzy doesn't have any knowledge of herpes [sm=rofl.gif]

 
LMAO!
 
[sm=rofl.gif][sm=rofl.gif]