Lizards

How to Train Your Lizard to Eat From Your Hand

~ BackwaterReptiles

Interested in learning how to get your lizard to eat from your hand? Not all lizards enjoy being handled or eating in front of an audience. However, there are many species with voracious appetites that will basically eat on command and even seek-out the experience of being hand-fed by their keeper. In this blog entry, we will describe our techniques and methods for making our lizards friendly eaters.

First of all, it makes sense to start with a lizard species that is already known for having a great temperament and hearty appetite. Some species known for being overall pretty tame and well-mannered are: bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), Blue Tongue Skinks (Tiliqua sp.), Crested Geckos (Rhacodactylus ciliatus), Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis macularis), Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana), some monitor lizards (Varanus sp.) and certain species of chameleon.

hand feeding lizard
Bearded Dragons are great lizards to hand feed.

You want to familiarize your pet lizard with you by handling it frequently. Get the animal used to your smell and get it accustomed to being removed from its enclosure if you want to hold it while feeding it. Remember never to move suddenly or get the lizard too close to your face.

After your lizard is used to you, the rest should happen naturally. If your lizard is an omnivore, start out offering it fruits and/or veggies from tongs or your hand. If your lizard is a carnivore and eats live insects, you can grip a cricket by its large back legs or grip a roach by its wings and gently place the wriggling insect in front of the animal to show it food is present. It also makes sense to offer the hand-held food at the beginning of the animal’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner time so that your lizard is not already full when you’re trying to train it.

Sometimes it helps to remove the lizard from it’s cage when feeding so that it doesn’t necessarily associate a hand entering the enclosure with food. This can lead to lunging at your hand with an open mouth.

After a while, your lizard will get used to the routine and will essentially eat from your hand on command. However, please understand that lizards are not domesticated animals and will not respond to formal training in the same manner that a dog or a cat would, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while…or if your lizard decides not to eat from your hand at all!

crested geckos eat from hand
Crested Geckos are friendly lizards with healthy appetites and can be trained to accept food from your hand.

How many of you readers out there have trained your lizards to eat from your hand? What methods did you use?

 

Beaded Lizard Care (Heloderma horridum)

~ BackwaterReptiles

We have put together a Beaded lizard care sheet based upon our experiences with this amazing species. There are only two species of lizards in the whole world that can be classified as truly venomous – the Mexican Beaded Lizard (Heloderma horridum) and its close relative the Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). This blog entry will focus on the Beaded Lizard and how to safely keep this lizard in captivity.

beaded lizard care
The resident Backwater Reptiles beaded lizard swallowing a pinkie. Our care sheet will cover foods, caging, etc.

First of all, the Beaded Lizard is not a pet to be handled like most lizards. Although their venom causes paralysis, difficulty in breathing, and seizures, a beaded lizard bite is rarely fatal in humans. However, because many people don’t know if they could have an allergic reaction in addition to the effects of the venom, Backwater Reptiles does not recommend taking these lizards out of their enclosure unless absolutely necessary (i.e. to clean the cage).

It’s also useful to understand that the Beaded Lizard has a “bulldog” mentality when it comes to jaw strength and power. Although they might seem docile at first, if one of these guys bites you, it will hold on with tenacity and give the venom time to get into the wound it creates with its sharp teeth. Their strikes are very, very quick.

Our baby Beaded Lizards eat voraciously and can consume as many as four fuzzies or pinkies in a single sitting. It’s said that they can consume close to one-third their body weight in one meal.

Luckily, like most snakes, beaded lizards will do fine eating every few days and do not need to be fed four pinkies/fuzzies on  daily basis. Although they’re used to desert climates, these lizards do still need a supply of fresh water available to them at all times.

Beaded Lizards don’t need a very large enclosure to do well. Just be sure they have a proper basking area as well as a place to hide as they are usually fairly secretive animals.

Again, Backwater Reptiles does not recommend handling your beaded lizard, but when you must remove the lizard from its cage to clean it, we recommend wearing very thick leather gloves that reach up to the elbow. Breeders have also been known to offer the lizard a pinkie or fuzzy mouse on a pair of tongs. The lizard will bite the food and hold on tight and then the lizard can be carefully transported to a separate holding container while it is hanging onto the tongs/food without actually having to touch the lizard.

heloderma horridum care
Beaded lizard care is quite straightforward–they are undemanding animals that reach a large size.

While keeping a Beaded Lizard can certainly be a very rewarding experience, these lizards are most definitely best for experienced herpers, and cannot be shipped through standard channels (airport-to-airport only).

Backwater Reptiles is thinking about offering these beautiful lizards for sale. How many of you would be interested in owning one? Let us know in the comments and maybe we’ll start keeping some in stock! :)

Desert Horned Lizard Facts

~ BackwaterReptiles

Here are a few facts about Desert Horned lizards–probably the most unique-looking lizards in the country. The Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) is also known as the Horny Toad lizard or the Short-horned lizard and is native to desert terrains. These interesting-looking lizards are short, round, flat, and as their name suggests, horned. They have an array of spikey scales on their bellies and heads which make them appear quite fierce, although as pets they are pretty laid-back.

horned lizard facts
Horned lizards are one of the most unique-looking reptiles in the United States. Their primary diet is ants, but they will accept other food items.

Horned lizards can be tough to keep in captivity due to the fact that their main diet in the wild consists of ants, which are not necessarily easy to come by in the pet food trade. Horned lizards can and will eat other normal feeder insects such as crickets, but they need ants in their diet in order to thrive, so we recommend making sure you can acquire ants or live near an ant hill before you commit to a horned lizard as a pet.

The primary reason ants are an important part of their diet is because ants contain formic acid. Fortunately, there is a product produced by Repashy called Formic-Cal Plus, which is a supplement powder you can dust feeder insects with (such as crickets), so that the horned lizards are getting proper amounts of formic acid.

Certain horned lizards, such as the Phrynosoma asio (Giant Mexican Horned lizard) can be fed crickets and other insects exclusively.

horned toad facts
Horned lizards are also known as “horned toads.”

The most bizarre thing about these amazing lizards is their primary defense mechanism against predators. Not only can they puff themselves up and make themselves hard to swallow, but they can squirt blood out of the corners of their eyes with fairly decent accuracy! It’s assumed that they aim for predators’ eyes and only use this tactic as a last resort.

horned lizard squirting blood
This is how the Horned Lizard shoots blood from its eyes. Photo from www.discovery.com.

These flat little lizards are excellent burrowers and camouflagers. They like to remain very still and blend in with their surroundings or submerge themselves in desert sand to hide out from potential threats. In captivity, this means you should provide them with a substrate that accommodates their burrowing, such as a compacted sand and soil mix, as well as provide plenty of hide spaces. Remember, substrate that is too dry will not properly hold a burrow.

horned lizard phyrnosoma

Backwater Reptiles regularly offers Horned Lizards for sale. They are not necessarily the best pet reptiles for beginners due to their somewhat specialized diet, but experienced herp hobbyists should have no trouble keeping these squat little critters happy.

Five Things We Love About Toad Head Agamas

~ BackwaterReptiles

Toad Head Agamas are fairly new to the reptile pet industry, but they are currently exploding in popularity. These lizards are very interesting and make super cool pets. In this blog, we decided we’d mention five things we really love about them.

1. Toad Head Agamas are unique in appearance. Not only do they have flaps on the sides of their heads that open up and create a Predator-esque mouth, but these lizards also look quirky when those flaps are relaxed. Their pug noses and eye ridges give them sort of a sleepy bulldog face and we’re definitely digging it. They’ve also got some crazy-long fingers and toes. They use them to dig, burrow, and shimmy into the sand.

toad head agama facts
When these agamas get upset or threatened, they flare their mouth flaps out and look like the “Predator.” Get to da’ choppuh!!

2. They have very friendly dispositions. When we handled our agamas for our photo shoot, these guys were calm, collected, and super chill. They definitely don’t mind being handled and their demeanor reminded us of bearded dragons – just so laid back.

phrynocephalus mystaceus agama
Check out how friendly these lizards are. They definitely don’t object to being handled. Their favorite food seems to be waxworms.

3. They have little black “bibs” at their neck. These agamas are true gentleman and the black bow ties or bibs underneath their necks prove it! Oh, and did we mention what sweet, gentle temperaments these guys have? :-)

toad head agama male
Check out this guys’ little bow tie! That’s how you can tell the males–they have a dark patch under their chin.

4. Toad Head Agamas grow to a very manageable size. In general, these guys won’t grow to exceed twelve inches, which means their enclosures also need not be excessively large. A 20 gallon terrarium should suffice. The ones pictured in the blog photos are medium-sized animals and are approximately seven inches long.

handling toad head agamas
Check out this Toad Head’s smile! Such a little sweetheart!

5. Feeding time is fun! Like bearded dragons, Toad Head Agamas are pretty much always down to eat. They are insectivores and will consume everything from crickets to roaches readily. Just make sure to vary their diet and they’ll happily chow down.

pet toad head agama
A full body shot of the Toad Head Agama.

Backwater Reptiles has Toad Head Agamas for sale. These lizards are selling out fast though, so be sure to snag yours before they’re gone!

10 Facts About the Argentine Black & White Tegu

~ BackwaterReptiles

Here’s a listing of the top 10 facts about the Argentine Black & White tegu, one of our favorite species of reptile. Backwater Reptiles just received a shipment of adorable hatchling Argentine black and white tegus. The little guys were so tame and we really enjoyed playing with them during our photo shoot, so naturally we wanted to shine the spotlight on these great little lizards. Read on to learn some facts about the Argentine black and white tegu.

1. The Argentine black and white tegu reaches a moderately large size. Adult males can exceed four feet in length and females will be slightly smaller, usually around three and a half feet in length. Hatchlings are generally not longer than eight inches.

argentine tegu facts
This hatchling tegu is in his “trailer” preparing for his photo shoot. What a diva. :)

2. Tegus make great pets for people prepared to keep a lizard of their size. They become tame and don’t mind being handled and their personalities are often likened to that of a cat.

3. Due to their size at adulthood, Argentine tegus will require a large enclosure. The more walking space they have, the better. Adult males should have enclosures that are no smaller than six feet long by two feet high.

Argentine Black & White Tegu

4. Argentine black and white tegus can be housed together, provided you have a space large enough for them. They will need to be monitored closely however as breeding aggression can occur during their mating season.

5. These tegus need a daytime ambient temperature of 80 to 90 degrees to thrive. Night time temps can be anywhere from five to ten degrees cooler. They will also require a full spectrum UV light basking source in captivity, despite the fact that they burrow often.

tupinambis merianae tegu

6. Due to their burrowing habits, Argentine tegus should have a substrate in their enclosure that supports this habit. Coconut husks, orchid bark, and cypress mulch are all acceptable options.

7. Argentine black and white tegus are interior designers – they tend to rearrange the furniture in their enclosures to their liking, so it’s generally wiser to keep fewer decorative items (plants, large rocks, etc) in their homes. This will ensure they don’t harm themselves while burrowing underneath or pushing these items around the cage.

8. These tegus are omnivores and will eat lots of different types of food. Their staples are generally insects and protein items, but they should be offered fruit from time to time. Some tegus will enjoy the fruit while others will ignore it, but either way, variety in their diet is important.

9. Argentine tegus rarely bite, but hatchlings can be squirrelly and squirmy! Make sure to handle yours frequently to get it used to you. Be sure to never offer food with your hands as this could lead to improper association between food and your hand and therefore unintentional biting and aggression.

pet tegu facts
Handling one of our captive bred baby Argentine Black & White tegus.

10. It’s not unheard of for this species of tegu to live beyond fifteen years provided they are given proper care.

Backwater Reptiles has hatchling Argentine black and white tegus for sale.