Posts tagged "lizard"

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the Web each week!

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  Enormous Lizard Discovered

  This newly found lizard is also one of the largest at 6-feet long. If discoveries continue like this, we'll have Godzilla by Thanksgiving. [via Treehugger]

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  Stand and Meow

  What's the hot move of the moment? Cats standing on their hind legs. And Urlesque has rounded up the video cream of the standing-cat crop. [via Urlesque]

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  Micro-Pigs And Friends

  A cat and a dog have taken to the likes of six micro pigs. We are taking all bets on when Disney is going to make a movie about this. [via Dailymail.co.uk]

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  Vermont v. Salamanders, Salamanders Win

  One town is spending $150,000 to build underground walkways to help highway-traversing locals. Reptile locals. [via Burlington Free Press]

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  Hope For Panthers

  Florida's dwindling mountain-lion population is finally on the rise. This photograph shows a rare mountain lion walking with her two cubs. [via Naples News]

Name: Crested Gecko

Personality: Easygoing and tolerant, according to Pangea.

Care: You'll need to provide at least a 20-gallon tank with branches to climb and a temperature gradient of 72 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 65F to 75F at night, according to About.com. Humidity and lighting must be monitored, and you'll need to feed young crested geckos daily, but adults just three times a week. A commercial crested gecko diet is probably best (and easiest).

Common Health Issues: A hardy pet, crested geckos can live 10 to 20 years. Crested geckos are hardy and don't have as many health problems as other lizards, but according to Pet University, they can still suffer from dysecdysis (the inability to shed all their skin), metabolic bone disease, and diarrhea.

Training Tips: Crested geckos are generally amenable to handling, according to Pangea Reptile. However, you should wait two weeks after bringing one home before starting to handle it, and then, stick to just five minutes a day for the first few weeks.

Name: Water Dragon

Personality: Docile and interactive, but occasionally slightly aggressive to one another (not toward their owners), according to Tricia's Water Dragon.

Care: Water dragons require a large (and costly) enclosure, at least six feet long, two to three feet wide and and five to seven feet tall. They'll need a pool of water about half the dragon's height, as well as regulated temperature and humidity. About.com suggests a diet primarily composed of crickets, mealworms, waxworms, earthworms, grasshoppers, butterworms, locusts, and possibly small feeder fish. Adults can also be fed pinkie mice and kingworms, and some veggies and fruits may be included.

Common Health Issues: Melissa Kaplan lists the following as common health problems in captivity: Abscesses (infections due to injuries or stress), internal parasites (filthy import and pet trade conditions), Metabolic Bone Disease (calcium deficiency due to poor diet, inadequate UVB and/or heat), rostral/snout damage (too small an enclosure), Stomatitis or mouthrot (snout damage, systemic infection due to improper environment or stress), swollen/infected limbs (fractures due to MBD or getting caught in inappropriate tank setups), articular/periarticular/pseudo gout (improper foods and insufficient hydration), respiratory infection (inadequate heat; stress), and gastroenteritis(protozoan, bacterial or worm infections).

Training Tips: Water dragons can be trained to be handled. You'll first need to get your water dragon accustomed to its tank and your presence. Once it's no longer skittish around you, start handling it for just a few minutes a day. Eventually, with patience, you'll be able to take your water dragon out of its tank and place it in the middle of the room.

Best Animal/Owner Match: The Water Dragon is best for experienced reptile owners. This is a large reptile that has many environmental requirements, which means you'll need time, effort and money. Additionally, water dragons generally live 10-15 years, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, so the ideal owner will be committed and fully able to provide for their pet.

Name: Savannah Monitors

Personality: Shy, particularly around humans. Males are quite territorial, according to the Honolulu Zoo.

Care: A large lizard (three to four feet when fully grown), Savannah monitors require a large enclosure (at least eight feet by four feet). About.com says that these monitors are intelligent and excellent escape artists, so you have to keep the enclosure very secure. Temperature and lighting must be monitored, with a gradient temperature from 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a basking spot of 95-100F, plus full spectrum UVA/UVB light for 10 to 12 hours per day in addition to the incandescent basking light. Feeding shouldn't be difficult. Savannah monitors are voracious eaters and will become obese and unhealthy if allowed. Live insects and pre-killed rodents of appropriate size will provide the basis for an adult Savannah monitor's diet.

Common Health Issues: Savannah monitors are healthy and hardy, according to Pet University. However, they can still develop issues from parasites like mites, and burns from heat sources.

Training Tips: The best way to train your Savannah monitor to be handled is to give it time, says Pet University. Avoid holding it for a few weeks after bringing it home, and once it seems relaxed and comfortable, you can use your hand and arm to scoop and support it. If he's biting or hissing, set him back down. At all times, you should provide plenty of support and keep a firm, yet gentle grip.

Name: Leopard Gecko

Personality: Geckos pack a lot of personality into a small package, says Anthony Caponetto Reptiles. Hatchlings cry and shriek when bothered, but adults will wag their tails at potential mates and watch you expectantly when they're ready to be fed, like a cat or dog.

Care: This is a fairly low-maintenance pet, but still requires a reasonable commitment, as they can live 10 to 20 years or more according to LeopardGecko.com. They don't require a huge cage. Geckos, Etc. says that a 10 gallon aquarium can hold one or two adults, although a 20-30 gallon tank is preferable. Females can live together but males will fight over territory. As with other lizards, you'll need to provide a temperature gradient up to 90 degrees. Leopard geckos eat a wide variety of foods, including crickets, mealworms, superworms, wax worms, and days-old mice (pinkies).

Common Health Issues: Leopard geckos are prone to a number of health problems. Leopard Gecko Guide lists the following as common problems: digestive tract obstruction, calcium deficiencies, mouth infection, respiratory infection, and, of course, injuries, particularly if you house too many geckos in too small a space.

Training Tips: You shouldn't get a leopard gecko and expect to train it to, say, do tricks or ride around on your shoulder. At best, you should expect to be able to handle your leopard gecko on occasion.

Name: Green Iguana

Personality: In the wild, the green iguana is social, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. However, males can be territorial and aggressive, making it difficult to keep them in social groups in captivity.

Care: In addition to specific housing requirements (including the enclosure, heating, lighting and humidity), you'll need to trim your iguana's nails regularly, bathe them occasionally and monitor their poop and appearance, says the Iguana Pages.

Common Health Issues: According to ReptileChannel.com, green iguanas can live up to 20 years or so in captivity with proper care, though it's more common for them to live closer to nine or 10 years. Green iguanas are susceptible to parasites (both internal and external), tail loss (not serious -- it's designed to break off, but you still should never grab it), burns (if an improper heat or light source is used), nose abrasions (from repeatedly trying to get out of the enclosure) and other wounds and abscesses from being active, reports The Iguana Pages.

The same source lists common health issues as bladder stones, egg binding, mites, burns and

Training Tips: If your green iguana isn't properly tamed and trained, it can be aggressive and very dangerous, says the Green Iguana Society. The source outlines a number of steps in making your lizard comfortable and stress-free -- both very important when training it to be handled. With patience and consistency, you should be able to train your iguana to be handled and even give it some freedom outside its enclosure!

Name: Green Anole

Personality: Skittish, not terribly social (though small groups of females with no more than one male can work well). Males can be territorial.

Care: This is a fairly low-maintenance reptile according to About.com Exotic Pets, which also states that an aquarium of proper size (at least 10 gallons, larger for groups) is required, and the daytime temperature should remain around 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit with 70 percent humidity. You'll need to mist their enclosures a couple of times a day in order for the green anoles to hydrate. They lap water from their surroundings rather than drink from a dish. Plants and branches should be provided. A diet of live crickets (gut loaded and supplemented) will keep them healthy.

Common Health Issues: Green anoles are hardy, so they don't have many health problems, says allpetinc.com. Providing proper full-spectrum lighting and branches for basking will keep your lizard unstressed and healthy. However, green anoles are susceptible to metabolic bone disease, mouth rot, respiratory ailments and shedding.

Training Tips: This isn't the friendliest pet out there, but with consistent, calm attention, you might have luck with training your green anole to be handled. Don't be heartbroken if it doesn't happen, though.

Best For: This is a great "beginner" reptile because it doesn't require a huge commitment in terms of time or money. Of course, you still need to be prepared to care for the green anole for its full life, which will likely span around four years but can be longer than eight years with proper care according to About.com Exotic Pets.

What Green Anole Owners Say: Nick Brown of Portsmouth, R.I. tells Paw Nation, "I bought green anoles as a Christmas present for my son two years ago and we have enjoyed having them as pets. Our favorite part is feeding them live crickets because of the excitement seeing them hunt and eat a cricket when it is still alive. It's also cool to see them puff out their red throat sacs in the summertime."

Families all over the world are enjoying exotic monkeys, birds and reptiles as pets, not realizing that criminal gangs may have taken these animals from Asia illegally -- leaving some forests almost completely empty of natural creatures.

According to a report by the UK newspaper The Observer, countries in Southeast Asia are being drained of their wildlife species to fuel the exotic-pet trade, particularly in Europe and Japan.

'Empty forest syndrome' is what researchers are calling the damaged habitats left behind by the exotic animal business. "There's a lot of forest where there are just no big animals left," Chris Shepherd, of the wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic, told The Observer. "There are some forests where you don't even hear birds."

Criminal gangs control a lot of the wildlife trade, Shepherd said, and the kidnapped creatures often wind up in cages or aquariums in the homes of European families who are unaware of how they were acquired.

While hundreds of millions of these exotic animals may be have been taken illegally, they aren't the only threat to these natural habitats. There is also a brisk legal trade in exotic pets contributing to this empty forest problem. More than 35 million animals who were lawfully exported out of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries in the last ten years, The Observer reported. Of those, 30 million were taken from the wild.

Turtles, lizards, snakes, birds and macaque monkeys are among the most common species plucked from the forests of Southeast Asia. Seahorses and coral are removed in great numbers from the region's oceans.

In the U.S., responsible pet owners are (rightfully) quick to condemn puppy mills and other unsavory sources of dogs and cats. But few probably realize where their exotic snakes, geckos and aquarium fish may be coming from. It's time to start paying attention.

What do you think Paw Nation? Do you believe exotic animals should be pets? Or should they be left in the wild?

Name: Chameleon

Personality: Like being alone, are easily stressed.

Care: Creating the right environment for chameleons can be a challenge as they have very specific temperature and humidity requirements and trees are their natural habitat, according to About.com. Additionally, they need UV access (natural sunlight is ideal), plenty of privacy and a drip system or consistent mistings. (They don't drink water from a bowl.) A varied diet is best. Gut loading meal worms, crickets, wax worms and the like will help your chameleon get the proper nutrition.

Common Health Issues: Stress is a major problem for chameleons, but the right environment will help avoid this. In addition to proper temperature and humidity, be sure to keep the chameleon's cage clean, as diseases can spread quickly. Metabolic bone disease, parasites and respiratory problems are all common health issues for chameleons, according to Chameleon Crazy. Keeping a close eye on your chameleon and watching for any signs of distress (unusually sleepy, not eating) will help you detect problems before it's too late to treat them.

Training Tips: Some experts say that chameleons are better off with no direct human contact (or as little as possible), while others argue that, by handling your chameleon, you'll help it become less stressed at the sight of you, says Chameleons Online. Try not to force it to do anything it doesn't want to do. Hand-feeding foods it loves is a good way to build trust.

Roses are red, violets are blue... and our furry, feathered, winged and scaled friends come in every possible color under the sun. From Red Rover to purple finches, the Animal Kingdom puts Crayola to shame with a stunning array of hues.

You won't find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow -- but you will get a rewarding glimpse at nature's impressive palette. Read on to see the dazzling effect of nature at work.