ROCKY & FIONA - Western Fence Lizards

ROCKY & FIONA

Western Fence Lizards (Male& Female)

Sceloporus undulatus

The lighter looking one on the left is Rocky (Male) and the darker looking one on the right is Fiona (Female). We caught Rocky outside our home one day and I paid a little girl $20 to catch me a female and she caught Fiona. I could of caught a female if I wanted to but I really didn't have the time to go out and do it myself so I figured I'd give a this little girl an incentive to go out and interact with her environment. These guys are found in the western part of the United States and you can typically find them sun bathing on the side of walls or on fences. Hence their name, western fence lizard. I don't know the exact age of these two but if I were to guess, because they didn't breed this last season, would be 1 1/2 to 2 years old now.

 

It's easy to identify them they are small and very common in southern California. They are called blue bellies because of the blue lines that run down their bellies. They also tend to have a patch of blue on their throat.Since they are classified as a spiny lizard, their scales are more rough looking and feeling than some other lizards.

 

Length: 6- 9 in. 

Life Span: 5+ years.

 

 Food: They are insectivorous. When captured, it is best to give them viitamin and calcium fortified crickets (to avoid metabolic bone disease, MBD), grasshoppers, wax worms, etc. 

 

 Sexing: With these lizards it can be moderately easy to identify these as a male or a female. For starters, males tend to have more blues on them, you can't see it in this picture, but Rocky has deeper blues on his belly with a little bit of black. If you look closely his throat is shaded with more blue. When he's been in the sun the whole day, his back gets turquoise dots running along his back (you can see faintly in this picture). His tail is also wider at the base and from his underside you will find that he has enlarged post anal scales.

 

The Cure for Lyme Disease:

 Even with these guys being completely harmless, may not be intimidating by any means to any animals other than insects, these guys play a big part in keeping the environment healthy. Studies have shown that Lyme disease is lower in the areas wear these lizards can be found inhabiting. Why? because these little guys have contain a protein in their blood that kills the bactierium that is associated with Lyme disease. How this happens, is when a tick, infected with the disease, latches on to the the lizard, it injests the lizard's blood which effectively rids the tick's blood of the disease and can no longer carry and transmit the disease to another host when it is done feeding on the lizard. 

 

Mating: This takes place during early spring, but they will not mate until at least 2 years of age. The males as a display to females will do "push ups", bob their heads up and down, and puff out their thoat to display their blue throat. Males will also do this towards other males as a sign of dominance and to defend their territory. 

 

 

Defenses: The only defenses these lizards have is to run at fast speeds and can drop it's tail as a diversion for the predator. The lizard will eventually regenerate the tail but it will never look the same.   

SKITTLES- Brazilian Rainbow Boa

SKITTLES 

Brazilian Rainbow Boa (male)

Epicrates cenchia cenchria

Skittles is a Sub-Adult male Brazilian Rainbow Boa (BRB), he is 2 years old and about 5 ft long right now. They get this name from their iridescent scales. (As you can see from the picture above the blues and greens that shine from the light) BRB's are easily identified by their orange to orange-brown ground color marked with large dorsal ocelli (an eyelike spot) outlined in black or sometime dark brown. BRB's are nocturnal creatures that like to live alone. Some books and info sheets warn people to consider their purchase with this species and say that these animals can grow to be large, potentially irritable adults. So far I have not had that issue with my snake. He has never once snapped at me, hissed, or bit me.So if other owners are having this problem, I guess I lucked out then.When I bring him out, he'll usually just balls up next to me under a blanket on the couch.

Sexing: The best way to tell if a snake is male or female is by probing, only experienced handlers should be doing this, a vet can do this for you, or, you can even find some pet shops that do this as well.

Life Span:12+ years

Temperatures:  Adult should be kept at 85 and 90 degrees during the day and between 75 and 80 at night. Babies should be kept warm 24 hours a day, adults can tolerate cooler nighttime temperatures.

Humidity:  70% or more

Average Adult Length: 5- 8 feet

Food: mice, rats, and chicks. They should be fed once a week for a healthy happy snake.

Range & Origin: This species of snake can be found in tropical Brazil and areas adjacent to Brazil. Almost all are captive bred.

How to tell the climate a snake lives in: One way that you tell what type of region a snake may live in is by the scales on the snake. For example, BRB's scales are very smooth, which indicates that this snake lives in a humid/ tropical climate and needs moisture to be able to have smooth scales and also aides snake in the process of shedding. Desert sidewinders on the other hand, have rough scales which indicates that the snake lives in harsher environments like the desert.

 Desert Sidewinder

Potential Health Problems: With BRB's being tropical snakes, they need humidity to survive. So this also can leave them susceptible to respiratory problems if given high humidity and cool temperatures.These snakes can also be susceptible to Inclusion Body Disease (IBD) which is deadly to this species and other species of boas and pythons.

Inclusion Body Disease: This disease is fatal. There is no known cure for IBD, euthanizing the animal infected is generally advised.  It is a contagious disease that primarily affects the nervous system, but other organs can be affected. According to peteducation.com,  it's suspected that it's caused by a retrovirus. This is also the same family of viruses that causes AIDS in humans and feline immunodeficiency in cats.It is believed that this is transmitted through parasites called snake mites, from direct contact and by human contact if snake secretions get on the human's hands and transfers it to another snake. If you suspect an animal of having IBD, immediately quarantine the animal to avoid spreading the disease to other animals. If ever introducing a new snake into a tank already occupied by other snakes, I and others recommend that the snake be left quarantined for 90 days, preferably 6 months, to assess the health of the snake. There are ways to tell if your snake has IBD. The best way to prevent this disease is by limiting their contact with other snakes.
The most common signs are:
- Paralysis                     -Weakness              
-Loss of appetite           -Weight loss            
-"Star-gazing"                -Head tilt, or head arching over the body
 -Inability to constrict     -Skin ulcers
-Regurgitation                -Mouth rot
-Respiratory infections   -Abnormal shedding (dysecdysis)
-Disorientation               -Incoordination
 

Terrain: Highly recommended are cypress mulch, orchid bark, and pulverized coconut husk products such as plantation soil. Additionally, clumps of sphagnum moss are recommended as they not only add to the naturalistic feel of the enclosure but serve as a great source of added humidity when misted regularly. Me personally, I make my own blend. I mix cypress mulch and plantation soil together, because cypress mulch alone can have have pointy/ sharp bark in it and when my snake is hunting, he has jabbed himself with it sometimes, so I soften the substrate up a bit with some plantation soil for it to be safer for my snake to hunt rats with out getting a bark stuck in his mouth. This also seems to keep the substrate moist longer by doing this.

References:  http://lllreptile.com/info/library/animal-care-sheets/snakes/-/brazilian-rainbow-boa/
                       http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1831&aid=3604

My Dream

As mentioned in my introduction into my blog, I want to open up a reptile shop in the next few years along with a learning activity center. Slowly throughout the years I have been collecting a variety of reptiles. My husband and I currently have 10 reptiles all together, 1 snake and 9 lizards. In the future I plan on collecting mates for the ones I already have that don't have mates. My snake is a, 2 year old male, Brazilian Rainbow Boa. 
The lizards I have are: 

• 2 Western Fence Lizards (male and female)

• 2 New Caledonian Crested Geckos (sub adult male and adult female)

• 1 African Fire Skink ( adult male)

• 2 Red Crossed Bearded Dragons (sub adult male and baby female)

• 1 Haitian Curly-Tailed Lizard (adult male)

• 1 Southern Alligator Lizard 

So this section of my blog is dedicated to my animals and is also my beginning to giving back to the community, and providing information to the public about reptiles. So I hope everyone enjoys this section of my blog with all the information I will be providing. Enjoy!