The lizard has been getting a bit more active again recently. He may have decided that winter is ending and it's time to stop brumating. I'll try feeding him a proper meal this weekend, I think.

(The plot is from the temperature sensors I set up inside his enclosure. The "temperature-basking" line is from an infrared thermometer pointing at the middle of his basking rock directly below the heat lamp, and the dips indicate that a relatively cool lizard has moved onto the rock to bask. I use the number of dips per day as a proxy for activity levels).

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Lizard #Skink

Refresh of Jerry's enclosure with some new plants. The two new Dianellas at the back are a bit too short to see from the front right now, but I'm loving the new Nephrolepis cordifolia fern.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard

Happy World Lizard Day to those who celebrate.

Jerry is currently brumating so here's an old photo from his 1st birthday. He'll be 3 years old in December.

#WorldLizardDay #LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard

A bit later while having roaming time he paused to make use of my hand warmth.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Lizard #Skink

I'm getting judgemental looks for having watered (close to) the lizard again.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard

Came home to find Jerry out and about for the first time in at least 5 days. He spent almost a week under the rock at the cool end of his enclosure until, according to the temperature sensors, coming out to do some basking about 3 pm this afternoon.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard #LizardsOfMastodon

It's hard to maintain your dignity when the hooman is balancing blueberries on your head.

#BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #Skink #LizardPosting #Lizard #LizardsOfMastodon

My blue tongue may be pretty big for a lizard but he's still a small animal, so it is slightly startling when I hear him sneeze, from the far side of the room, while he's hiding under his rock, in an otherwise quiet and dark house.

Unrelated pic for interest.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #SkinksOfMastodon #Lizard #Skink #LizardsOfMastodon

Alright, we're #lizardposting

This is Jojo. Our neighbor (age 10ish) found her without a tail, and brought her to us for rehab. (He literally had her in his pocket 🤦 but his heart was in the right place.)

We nursed Jojo back to whole-tail-ness over the winter, then released her back into our local wild population.

We were worried she'd get got by a bird, but she's surviving! She still visits us every few weeks for some water and a snack.

#anoles #reptiles

(Jojo, pictured as a taco)

The chonkiest blue tongue skink ever: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-14/giant-skink-dubbed-mega-chonk-discovered/102476962

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #Skink #Lizard #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon

"If I stay very still maybe they won't see me."

Jerry was apparently quite active while we were all out today and got "caught" out in the open when we came home. He responded by freezing in this position while I looked straight at him, talked to him, opened his enclosure and put some food in his bowl.

#LizardPosting #LizardsOfMastodon #SkinksOfMastodon #BlueTongueSkink #Skink #Lizard

Oh, he's finally moved. That dip in the basking spot temperature readings means that a cold lizard has moved under the infrared temperature sensor that I set up.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #LizardsOfMastodon #SkinksOfMastodon #Lizard #Skink

He's been "hiding" in this position for a few days now.

#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #LizardsOfMastodon #SkinksOfMastodon #Lizard #Skink

@xssfox I'm finding that attaching a lizard works surprisingly well too. #LizardPosting

He's using his ledge!

#LizardPosting #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #BlueTongueSkink #3DPrinting #Skink #Lizard

I spoke too soon. The indoor lizard came out of brumation to bask this afternoon too.

#LizardPosting #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard

I did not expect to see a little wall skink out soaking up the Sun this morning, the coldest morning of the year so far.

#LizardPosting #LizardsOfMastodon #SkinksOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard

He's not moved an awful lot since yesterday...

#LizardPosting #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #BlueTongueSkink #skink #lizard

Sleeping through the "cold" weather. Jerry has spent the past few days snoozing in his cool end hide, I think he's brumating for real now.

#LizardPosting #LizardsOfMastodon #SkinksOfMastodon #BlueTongueSkink #Skink #Lizard

Why had I not heard of molasses traps until now?

Some time ago I made the rookie error of tong-feeding live "woodies" (wood cockroaches, a.k.a. speckled cockroach, lobster cockroach, Nauphoeta cinerea) to my blue tongue skink inside his enclosure. Inevitably a few escaped from both me and the lizard and disappeared into the leaf litter, which turned out to be an ideal habitat for them.

For a long time I kept quiet about accidentally creating a breeding colony of cockroaches in the corner of our living room while I tried to find a safe way to get rid of them, or at least control their numbers, without having to completely strip out the enclosure and start all over again. Recently some were spotted around the house too though, which made it more urgent that I do *something*.

Fortunately I finally stumbled across this blog, which describes the use of molasses traps in zoos. They're simple, cheap, totally safe for humans, lizards, plants, and most of members of the bioactive "clean up crew" and, it turns out, horrifyingly effective.

This evening I put one in the corner of the lizard enclosure and 3 hours later so many roaches had already met their end in the miniature tar pit that new arrivals were no longer sinking into the stickiness because all the corpses were getting in the way. Pics attached, not for the squeamish.

http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatreptileblog/2012/05/01/pet-safe-cricket-and-roach-control-for-reptile-and-amphibian-owners/

#LizardPosting #PestControl #LizardsOfMastodon #PetSafePestControl #MolassesTrap