Alligator Lizard!

[Galapoheros]

My fav US native lizard is the Texas Alligator Lizard. I've had A LOT of them but I never did get eggs from any, a lot of breeding going on but never saw babies. I never took the breeding seriously though. I'm going to put more effort into it this time. A friend of mine emailed a picture of one somebody found caught in a sticky trap here in the tx hill country. She works in the pest control biz and didn't really know what it was. She freed it and gave it to that friend of mine so he could let me have it later, looks like a female too going by the pic I was sent, females usually have smaller heads and pitting from bites from the males. I'll post pics of it later. They are really pretty common but not so easy to just go out and find them. Sometimes you can be looking right at them in the wild and never see them.

 

[lizardminion]

I'm quite interested in your efforts doing this. I'm always interested on how an uncommon or unknown species could do once adjusted to captivity. Once captive breeding is achieved and husbandry is established, who knows what the future could hold for the species. How would it do as a pet? Could c.b. babies tame down? (if w.c. won't already) Could we find a mutation within the species? Only time could tell. Who knows, maybe it has great potential in the trade once domesticated.
Good luck on your efforts! Keep us posted.

 

[Galapoheros]

Texas Alligator lizards do great in captivity, I've kept a lot of them over the years. Wild adults calm down really fast. Usually you can handle a wild caught adult within a day. Their tails are prehensile, nothing like a chameleon but a very functional tail in that respect. I've found them on limestone cliffs and at the base of cliffs, I've seen them in trees too. They move like chameleons when relaxed but they are pretty fast too, they can run. They aren't one of those lizards that tries to get out of terrarium all the time, scratching at the glass. Give them a little warm light and they are fine. They are easy to over feed, they get lazy and their tail gets fat when given too much food. I haven't picked it up yet but was sent some pics. Even though they are native, pet stores here used to sell them for around $60 but now they aren't allowed to sell native sps anymore last I heard. Years ago I would get on a motorcycle and go to a road where they would get on the road to warm up in the morning and get run over, I'd go back and forth and take them off the road. That road has gotten really busy now, I don't even see road kills anymore.

 

[Galapoheros]

I forgot to add, babies are extremely easy, I've kept several, they appear to often hatch after a Summer rain, they are white and black striped when young, they turn a brown/wheat color as they get older. I've found many close to their nest a few times as they just hatched out. ..tried to edit in last post but couldn't get it to work.