Monitors: The mind of a lizard genius?

Most of the time when we think of intelligence we consider animals like mammals or birds. Don’t get me wrong, dogs and parrots are smart but is there another group of animals that their shrewdness is overlooked? Some species of reptile are highly intelligent and capable of solving complex issues. One of the most cunning groups of reptiles is the monitor lizards. These animals are capable of feats that once were thought to be doable only by mammals and birds.

Lizards have to have a strong ability to change with their environments and a huge part of that is having the ability to learn.  They must be able to figure out complex issues in the wild so that they can survive. Lizards need to remember a map of their territory in order to know where and when to find their food. One experiment with Anoles proved that they will, in fact, distinguish between two different colored spheres to find food ¹. This indicated that Anole's have an innate ability to learn where a food source is located. Another study was conducted with Tuatara lizards and lights ². The lizards were subjected to a steady light and a blinking light. One of the lights would reward them with food. The other one would not. In just a few trials the lizards picked up on the light that provided food. I’ve seen something similar to this with a Savannah Monitor named Tigger. 

 

Tigger associated a dark cylinder with food. In the hollow tube were crickets and when the tube entered his cage, food would fall from the tube. After a little while of feeding him this way, he would come out of his hide when the tube would enter the cage. Tigger would attack the tube and chase after it to get his food. This form of learning is known as classical conditioning. Tigger associated his hunger with the dark, hollow, cylindrical tube that gave him crickets. This particular occasion is what ignited my interest in the learning abilities of monitor lizards.

In one study, two Rough Neck Monitors and a Komodo Dragon were evaluated on reversal learning abilities ². The monitors were given a choice between a black or white stimulus. One would have a food reward and the other would not. After a set amount of time the researcher would change the color that would give a food reward. It didn’t take long at all for the monitors to start picking the other color that provided food.

Monitors also have the ability to learn from other monitors². A good example of this is if a monitor see’s another monitor get attack by an eagle because it was running across an open field it will travel along the wooded area instead to avoid being eaten. This is known as observational learning. This is an important adaptation for survival in the wild. It allows the animal to avoid errors that are made by others of its species.

A few studies focused on a lizards ability to visually discriminate from something that is real and something that isn’t ². A video display of male lizard during mating season was shown to captive lizards. The captive lizards would show mating aggression and displays to the video version of other male lizards of the same species. This indicated that the lizards could not visually discriminate between a real lizard and one that was on a screen.

Monitor lizards have the ability to be trained to do certain tasks. One of the easiest things to teach a monitor lizard is target training. We can shape their behavior in such a way that by touching a target they will get a food reward. A zoo has trained a Komodo Dragon to get up on a log and sit patiently while it is being examined by a veterinarian³. Komodo Dragons are also known to “play” with different toys for no benefit other than to just have fun. A good movie that illustrates the intelligence level of monitor lizards is Lizard Kings: On the Trail of Monitor Lizards.

Monitors are intelligent and crafty. They may not have the same abilities as mammals or birds but they can learn new things. When I look into the eyes of a monitor lizard, I see an animal that is looking back in such a way that the monitor is trying to figure me out. It’s not a glance rather a deep stare into who or what I am. We should give lizards more intellectual credit than we do.

 

 

ReptileRanger.com teaches how to target train a monitor lizard

References

1.         Leal, M. & Powell, B. J. Behavioural Flexibility and Problem-Solving in a Tropical Lizard. Biol. Lett. 8, 28–30 (2012).

2.         Vonk, J. & Shackelford, T. K. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology. (Oxford University Press: 2012).

3.         Kaufmann, G. Lizard Kings: On the Trail of Monitor Lizards. (PBS: 2009).

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Lizard Licking Good: What's for Dinner?

Feeding reptiles can often be tricky. The hardest part is determining the amount that should be fed and the size of the food items given. Many times we find ourselves wondering if our pets are getting enough food to eat because they still seem hungry. We also examine our scaly friends growth and evaluate whether or not they are in fact growing at a “normal” rate.  I feel that feeding your reptile the right way is the key to a happy healthy animal.

It is quite easy to limit the reptiles diet with either one or two types of food items. A good example of this is giving a small monitor lizard just crickets as it grows. While this is sufficient for the animal’s biological needs most of the time, it isn’t good for his enrichment needs. If you had to eat the same thing over and over again, would you feel satisfied? I do realize with certain reptiles there is little choice in the department of food variability.  

            If you have a strictly carnivorous reptile such as a python or boa then the only food items that you might be able to feed it are mice, rats, and rabbits. However, if you wanted to you could get a little creative and offer them some quail or chickens. This would give them a little bit of diversity. I also think there are certain biological difference between bird prey items and mammal prey items. Both of these are needed to provide a “healthy” more natural diet to the carnivore. The mammals may meet certain dietary needs and the bird prey items may meet the other.  Another good “variety” food source would be fish. So long as fish is in the animals natural diet. 

            Some lizards and a few snakes are both insectivorous and carnivorous. The trick to this particular issue is balance. I think the best way to achieve this balance would be to alternate between insects and carnivorous prey items. Which honestly a good way to keep up with this would be to create a feeding schedule and offer different food items on different days or every couple of days. This would keep the animal happy and healthy. I feel the more natural we can get to our reptilian friends diets the better it is for them. Mimicking their diets as close as we can to what they would have in the wild will ensure that every dietary need is met and they are enriched. Foraging and hunting are natural ways to occupy an animal’s time and energy. By diversifying their diet you can help enrich them too.

Darwin, Nile Monitor, eats mice, insects, and fish

            There are reptiles that are devout vegetarians. These guys can only eat veggies and fruits’ as they are herbivores. These herbivores eat leafy greens and some fruits. It is also wise to broaden their diets as well. They would love to have their greens in different forms. A different type of salad every day is what they dream about at night. The only key ingredient to an herbivores diet would be the addition of calcium and phosphorus. What I ask from pet owners is to get creative when it comes to their animals diets. We should change their daily diets just as much as ours do and imitate what they would encounter in the wild for food as closely as we can.

            Another issue is how fast should my animal be growing and how to get growth in general. There is no set rate to which your reptile should be growing. Each animal is different because each one has different rates of metabolism. Their metabolic rates are due to genetic factors mainly.  This means that each animals growth will vary from individual to individual. If you look at other reptiles of the same species and you feel that he/she could pack on a few more pounds or add a few more inches in length compared to others their age then there is hope.

            One way that I’ve seen that causes a reptile to grow is by increasing food size and amount. The more significant growth comes from adding larger food items to your reptiles diet. For instance if your Savannah monitor needs to grow a little more hastily then start increasing its mouse size and eventually building it up to eating large rodents and chickens all the while supplementing its diet with other things like fish and crickets. I’ve seen this first hand.

My Nile Monitor seems to be growing much faster since I’ve been upping the size of his prey items. I would do this within reason. Gradually increasing his food size over time.  He is shedding more and seems to be more active. Now there is a limit to how far an animal should be pushed as far as feeding goes. I never feed my animals more than they need and never try to push them to eat more than they want or that is insufficient for them to be healthy. Overfeeding any animal is bad and can prove to be detrimental to their health. I’m against power-feeding all together. This should never be done. I think the animal should eat similar to the way it would in the wild. This insures that the reptile is happy and healthy.
Some things to always keep in mind when considering a reptiles diet are VESL:

• Variety
• Enrichment
• Size
• Limitations

          Check out this video from BHB Reptiles that discusses an experiment on feeding corn snakes!

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Gecko's As Pets

These lizards in my opinion are one of the best beginner reptiles someone can get. With the scientific name of Eublepharis macularius. These pets all have different personalities and attitudes. They are the easiest to care for as far as food, and space. One gecko can live in a 10 gallon tank for its entire life. These reptile are nocturnal with means they sleep during the day and are awake at night. So when purchasing this pet consider when you are home. I work during the day so I get to see the geckos at night when they are most active. They are pretty docile lizards and some don't mind being held for a little while but like other reptiles they don't really need to be held or showed affection. Below I will get more specific about needs and breeding etc..

Feeding: Every reptile owner feeds their animals in different ways. I will discuss how I do it and what works for me. Through trial and error I have messed around with different foods and methods. I found that in general all these lizards need to eat is meal worms. Other people say that you need to switch foods around because the gecko will get bored and not eat. I have found that this is not true. All I feed my geckos is meal worms. Depending if I have a gecko that needs to gain more weight I feed them wax worms because they contain more fats. I feed these worms just for this reason only. You cant feed wax worms every day because they are all fat and low on nutrition. I have spoke with multiple high end breeders from all over the country and they all use just meal worms for their normal diet. Some owners like to use crickets for a normal diet but for me they are a little bit of a pain. Crickets are noisy, and require a entire home/care center to keep them alive until they are ready to feed to the gecko. Meal worms can be refrigerated until ready to feed. Like other lizards geckos require calcium. I use calcium and supplements to dust the mealworms when feeding. I put them in a small dish and the gecko eats them when ever they want. I feed them every other day as needed. All geckos eat different. Some are aggressive, they'll eat anything you drop in the tank but others eat small amounts as they get hungry. Some geckos eat much less than other reptiles especially in the winter some cut off food for awhile. Some gecko owners get alarmed when their gecko doesn't eat for awhile but truth of the matter is these lizards can go a long time with out eating. They get much of their nutrition from their fat tales as needed.

Home: Tank set up can be very simple. I use 10 gallon tanks for their homes. The best and easiest flooring I use is paper towel or newspaper. No its not super fancy but it looks ok and is very easy to replace to keep clean. Many owners use sand but this is dangerous for these lizards especially the younger ones. They can actually eat the sand and become impacted because their body can not digest it. Why take the chance. If you ask me a  real reptile owner that cares for their pets would prefer his lizards to be safe and doesn't care about looks so much. These geckos are actually very clean and will go to the bathroom in the same spot every day. So once you see where that is you can just put a napkin there and just replace it as needed. These geckos require a hide to go and rest. They are sensitive to light and they can actually get stressed if exposed to excessive light. Flooring, water bowl, food bowl and hide then you'll be good to go. Only other thing is of course heating. I use heat mats controlled by a thermostat. I have found this works best and they prefer to get belly heat instead of a basking light seeing they are nocturnal. You may want to put heat mat on only one side of tank so the gecko can thermo-regulate. If cold, they go on the heat mat. If they get hot, they go on the cool side. As far as grouping these lizards together, it works great. Females can all be grouped together. Males must be separated because they fight all the time even to the death. I currently own 4 females and 1 male. I keep all the females together in a 40 gallon breeder tank. I have hides, water, food, calcium dish and a big heating mat right in the middle of tank. This works out great for the geckos and makes my cleaning very easy. The male is by himself in another 10 gallon tank.

Breeding: This for me has been the best part of owning these reptiles. It has been a great experience for me and the family to breed these lizards. It is easy to do and you just have to make sure you have the space to deal with extra lizards. Some people don't realize that and before they know it they are over run with baby geckos. So make sure to have space or new owners lined up for babies once born. To start you obviously need a male and female. Female has to be at least 50-60 grams in weight to breed to make sure they can carry the eggs. One male can breed to up to 5 females. That is why I have so many females and only 1 male. You can either put the male with all the females to breed or put one female in with the male. The male will start dancing around to show he's a male and start biting the female in the tail or head. This is common breeding behavior. The male may get turned down but he will try again until the female submits and lets him breed. He will lock up with the female and do his business. Sometimes you will witness it and sometimes you won't. Best way is to just keep the male in with female for about a week. He will get the job done in that time. It is a good idea to take and separate the male and female after mating because the male will stress the female out and continue to try and breed. The male only needs to breed with a female once and she will have multiple eggs. They lay eggs in clutches. Two eggs at a time and she will continue to lay eggs about every 30 days. First time around, the female will lay about 2-3 clutches. The second or third time around they may lay much more up to 15 clutches in some cases. My gecko's laid 4 clutches the first time around. A lay box will need to be put in the cage. This can be simple, like peat moss sprayed with water to keep moist. They will lay the eggs in there when ready. You have to keep a eye on the cage because they will sometimes just lay the eggs anywhere. You must find them before they dry out. That's what the lay box is for, to keep the eggs moist until you get to them. Another fun part of breeding them is the morph making. You can basically create your own color by mix and matching the type that you breed.

Incubation: I have tried different methods for this until I found what works best. I made a homemade one first. I took a 10 gallon tank and filled it like a little over 1/4 of the way up with water. Then I took a aquarium heater and put it in the water and adjusted it to about 80 degrees. Then i put a container in the water with the eggs in smaller containers on the top of that one. I put tin foil on the top cover to keep humidity in. This worked a little and I hatched a few eggs but lost some because the extra humidity was causing mold and ruining the eggs. I switched to using a regular incubator. Its basically made from styrofoam and comes with a built in thermostat to keep temps steady. It has a little water on the bottom but not much. This worked great. No mold and hatched the eggs perfectly. As far as the container the eggs are in, I use regular deli cups. I fill them about half way with perlite and make 2 indents in it to lay the eggs in. I found perlite works best because it breaths better. At one point I used peat moss which is like dirt but that causes to much mold. Eggs incubate for about 30-60 days depending on temps. You can control the gender that hatches based on temperature. 75-84 degrees for female. 85-90 for mixed gender. 90-95 to hatch males.

Hatching care- These little guys are very simple to care for once they hatch. I use shoe box size plastic containers with a hide, food and water. You can put half of the container over some heat tape to keep a little warm. They don't like to be bothered at all. They are straight little demons when they're first born. They will hiss and jump at you for no reason because they are scared. It passes after a few weeks. I feed them the small baby meal worms and it works fine.

In conclusion I recommend this reptile for the first time reptile owner. They have been fun for me and the family to care and breed them. You will notice they have their own personalities. You will notice it more when you group them together. I have some that don't want to be bothered much. They just want to eat and sleep and don't want you holding them all the time. Others will walk up to the front of the tank and greet me because they know I have the food. All and all these geckos are a must have for any reptile lover.


Leopard Geckos by Jovanie Velazquez

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Reptile Lighting (An Art)

Lighting is vital to reptile health for many reasons. From essential minerals to temperature regulation. Specific species of reptiles require specific lighting requirements. Everything from length of light to wattage will change from species to species. Desert reptiles will need different lighting than say a tropical reptile species. If the lighting requirements aren’t met this could cause a reptile to improperly grow and metabolize the nutrients it must have.

Reptiles are cold-blooded so they must use the environment to regulate their body temperature. Light is one way reptiles do this. Infrared light is used to heat up the ambient temperature in the terrarium. Another light source that some reptiles may need are basking bulbs. These emit light in a certain area in the terrarium to allow some reptiles to bask so raise their body temperature. Heat is a way for reptiles to produce energy for daily tasks.

Minerals are an important part of every animals life including our own. Reptiles aren’t an exception to that. Most reptiles need UVA and/or UVB light to break down certain vitamins. For instance UVB light will break down vitamin D3 do that calcium can be metabolized. Without the special lighting certain health conditions will not be met. A iguana may not get the amount of calcium it needs which in turn can cause mouth and other deformities.

A reptiles overall “look” is a good indicator of health. Lighting will improve the color and “look” of a reptile. Lights like UVB will also improve an animals vibrant colors and also stimulates natural behavior. The closer one can get to the suns actual lighting the more natural it is for the animal. Reptiles weren’t meant to be in terrariums, so the more natural we can make their life in them the happier they will be thus increasing their lifespan greatly.

Once I had taken in a Green Iguana who had leg deformities due to an inadequate amount of calcium. He was a cute little guy but I felt so bad for him. I knew I couldn’t fix what had happened to him but I did improve his overall health by improving his lighting like adding basking bulbs and UVB lights. His bright green color came back and his activity level increased. At that time I learned the importance of lighting requirements in reptiles.


References
Exo_Terra_Lighting_Guide_EN.pdf (application/pdf Object) A GUIDE TO LIGHTING BY EXO TERRA.
Reptile Lighting: A Current Perspective ARTICLE FROM MELISSA KAPLAN’S HERP CARE            COLLENTION.
The Influence of Light Intensity and Temperature on Microhabitat Selection in Two Anolis Lizards,. P. E. Hertz, L. J. Fleishman and C. Armsby, Functional Ecology
Vol. 8, No. 6 (Dec., 1994), pp. 720-729


Thanks for Reading!
James

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Introduction

This is a blog about the care of pets. There are many things that you don't find out until after the pet is home. Things like from certain animals going into hibernation to basic care and behavior. While most care sheets go over factual straightforward advice on caring for animals, there are many issues that come up when caring for our loved pets that can't be found so easily. This is more of a personal approach to caring for the animals that we all love. Whether your new friend is a rescue or adopted from a pet shop, there should be a little something for everyone.

I have cared for many animals over the past 20 years. My particular experience comes from the caring of exotic animals such as snakes, lizards, crocodilians, and parrots. However, I have cared for everything from Labrador Retrievers to 15 ft. pythons. I bred the larger pythons for about 3 years until I had to sell out and move in order to go to college to get more formal knowledge. I currently major in Biology at Mountain State University in Beckley, West Virginia.

This blog will be updated on a weekly basis. Anywhere from one to three blogs will be posted weekly. If you have any specific questions you can shoot me an email at jamesdward24@gmail.com.

Thanks and hope you enjoy.

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