Lizards of all kinds in the wild are able to keep themselves clean. Rarely will you see lizards in the wild caked with mud or covered with a layer of dust. When they are found dirty, they have just come up from hibernation, got caught in a flood, or they are sick and/or dying. Rarely will you find a wild lizard that is shedding, or have stuck sheds, unless something is wrong.

Contrast this to captivity. A captive lizard that is not able to keep itself clean has something wrong, and that something is usually the conditions it is being kept in.

Wayne, your lizards are dirty. Put them in a bath tub and wash them off. All the dirt you see in the tub is not supposed to be on the lizard. The way the lizard looks after a bath is the way it should look all the time if your conditions are right. In the wild, lizards have the opportunity to go find what they need, including the correct dirt and borrowing conditions. In captivity, it is up to the keeping to figure this out and provide the correct conditions. In my opinion, a clean lizard is one indicator that the keeping is getting something right.

Bill Cobb

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