Posted by:
TOM_CRUTCHFIELD
at Fri Nov 27 04:59:28 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by TOM_CRUTCHFIELD ]
I meant that I have spent decades watching the behaviours of all kinds of herps. As soon as you as you begin to understand what is actually going on in the life of the herp subject the better able you will be to successfully keep and breed them. This is much easier said than done and takes many years and I even now learn new things constantly. I always hear arguments here and other places on basking light temps. This is ridiculous as all you have to do is look or "listen" to the lizards behaviour. If he NEVER leaves the spot it is not hot enough. If he never gets directly under the light it's likely too hot. Whatever happened to just plain common sense. Another thing I see often which is retarded is seeing people keeping an Iguanid or Varanid in a vision cage with one hot light dropped into the slot. Then even after seeing a round burnt place on the back of the lizard they have a failure to understand their failure. Six months ago a biology teacher who is now retired rushed a lg Rhino Iguana to me saying he must have cancer on the entire right side of it's body. I was amazed at the scarring, seeping sores in some areas, etc. I asked him to describe his setup precisely. It seems he heated it by putting an infrared HOT bulb attached to the side of the cage as the cage was 6' tall. The idea of the lizard having a parietal eye and it's function as well as the idea of a single bulb versus a bank of bulbs for an adult lizard never dawned on him. Even as I'm writing this because I haven't explained exactly the why's there will be some here who keep Cyclura that will not have a clue as to what I mean. "Listening to the lizards" means first understanding the morphology, ethology, etc of the species kept. Then you must observe and have the ability to understand based on the lizards behaviour what is required to maintain the lizard successfully. A lot of it is COMMON SENSE which is not so common sometimes. Anyway my guess is that this explanation will be confusing to many...Thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com
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RE: He loves his bugs! - TOM_CRUTCHFIELD, Fri Nov 27 04:59:28 2009