Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello, i have a random question about my boy lizard. for the last couple days he just sits on his rock or whereever with his mouth open. he is not sick with a cold or anything and sometimes he is hot when he does it but other times he has been cold so it's not a "too hot" thing. i mist their cage and drip water into it but could he possibly be thirsty? i have never seen him do this before, is it normal?
thanks vonnie

They will sit with their mouth open, to cool themselves, like a dog that pants , same thing.

It is normal behavior, but I don't know why your guy would do it , you said when cold.

By cold, do you mean when the lights are not on, you see him do this? Or do you see him move from the basking site to his rock, and then Gape?

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Eve

well, i picked him up a couple times after he started to do it and he was sometimes hot to the touch and sometimes he was normal feeling (not "i just woke up" cold but not "i have been basking" hot). the lights were on and i remember one time he walked from his basking tree over to a heat rock and sat on the rock and opened his mouth. i figured if he was hot he would just go over to the hide spot or at least not sit on the heat rock. maybe he was just hot. walter segundo is really darn cute but he is really dumb. that is how i knew he was a boy(ha ha), he just did not catch on to things like the other two.

dumb boy thing, hehehehhehhe ! LOL We have to stick together,

Anyway If he is fine otherwise, I'd venture to say what you see him do is Gaping!

They can be basking, and sit and gape while basking, and never move, thats how they are cooling down by opening their mouth !

Mine do it all the time. I'm used to it!

Late in the afternoon when it gets real hot , even in the wild they will seek shelter in a cooler area, for awhile.

Maybe the girls with all their brilliance, can teach the dumb Walter a thing or two, (Kidding Walter)
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Eve

it is nice to know that walter is doing something normal because god knows nothing else in my life is normal. i don't think that he will be upset if you say he is not too smart because i tell him all the time that if he was not so cute he would be useless (ha ha). it totally makes sense for him to cool off without moving because he is also a very lazy boy. for awhile there in the coldest months he did not even hunt, just waited for the crickets to walk by him. i keep hoping that he will catch on to things, like the bowl of wax worms that the girls are eating out of, but then again if he were a smart one, he would just try to escape when i opened the cage like the other two. thanks for the info and your help.
vonnie

in your life NOT being NORMAL,
its when they become too normal, that it gets boring!

Poor Walter, maybe he has an INFERIORITY complex !! Feels as though he can't measure up to those GIRLS !!

Most Males have that problem, hahhahahhaha !

But ya gotta love em ! Hey take it easy ,
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Eve