Hi everyone!
A few weeks ago I was outside on my front porch in Los Angeles and found a lizard hanging out on the concrete stairs. I've lived in this house for 4 years and NEVER seen a lizard of any sort around here, about a mile from the beach. I looked at it and sort of proded it with a stick to see how it would react and it just kind of sat there as if it didnt have a lot of energy. It let me catch it without much of a fuss and I decided to keep it a while and think about what to do. There is a large murder of crows in this area, not to mention cats roaming everywhere and cars all over the place so I figured its chances were not good if i left it in the yard.
I did some research and learned it was a Souther Ali. I was fascinated watching him move around in his little tank that I got and decided to keep him a while to restore his strength. Its been about 3 weeks now and I just found this great forum tonight ... just in time cuz I've got a few questions!
First, he is in a 6 gallon starter tank .. I didn't want to invest in a big tank until I decided to keep him long term. He's about 4 inches long from nose to vent ... how big of a tank should I get?
Second, I have never ever seen him drink from his bowl. Its a shallow bowl and I change the water every day but he never seems to notice it at all. Do they drink in secret or is he slowly dehydrating?
Third, after a week of feeding him 4-5 crickets a day he seemed to get much happier, didn't seem to mind being in the cage and had already learned who I was and would react to me coming close, coming out of hiding and waiting for a cricket treat. Then last week he started going crazy pacing, digging and constantly trying to get out. He seemed to lose interest in eating and I noticed that he had a runny nasty poop (he had been making nice normal looking lizard poops until then). I cant tell if hes sick, or just stressed. I changed his cage setup and gave him more places to hide and he stayed upset until I put some leaves in the cage. He immediately settled down and started spending his time under the leaves and seemed happy again and started eating the way he was before. Does any of this make sense?
Forth ... mites. I think maybe the leaves I put in there had mites? I noticed him scratching himself and a bunch of small mites were on him. Maybe he had them before and I didn't notice? Anyway, I took him out of the cage today and used some olive oil on him carefully. I got a bunch of them but I still see them on him and saw a few in the cage so tomorrow I'm gonna dump it out, clean it and follow the advice I saw from Alice .... I guess the question is, might his weird behavior, lack of drinking, runny poop be related to mites? could be in bad shape? He seems pretty happy most of the time as long as he isnt being crazy trying to get out and that had stopped after the leaves ... I just wanna do the right thing for him.
I had thought about letting him go, but I doubt hed make it long near this house ... its bone dry and predators are everywhere .. I cant even imagine how he got here!
Sorry for the long email .... I'll keep it short from now on and thanks for any advice!
Robert
