Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been keeping gator lizards, northern and southern, since I was a neonate (back in the 70's). I bought this alligator lizard (southern) that the store owner was advertising as a skink!! I guess its still illegal to sell native herps caught in California. It's been a long time since I kept an alligator lizard. To my amazement I couldn't believe the info you can get from the internet. That's how I found this cool forum.

I always admired the alligator lizards because of their unusual behaviour. They're not boring like the blue-bellies or frogs. They always had that smart look about them. I found out they're closely related to the monitor lizards. They even learn to anticipate when you're bringing in their food. I've witnessed my northern female give live birth. She turned around after birthing one, and I thought she was gonna eat it!! She actually assisted the babies(coerulus) by ripping and eating the embryonic sac. I wonder if this maternal behaviour has ever been documented.
I lost this wonderful momma lizard to some kind of a respitory illness. This happened back in the early 80's. Does anybody know the cause and a cure for this pnemounia-like symptom?

I also had a problem with mites, and until that miracle RAID pest strip came along. But now, I can't find that strip anymore. Anybody out there with a better method for mites?

It's nice to see a dragon move about in a terrarium once again!! My kids love it.

I successfully treated mites in three southern als without the use of pesticides.

I housed the lizards in large plastic critter keepers with paper towels for bedding. I ringed the inside rim of the cages with vaseline to prevent the mites from escaping or hiding on the lid. Every day I soaked the lizards for at least 15 minutes after which I checked their ears, under arms, vents, etc. and removed any mites hiding there. I then threw out the old paper towels, washed the cage, food, and water bowls with a 10% bleach solution. I re-applied the vaseline if necessary.

After the first week the number of mites found on the lizards dropped dramatically (only 1-2 total were found). After two weeks I stopped finding mites, but continued treatment for two more weeks to be really sure.

Their original terrarium was washed numerous times with a 10% bleach solution and all furnishings (wood & rocks) were baked in an oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.

I'll admit that this treatment was labor intensive, but it presented minimal risk to the lizards (most people I talked to said that the commercially availble "no pest strips" and "provent-a-mite" would be dangerous to use on young lizards). It had one added side effect: at the end of the process the lizards were totally tame! Tamer, even, than my leopard geckos.

-Alice

I can give that a try. Back then the only way I could get rid of them was to tire out the lizard by letting it swim in the sink. Then I would carefully remove the mites under the scales with a pin. It was periodic every month because of the mite's productive cycle.

I guess they all have different personalities and can be tamed. However, I found all the males I kept had the warm personality of a snapping turtle. They'd always put up a fight no matter how much I handled them. That nip is like a pair of pliers.

The key to eliminating mites is to pay as much attention to the enclosure as the lizard. I liked housing my als in critter keepers while treating them because the critter keepers had no cracks in which mites could hide and by ringing the inner lip of the critter keeper with vaseline I could prevent mites from reaching the lid (less to clean). And, the paper towels that I used as bedding could be thrown away daily (make sure to promptly empty the trash because they could be harboring mites and their eggs).

By bleaching the cage daily I gave the mites had no chance to reproduce. I filled their regular tank (a 20 gal aquarium) with a 10% bleach solution for 48 hrs to clean it (in addition to the numerous rinses). I also bleached the outside and the lid.

I caught the mite outbreak early and since none of the herps in adjacent cages had been infected I was fairly certain that the mites hadn't spread. If you suspect that mites might have exited the cage and be lurking in the room, you could ring the outer rim of the regular tank with vaseline once the liards are mite free to prevent them from reaching your lizards.

By the way, one of the treated lizards was a male and he ended up just as tame as the girls

Here is a dumb question
How do you soak the lizard in the oil??

I just found some mites on my sons Ali. Lizard
Will the mite only infest the cage or will they bother humans?

Where do they come from?