I always whistle when feeding the lizards, at least when first training them. Some don't seem to care much and respond more to me kneeling down and putting my hand on the ground. Others will just come up to me looking for food. A couple of the spiny lizards (including the one I think is Bill from last fall) will run across the yard if I whistle. I think this iguana will eventually respond to whistling.

One thing I'm really curious about is whether they are making the humans=food association with me personally or with anyone. Once one of them gets really tame, I'll have someone else try to get close or call them over.

(hashtagging these with #LizardReport so you can mute them if you get tired of me posting lizard pictures and videos )

The skittish spiny lizard finally figured out that I'm nice and a source for tasty mealworms. He also figured out quickly that whistling means food. I expect him to be following me up onto the porch soon.

This is very well maybe Bill from last year. He's hanging out in the same spot and is the same size. It may have just taken a while to remember me and that whistling means food. He looks different, but that's to be expected because I think they are in there mating season colors now.

The same tiger whiptail in the previous post eating a dried meal worm. Note the little hula-wiggle it does near the beginning. I don't know what this is, but it seems unique to whiptails.

Out in the desert, even getting close enough to one to snap a photo is difficult. But with an open area where you can throw food that they can see, they'll tame up very quickly. I whistle when I feed them to get them used to that meaning food. It seems to work with some animals, but others ignore it.

Today's lizard report:
got the iguana, the wee spiny lizard, the zebra-tailed lizard and this tiger whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris) to eat out of my hand. Oddly, the large spiny lizards (Sceloporus magister) that were so easy to tame last fall are all being skittish and my buddies haven't shown up at all.

This is the tiger whiptail taking a dried mealworm from my hand.

Went #BikeHerping and found this lil fellow, Western Banded gecko, Coleonyx variegatus, the native one. Then I got home and found a wee baby one in the yard.

Only other herp I saw on my ride was a sadly squashed little Western Diamondback rattlesnake.

I saw a second desert iguana in the neighbors yard today and two very large spiny lizards in the woodpile that I hadn't seen before. Everybody is out, finally!

The zebra-tail lizard came back but wouldn't get closer than about 4 feet again. And the big spiny lizard on the wall yesterday is still skittish. But I did get a whiptail to take dried mealworms from my hand. The iguana ate out of my hand again. Pretty amazing to get a whiptail to take worms directly from me. They are usually super fast and super skittish. The iguana is very shy but I think wants to be friends, just isn't sure yet.

I've decided that if I were a cartoonist, I would draw animated cartoons of the lizards' behavior and personalities because they're all so different!

This morning, the big guy returned to his place on the wall, but I couldn't get near him. I threw a bunch of dried mealworms out there but I think the birds got them before he came back.

This smol fren, who lives on the other wall, came right up and chowed them from my hand.

It originally seemed like the small ones were more skittish likely, I assumed, because they are prey for virtually everything. But now with a larger sample size, that hasn't been the case.

Some more morning friends
#photography #bees #birds #lizards

There are reports that vets and rangers can currently access the HomeSafeID register, but of course it is unknown how long this will continue. It's also unknown if the data will be picked up by another party or how that would work from a privacy, legislative, even just the actual process of transferring the data.

If your pet isn't Microchipped, definitely consider it. Given the situation with HomeSafeID, probably best to avoid them until more info is known.

Feel free to boost this thread.

#Cats #Dogs #Horses #Birds #Reptiles #Snakes #Lizards #Frogs #Turtles #Rodents #Ferrets #Rats #Mice #Microchip #Australia #Pets
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Suggestion for anyone with microchipped pets, regardless of whom it is registered with:
- Check the microchip details of your pet(s) with https://www.petaddress.com.au to see who they are registered with.
- Make sure all information is up to date (ie: contact details/address), no matter which registry they are with.
- Make sure pets that are required to be registered with your local council/shire/city/state have been. This is separate to microchip registration.
- Keep a copy of all your pets information, including the microchip details. Confirm your vet has these details too.

If you want to transfer away from HomeSafeID to another provider, you usually need to deregister them first, which is hard to do if HomeSafeID are unresponsive. By having all the details yourself on hand, at the very least you can then reregister them if HomeSafeID goes away.

#Cats #Dogs #Horses #Birds #Reptiles #Snakes #Lizards #Frogs #Turtles #Rodents #Ferrets #Rats #Mice #Microchip #Australia #Pets
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