Legless Lizard care

[ento890]

I recently purchased a legless lizard and was wondering if anyone has any experience with these guys. I currently have him/her in a low 10 gallon tank with two hides, a water bowl, worm bowl, humid box and a mixture of peat/cocoa fiber as a substrate. I've been told since they spend their time underground, they only need a heatpad. I spray him every other day. I've given him crickets as well, but haven't seen him eat (although some have disappeared)

Has anyone owned one of these guys that could give me a good care sheet or even identify the exact species?

Thanks!

 

[M_surinamensis]

Lialis sp. Sometimes called New Guinea legless lizards or "snake lizards." Two species in the genus, Lialis burtonis and Lialis jicari. Captive care is thought to be similar, but there isn't exactly an exhaustive volume of long term success stories and written works to go on. Best identification other than locale of collection is the number of preanal pores, burtonis have four, jicari have six or eight. There are some scalation tendencies but they're a bit more subjective. Color and pattern are variable and not particularly useful.

How small is it? They are notoriously difficult to feed and insects are not normally on the menu. They usually go after other, smaller lizards; with really picky individuals reportedly holding out for specific species of skink as a prey item.

You may want to double check the care information you were given against web searches by the nomenclature, to ensure you weren't told environmental parameters that are applicable to other groups with the common name "legless lizard."

What you have pictured there is an animal that's really uncommonly kept in captivity primarily due to the difficulty of transitioning them and the delicate and exacting nature of the species. They mostly don't do that well, so they mostly aren't kept as a result of the high mortality rate.

Please understand that I don't mean any offense by what I am about to say, it's a reflection of the tricky nature of the animal... I would give myself maybe one in four (or worse) odds of keeping an average Lialis sp. alive for longer than a year and I knew what species you had in the photo. I've had experience tease feeding some tricky, demanding, picky, pain in the butt lizard and frog feeders and experience dealing with freshly imported animals and I wouldn't consider my own chances all that optimistic. They're pretty much exclusively wild caught, almost never feeding, if you're lucky it was cleaned up a bit prior to getting to you but that's not guaranteed, depending on the source... You might want to reconsider the purchase. Your call of course, you know what you can handle but they're in that upper category of extremely difficult to keep successfully long term, for expert owners only.

 

[ento890]

Thank you very much for your response.

I already have the lizard, I won him in an auction. He is most definitely wild caught and about a foot long, width of about a pencil. I actually did a little research on these guys and legless lizards in general seemed like an easy and interesting captive. However, when I googled "New Guinea Legless", not much came up, so I just assumed the seller got the name wrong, which is why I was looking to see if anyone else could identify.

This is disheartening, as I really fell in love with this species. Would you recommend attempting to try a lizard species to feed him? Maybe rubbing insect prey on a lizard? I have dusted crickets in panacur, but I'm sure he didn't eat the crickets. He has already lost weight as he was 22 grams when I got him in and is now down to 20. Any thing you can recommend would be very helpful.

 

[BGalloway]

I thought it looked like the lialis burtonis from my college's herp collection, but I wasn't sure.
You could try feeding it anoles, that's what the one in our collection ate. I'd recommend trying to find someone who has raised them to get some first hand advice from. Also the collection's lialis was kept in a larger tank, at least a 20 gallon, and it had a plant to climb/hide in. Good luck with your new pet.

 

[ento890]

Thank you.

I am going to go out tomorrow and see if I can find a lizard small enough for it to eat.
His "hides" are plants actually because he didn't seem to like caves. He does love the plants though.

 

[M_surinamensis]

I'll help you out as far as I can, but please keep in mind that anything I have to say on the subject is a mixture of secondhand information and generalities learned from working with species that are reported to have some similar inclinations.

Try searching for care information by the nomenclature, rather than the common name. These comparatively rare species get stuck with all kinds of weird little marketing labels and there aren't enough of them to cause people to come to a consensus on what the common name actually is. Using the nomenclature, you're guaranteed that anything you read will be written about the animal you've got and written by someone who knows it at least well enough to ID it. Nomenclature searches online also tend to turn up the oddball academic result, which can often be used to make some inferences about the best approaches to captive care.

I'd look into having a fecal examination done and, in all likelihood, a round of panacur or flagyl will end up being recommended.

The reason I knew what it was is because they've got some rather interesting muscular and skeletal adaptations that allow them to swallow comparatively large prey items. They feed more like snakes than like most lizards; large meals swallowed whole at longer intervals. Generally about once a week is usual, with minor variations made based on health and nutritional needs.

They're really lizard eaters, it's very rare for them to go after anything else. What I have read and a few of the physical features in the way their head is shaped indicate that they're largely visual feeders, which can make scenting and teasing tricks a little more difficult. I'd try it out on anoles or house geckos first, as these are two species that are easier to reasonably obtain for use as feeders. If it refuses those, then I'd make an attempt using a soft skinned terrestrial gecko... leopards or bandeds are the ones that are the closest to appropriately priced, using the smallest individuals you can find. If that also fails, try juvenile skinks, again, small and thin- as if you were selecting prey for a snake (so about the width of the legless lizard's body, give or take). Live is your best bet, as the visual feeders often do not respond well to prekilled.

The usual conditioning aspects of tease feeding also apply at this point, make sure the environment is correct, minimize stress, try to avoid interfering with the feeding attempt as much as possible while still monitoring it.

 

[ento890]

Thank you very much, you've been really helpful.

I was wondering how such a small lizard itself could swallow a larger prey item but since you say they eat like snakes, that makes sense. I'm gonna try and find a prey lizard tomorrow for this guy. I'll let you know how I do.

 

[Tico]

What about baby anoles ... there adime a dozen in florida ~

 

[ento890]

I will try and search for younger lizards tomorrow and if he takes them, I will bulk order some house geckos or anoles.

 

[M_surinamensis]

Just a couple things I'd sort of like to say on the subject... maybe not so helpful, but relevant, I think.

Personally I find keeping some of these rare and wonderful, weird and unique less commonly seen species to be one of the most rewarding things one can do as a herper. You've got, in your home, this absolutely amazing animal that is fascinatingly unique in many respects, a strange little evolutionary niche that managed to find success in the wild. Being able to witness some of that firsthand, to see this slice of the natural world with your own eyes and to understand how it came to be is the thing I love the most about herpetology. I experience a sense of wide eyed discovery and a child-like feeling of amazement every time I think about something like the animal you now own. So no matter the outcome, try to enjoy the opportunity.

You should keep a little bit of a realistic understanding of the odds involved in your mind though. Do absolutely everything you possibly can to give this animal a long, healthy life in your care, but at the same time be aware that if you do not succeed, it's not indicative of any personal failing on your part. Many people tend to personalize and internalize a lack of success with an animal... and in many cases it's appropriate for them to do so if they failed in meeting their responsibilities. In this case though, there isn't a set of easy to follow directions and simple steps to follow, there aren't one hundred years and millions of animals of experience written down to help you. There's a little bit of information, a little bit of guesswork and all you can do is your best with what you know and what you can observe and learn as you go. So if it doesn't work out, don't blame yourself.

Finally, if it's not too much trouble, please take notes of everything you can. There are enough unknowns and enough variables, even in the instances of success, so that anything you can contribute as a result of your experiences keeping one are invaluable. Behaviors, growth rates, temperatures, humidity, reactions to substrate and terrarium fixtures, responses to lighting* or to pressure systems, what provokes a feeding response, what is ignored... anything and everything you try is information that others can benefit from in the future. Plus I just want to know how it goes, in as much detail as possible. My curiosity is important, right?

*oh, uh... UVB is indicated as necessary for D3 synthesis, though fossorial tendencies may mitigate that to some degree.

 

[ento890]

Thank you very much for your help.

I will do my best at trying to provide an acceptable habitat for this guy and keeping him alive. Tonight I am going to try to gather as much information I possibly can on him and tomorrow I'll try to find a good feeder for him. I was talking to someone on another forum who has had experience with this species and he recommended trying ground or mole skinks.

I will absolutely keep notes of everything I am doing.

Thanks again so much for your help and time.

 

[ento890]

Just an Update:

The legless lizard is doing okay. I've been misting him every other night. He is still in the same cage but I am working on providing him a better habitat. He took his first Anole today right away, which was a huge relief.

Ill continue to update on his progress.

 

[ento890]

 

[BGalloway]

Thanks for keeping everyone updated; it's great to hear he's doing well and eating for you. Nice pictures of him feeding.

 

[ento890]

Thank you.

As M_surinamensis suggested, I have been keeping notes. I have temperatures, substrates, feeding, misting and everything marked down. I really hope this guy does well for me. This is his fourth anole.