Re: Tail raising - dominance or greeting?

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Posted by Lester G. Milroy III on May 28, 2002 at 10:13:02:

In Reply to: Tail raising - dominance or greeting? posted by Lyn (again) on May 28, 2002 at 07:43:06:

: My red HL Godzilla definitely seems to be adopting the dominant roll over my yellow HL Hercules. Godzilla Head bobbs, sometimes from a laying down position, sometimes he lifts his chest off the ground to bob. When Hercules approaches him from behind he sticks his tail straight up. Hercules stops, then approaches slowly from the side and lays down next to him. Sometimes this leads to a head bobbing display from Godzilla, sometimes they just lay quietly together. Hercules has not bobbed or raised his tail in my presence. Don't know what they do when I'm not around. Gave them a dozen mealies yesterday. They loved them. I'm considering having them as a display only pet, they really hate to be picked up. They were so calm at the store, but they were crowded and the tank was probably cooler. I'm enjoying just watching them, and think they prefer it that way too.

: Be very, very careful about feeding them mealworms. They have a tendency to "bind" horned lizards. The exoskeleton has larger pieces than ants and are not digestable. Most times the HLs will regurgitate the mealworms and/or the exoskeleton and then you have to worry about hydration problems. Head-bobbing and tail-raising are forms of communication. The tail-raising is a display that signals the other HL of their gender. (gender identification). HLs are much better off with miniml handling. (Again this is a stress factor thing). As long as you can minimize stress and provide the right diet, temperatures and water requirements, your chances increase on maintaining the HLs. If you can get a snout-vent and total length, maybe we can get a rough estimation on age. Let me know. Lester G. Milroy III

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: : My red HL Godzilla definitely seems to be adopting the dominant roll over my yellow HL Hercules. Godzilla Head bobbs, sometimes from a laying down position, sometimes he lifts his chest off the ground to bob. When Hercules approaches him from behind he sticks his tail straight up. Hercules stops, then approaches slowly from the side and lays down next to him. Sometimes this leads to a head bobbing display from Godzilla, sometimes they just lay quietly together. Hercules has not bobbed or raised his tail in my presence. Don't know what they do when I'm not around. Gave them a dozen mealies yesterday. They loved them. I'm considering having them as a display only pet, they really hate to be picked up. They were so calm at the store, but they were crowded and the tank was probably cooler. I'm enjoying just watching them, and think they prefer it that way too. : : <img src=http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/14HTAinthank052402-med.jpg> : : Be very, very careful about feeding them mealworms. They have a tendency to "bind" horned lizards. The exoskeleton has larger pieces than ants and are not digestable. Most times the HLs will regurgitate the mealworms and/or the exoskeleton and then you have to worry about hydration problems. Head-bobbing and tail-raising are forms of communication. The tail-raising is a display that signals the other HL of their gender. (gender identification). HLs are much better off with miniml handling. (Again this is a stress factor thing). As long as you can minimize stress and provide the right diet, temperatures and water requirements, your chances increase on maintaining the HLs. If you can get a snout-vent and total length, maybe we can get a rough estimation on age. Let me know. Lester G. Milroy III

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