Lizard Pinks

First off, a special thank you to Terri for sending us up some small anoles.

I took some pictures for Q, but figured I'd share one here as well.

Lizard-pinks are working well here this round in enticing my bloodred heritage kids to partake. These guys snubbed lizard scented pinkies and lizard tail tips in the pinkies' mouths, but they went right after the lizard pinks. (One even broke the string and just ate the pinky...left the lizard. :shrugs: )

The string is just a piece of hair...smaller than any thread I could find and readily available and non-traumatic. Although hair doesn't digest, it does pass through with no problems.

Anyway, here is a sample picture of a lizard pink:




Hope this helps some people this year with lizard eaters and getting them converted to pinks.

Wow Connie! That is pretty cool...Hopefully, I won't have to do anything like this with the 05 babies I purchase..

+19 (with 5 little green boxes)

Bravo Connie, you've amazed and educated me further once again!

Thanks, you ROCK!

I would hope not, Howie.

This little trick is nice when trying to get some bloodred and Miami heritage hatchlings started. I won't sell a hatchling that isn't on pinks and tell people if they were lizard starters so they have the full history.

This is a nice first step to getting them taking down pinks and getting used to that scent being present with food. Move on to lizard-scented pinks and from there to bare pinks and they're golden.

To be honest, I would of never thought of tying a anole to a pinky....That is an awesome idea..

I'm trying to remember where I first heard the idea...years ago, can't remember from who. I know Don has mentioned it before, as well as several others. Can't claim the idea as original, but thought I'd post to pass the idea to the next group of new breeders as it was passed to me.

What a handy thing to have. I never had luck getting but the occasional egg from an anole colony that was twice as much work as the animals they were food for. And still, they seemed in a constant state of decline. Any parasite concerns with w/c anoles? I've always been told to avoid using them as feeders.

I don't like to use live anoles due to parasite concerns, but long-term freezing of a couple months will kill off most parasites. These have been frozen for months. That's not to say it's impossible to have parasite transmission, but it is unlikely. Anything being fed anoles will be fecal checked and/or prophylactically dewormed just in case, anyway. I try to play it safe.

That's a cool idea! Like a little lizard shuttlecraft.

Iv never heard of anything like that in my life...looks interesting.

Hurley said:

The string is just a piece of hair...smaller than any thread I could find and readily available

Click to expand...

Ah, "readily available" hair. I miss those days.

Yet another great idea, nonetheless.

regards,
jazz

That's such a good idea!

Forgive my newbie stupidity, but I never realised bloodreds preferred lizards, and you may have just explained why mine isn't half as enthusiastic about mice as my perma-hungry anery!

Louise

You are VERY welcome for those little anoles, Connie! I am glad you found a way to get your little ones to eat them. I hope that you will be able to get them switched over pretty quickly now that they are eating something! Thanks for posting the picture of your lizard-pink!

I feel the same as Connie about feeding wild caught lizards to my more difficult feeders. (Remember, I take in quite a few difficult feeders to rehabilitate each year.) I try not to keep them on the anoles for very long, but feel it is better for them to eat anoles than nothing at all. MOST of the snakes I have rehabilitated using anoles, switch over to unscented pinks very quickly. Sometimes it just takes stimulating the feeding response with the lizards.