Recognize This Lizard?

[Minnime390]

Hey there!

I found this lizard living in a bush by my house. He seems domesticated. He doesn't run away and will climb up to on top of your head when we picked him up. I googled general lists of domesticated and native missouri lizards and he doesn't quite look like any of them that I saw.

He is medium to dark gray/brown with orange/red markings on his back. He has little horn-like things that protrude from the back of his head. He's maybe 6 inches long. He also REALLY likes climbing. He's constantly trying to get to the highest place available to him.

If anybody is able to identify it, do they know the best way to care for one? Or if he's wild if I should just let him loose again?

[SnoopySnake]

Could you try posting some different pics through photobucket or somewhere similar? Pics of the head would be good.

[Minkness]

Nice find! No idea what exactly he is but resembles an armadillo lizard. I'm by no means sure that's what it is tbough.

[ManSlaughter33]

abronia lythrochila? (Arboreal alligator lizard) ?
does it have red on it's lips?

[SnoopySnake]

I was thinking abronia too...

[ManSlaughter33]

I was thinking abronia too...

If it is i'm sooo jealous.. they're not popular in the pet trade where I am.. A friend just picked up a red lipped one today its gorgeous.

[Minnime390]

I'll have to get more pictures when I get home! Some of the pictures of the Abronia look pretty similar, though

[Minnime390]

Here's more pictures of him!

[Minkness]

Definitely an abronia

[sirtalis]

I'd get rid of the rocks and get him on a substrate like dirt or mulch, these will hold humidity much better. Other than that he looks good, id shoot for a basking spot at 100-120 f warn end 90's cool end 80's and humidity should be 50-70% throughout the enclosure. The rocks are also rather unsanitary. And like the others, he is a abronia, and congrats on a awesome new pet

[SnoopySnake]

Very cool, definitely abronia.

[Minnime390]

Awesome! Thanks for all the information! It'll really help out! And thanks everyone for helping to identify him! His name is now Gaius Julius Ceasar Augustus Germanicus!

[sirtalis]

He's your pet, but the reason i suggest getting him off the rocks is feces and urate will get trapped beneath the rocks and cause bacteria to grow. I suggest reading up on bioactive substrates, i keep my geckos on this substrate and display crazy behaviour.

[Minnime390]

Well, it's actually all soil already. There's just rocks in the corner on top of the soil. But we'll take those out if they're a problem.

[Minkness]

So long as you're willing to clean them, I don't see them as a problem. =)

[sirtalis]

@minkness actually they have no way to hold humidity so they're quite a problem.

[Minkness]

Not if the owner already has all the other stuff they say they have. The rocks wouldn't add any use to the set up, but so long as the temps and humidity are fine, and the owner os willing to clean them, there is no reason they shouldn't have them in there.

[ManSlaughter33]

if the rocks are on thop of the dirt/mulch it wont make a difference.. also having a few rocks in just the corner wont make a difference..

[Minnime390]

Update: my coworker sent the pictures to someone he knows from the Herpitology department at the St. Louis Zoo and they got ahold of me asking if I would donate him to the Zoo to be taken care of (since he was injured) and get a nice big controlled climate enclosure! So today we went and dropped him of at their quarantine section! He seemed very happy to have a bigger, better cage!

[Minnime390]

And apparently it's a federal offense to sell these specific lizards, so please don't buy any. They're being illegally smuggled from Central America, often times with 3-4 lizards stuffed into empty VHS tapes.

[sirtalis]

Sorry, i didnt read the full thread, @minkness, you are 100% correct, i thought you were saying that rocks would be a fine substrate for the entire enclosure. My bad.

[sirtalis]

You can buy and sell captive bred and born if you have papers to prove it as far as i know, when theyre wild caught thats a problem

[Minkness]

That is awesome that the zoo was interested! Also, didn't know that about the smuggling. So sad =(

[Minkness]

Sorry, i didnt read the full thread, @minkness, you are 100% correct, i thought you were saying that rocks would be a fine substrate for the entire enclosure. My bad.

No worries. =)

[trailblazer295]

You can buy and sell captive bred and born if you have papers to prove it as far as i know, when theyre wild caught thats a problem

Wouldn't it still require illegally caught lizards to make the babies though? Just asking but there wouldn't be a legal way I could see to get a breeding pair. So you'd still have to either smuggle or unknowingly buy smuggled lizards second hand to breed.