# Shows us your Pygopodidae



## spongebob (Mar 15, 2011)

I thought I'd start a thread to showcase this family of fascinating critters. Please feel free to add your own photos and comments. I'll start with the scaly foots (or is it feet in plural?). Firstly the Eastern Scaly (Pygopus schraderi) which seems to be one of the more commonly kept and bred species. Being rather small and long lizards getting a whole body shot in focus is a challenge! here's a head of one of my more unusually coloured males:







and a body shot of another more typically coloured one:






and some of this years young, showing a nice yellow hue, and perhaps pretending to be something venomous:











and now the Western Scaly-foot (Pygopus nigroceps):






and one of the babies which were pink before their first shed and now more orange:











I'm interested to see what else is out there

Bob


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## Snakeluvver2 (Mar 15, 2011)

Hey mate are these all yours? Do you breed them!


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## kitten_pheonix (Mar 15, 2011)

wow there nice i havent heard of them befor. are they very commonly kept?


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## GeckoJosh (Mar 15, 2011)

Nice pics Bob, Id love to keep these guys one day


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## Southern_Forest_Drag (Mar 15, 2011)

Jannico said:


> Hey mate are these all yours? Do you breed them!


 
Pretty sure he does he had some up for sale last month if IIRC, would have loved to have got them but i dont have the room and also have no experience with legless lizards.



kitten_pheonix said:


> wow there nice i havent heard of them befor. are they very commonly kept?


Simple answer no however they pop up from time to time.


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## SteveNT (Mar 15, 2011)

How does a LEGLESS lizard get a name like scaly FOOT?


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## AUSHERP (Mar 15, 2011)

They have a scale flap towards the back of the body and science says this is derivative of back legs, a scaly foot if you like.....

Google Image Result for http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/362303913_435756ae19.jpg


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## Nephrurus (Mar 15, 2011)

Ah! They're one of my favourite groups as well! 

I used to keep Pygopus schraderi, nigriceps and lepidopodus. I was very sad to see them go, but I get to see quite a few wild ones in my current job so that sort-of filled the hole they left.... 

You've done well to breed those. There have been very few captive breedings so they're still fairly rare in captivity. I bred schraderi a couple of times, never got the nigriceps to breed and had one clutch of slugs with the lepidopodus. 

My schraderi were pretty straight forward to keep, throw in the crickets and they'd mate wheni introduced the male. Maybe I just didn't throw in enough food for the nigriceps or lepidopodus to breed  .

Here are some shots i took of the scaley feet on a lepidopodus: These shots show the paracloacal spur, prominent in males, but virtually absent in females. 
















Some baby schraderi i bred once (i think these were the first clutch I ever bred). 






An adult ledipopodus...





My cute little baby schraderi, a few months old...
















And the three: adults, yearlings (bred by me) and hatchlings (bred by me as well).


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## AUSHERP (Mar 15, 2011)

nigriceps are one of my faves, it'd be a treat to breed them.....


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## spongebob (Mar 15, 2011)

Great photos Henry. You always make my photos look so poor by comparision. 

Yes throwing in lots of crickets and woodies (particularly 'white' ones) certainly does seem to help with getting multiple clutches. Mind you those common scaly's do seem the most difficult to breed.


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## Rocket (Mar 15, 2011)

Old photos that many of you may have seen. Captive _Pygopus nigriceps_ and _Delma tincta_, as well as some wild _Aprasia striolata_ and _Delma molleri_. I'm unsure of any recent taxonomic changes to _Aprasia_ in regards to them still being Pygopods or their own family/subfamily but thought I'd include the photos here anyway.


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## cleobhp (Mar 16, 2011)

Wow, they are beautiful, I have been doing some research, on these guys, and everything seems to be straight forward, but to the people who keep them how hard are they to keep?


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## spongebob (Mar 16, 2011)

cleobhp said:


> Wow, they are beautiful, I have been doing some research, on these guys, and everything seems to be straight forward, but to the people who keep them how hard are they to keep?



The scaly-feet are basically legless geckos so can be kept in similar conditions. P.schraderi and P. nigroceps can be kept without a light source but lepidopodus is more diurnal and appreciates a basking light source (12v dichroic works well). Feed them sell on crickets and woodies, and that's about it.


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## crikey (Mar 16, 2011)

i would love to get some legless lizards one day how many of youse breed them and what are the going prises


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## ezekiel86 (Mar 16, 2011)

amazing shot everyone...ohh I wont some now hahaha


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## gemrock2hot (Mar 16, 2011)

wow their so cute  how big do the adults get? pic's can be a bit misleading to size.


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## spongebob (Mar 16, 2011)

gemrock2hot said:


> wow their so cute  how big do the adults get? pic's can be a bit misleading to size.



Schraderi and nigriceps dont get very big -around 30-35 cm fully grown. The common scaly though can get considerably larger.


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## Eddie2257 (Mar 16, 2011)

how much do they go for?


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## Rocket (Mar 16, 2011)

These days they are becoming rather affordable, some such as _Pygopus schraderi _and _Lialis burtonis _can be seen as cheap as $200-$250ea with _P.nigriceps_, _P.lepidopodus _etc still fetching well over $350ea. _Delma_ as well will fetch over $150ea but all of these are likely to be wild-caught animals.


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## Snakeluvver2 (Mar 16, 2011)

Hmmm They are really attractive and look interesting. Aren't taxonomically geckos now?


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## Rocket (Mar 16, 2011)

As far as I know, yes, they have been _officially_ included as a subfamily of Gecko.


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## Nephrurus (Mar 16, 2011)

Yes, legless geckos are a good way to describe them. They "wash" their faces like geckos and are very gecko-like in many ways (the way they feed, vocalizations when they are frightened/excited etc etc). 

I've seen many a wild pygopod (the most recent is some wild burtons up here in Port Hedland) and I'll put up some wild animal shots later on. 

-H


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## Rocket (Mar 17, 2011)

Also, in regards to stimulus (defensive, excitement when about to feed), I have noticed _P.nigriceps _will violently vibrate and thrash their tail about (similar to a knob-tail gecko). They also incorporate "crocodile death-rolls" when feeding, presumably to dismember their prey and much like Henry has stated, will use their tongue to clean their eyes and can vocalise, aswell as producing two eggs per clutch and being able to autotomize their tail.


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## jordo (Mar 17, 2011)

spongebob said:


> Schraderi and nigriceps dont get very big -around 30-35 cm fully grown. The common scaly though can get considerably larger.


 
You mustn't feed em mate, they get over 40cm easy  Lepidopodus can reach about 100cm from what I've heard


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## Nephrurus (Mar 18, 2011)

SE QLD lepidopodus get massive- never seen one myself though.


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## butters (Mar 18, 2011)

I have seen lepidopodus as big as 900mm around here. Supposedly they get bigger.


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## scorps (Mar 18, 2011)

Im getting my first pygopods soon, very excited at the new editions


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## Nephrurus (Mar 18, 2011)

900mm is a fairly monstrous gecko. 

Here are some wild Pygos. 

P. nigriceps from around Laverton












Common Scaly-foot P. lepidopodus from around Perth












Delma fraseri, also from around Perth. 











Delma borea from near Darwin. 






And a Worm-lizard Aprasia repens from around Perth











I haven't seen too many of those genera but there's a mob of my pygopodid photos here: 
Legless Lizards - Pygopodidae Photo Gallery by Henry Cook at pbase.com

... if you're interested. 

Cheers!

h


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## dihsmaj (Mar 18, 2011)

I want a Common Scaly-Foot, but I can't get a tank big enough, I don't think.


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## Smithers (Mar 18, 2011)

Great images Henry thanks for showing us


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## Asharee133 (Mar 18, 2011)

Anyone keep Burtons?


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## jordo (Mar 19, 2011)

Asharee133 said:


> Anyone keep Burtons?


 
They're probably the most commonly kept pygo, although the most difficult to feed (without a good population of AHGs)


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## butters (Mar 19, 2011)

I keep Burton's ,and occassionally breed them, they are easy to keep and extremely hardy provided you can feed them. I have found that if you supply them with an almost constant supply of food coming into the breeding season they will usually breed. Sounds very similar to the comment about hoodeds in an earlier post.This can be difficult in States other than Queensland.

Considering how rarely they breed in captivity it is very hard to get rid of offspring for this reason.

I am constantly asked if they are feeding on pinkies or tails etc. but being in Queensland I have never had the need to try and convert them.


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## dihsmaj (Mar 19, 2011)

Anyone have any caresheets on Pygopus sp., specifically lepidopodus and nigriceps?
If not, anything for Delma?


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## BigWillieStyles (Mar 19, 2011)

Didnt realise so many people kept Pygopodidae.


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## jordo (Mar 21, 2011)

Plimpy said:


> Anyone have any caresheets on Pygopus sp., specifically lepidopodus and nigriceps?
> If not, anything for Delma?


 
As previously mentioned the Pygopus species can be kept like knob-tails. Delma, the same except they're diurnal so feed them during the day. I've heard of people supplying overhead heating (basking lights) and UV but personally I think they all do well when kept like geckoes.


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