# House lizard suddenly making himself scarce since Easter.



## ianinoz (May 7, 2011)

Hi'
We've been adopted by a young striped skink who kinda moved in and decided to live in our house with us back in November. He's about 10" long and looks like he's very happy and healthy (thriving) living with us.
Here's his photo. 
Yes I have been giving him food treats every so often, he seems to like people food almost as much as bugs, but LOVES a nice lively bug.

He made himself quite at home and once my wife got used to him being about and he started becoming very friendly (very confortable with us about, no longer running away and hiding when ever he heard one of us coming or saw on us coming, just getting out the way and watching us very intently, especially if we went into to the kitchen - very partial to little bits of diced chicken, beef, lamb, turkey and he's even taken grapes and peas and bits of lettuce. 

Really keen on insects- he's been seen taking cockroaches and housespiders (even a huntsman).

I've been cultivating my relationship with him by talking calmly to him when I see him especially when he's soaking up the sun on the carpet and soaking up the warmth on a AC-DC transformer see image 


As you can see, Lizzy has the run of the house and comes and goes as he pleases, we don't mind this, and he often climbs onto lounge chairs and was frequently seen hunting about looking for bugs and then edible stuff (crumbs) on kitchen floor. 
He's a great at hunting down spiders and cockroaches, so he earned his keep.

Very territorial, often displayed at us. And really didn't like visitors, he'd make himself scarce for a day or 2 if we had guests during the day. BUT ALWAYS showed up.

Got to the stage he trusted me enough to not be upset when I come close and he would study me from his fav spot for ages. I've even found him on the top of the lounge looking over my shoulder on a few occasions or on the chair next to me and studying me from a few inches away sometimes. Wont let me touch him yet, and I was hoping he'd accept food from my fingers soon.

Thing is he has gone from being a daily visitor and source of companionship and entertainment, right through summer and up til Easter and suddenly visit durations become very short and now it's been about a week and we've not seen him. Though I think I've heard him rustling about under or inside the lounge corner unit (where I think he slept over summer).

Do these lisards go into a "hibernation" mode where their metabolism slows down and they become lots less active over the cold months (I don't think Ilve seen any of his mates under the house or in the garden for a week or two either) ?

Should I be worried aboit him ?


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## Elapidae1 (May 7, 2011)

Love it. He's brumating/hybernating.


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## redlittlejim (May 7, 2011)

steve1 said:


> Love it. He's brumating/hybernating.



+1 you wills ee him again i hope


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## lizardloco (May 7, 2011)

That is so cool, you're lucky you don't have a cat on your hands


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## ianinoz (May 7, 2011)

Lizzy makes himself at home ^^


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## sookie (May 7, 2011)

You must be very kind and calm people,and your adopted child is beautiful.and i think he has just gone to sleep for winter,thinking of doing the same.....hahahaha.he will be back when it warms up again,not to worry.lucky ducks i have to buy all my pets.


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## Sezzzzzzzzz (May 7, 2011)

How gorgeous!!!


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## snakeluvver (May 7, 2011)

Thats so cool! BTW that is an Eastern Water Skink, in case you didnt realise.

Doesnt he poo everywhere (from my mum :lol


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## Jackrabbit (May 7, 2011)

How old are these photos? you still have VHS? :lol:


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## ianinoz (May 7, 2011)

snakeluvver said:


> Thats so cool! BTW that is an Eastern Water Skink, in case you didnt realise.
> 
> Doesnt he poo everywhere (from my mum :lol


 
Thanks for that ID. He's a very common lizard in my area, got stacks of them living under and around my home (I often see them sunning on the concrete paths, his big brother lives in the garage and he's also very friendly and inquisitive when I'm down there doing things, has to investigate everything that winds up on the floor, and I sometimes have to shoo him away because I'm scared of hurting him.
Got lots of those little brown skinks and some very cheeky bluetongues who live in my busy garden too. 
They all do a great job of making spiders (red backs, etc) disappear.

I like having lots of lizards about. 

I've only seen him poo a few times, and they were little poos full of cockroach crunchy bits not much bigger than a pigeon-poo. I think he's going back under the house to do his business. Only found a few poos on the carpet (didn't tell my wife - I simply waited for them to dry (the white stuff around the crunchy bits) and disposed of them)).

Lizzy is a lot cleaner than you'd expect for a wild creature, maybe they don't go to the toilet inside their territory and save it to mark their territory boundary with their little poos and wees. 

Lizzy is surprisingly clean.

I started photographing him not long after NY. The most recent are only a few weeks old.


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## lizardloco (May 7, 2011)

You should put a little bowl of water somewhere


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## ianinoz (May 7, 2011)

lizardloco said:


> You should put a little bowl of water somewhere


 
I think he might be going under the house to get his drinks, the split aircon drains under the house.

But yes, I will put a little lid with some water in it for him in the corner in the kitchen when he gets active again.

He loves green seedless grapes, but I have to cut them in half for him because he couldn't get into the grape he discovered on the kitchen floor one day after Xmas.


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## saximus (May 7, 2011)

Haha that's awesome. Good on you for letting him roam free and not trying to capture him


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## ianinoz (May 7, 2011)

Jackrabbit said:


> How old are these photos? you still have VHS? :lol:


 
Yes I still have loads of VHS tapes, using a VHS DVD recorder combo now. 

Too lazy to convert all the old tapes to DVD.



saximus said:


> Haha that's awesome. Good on you for letting him roam free and not trying to capture him


 
I wouldn't dare, he'd never forgive me and any trust I built up with him would disappear. 

He interacts with me and my wife when we talk to him, looks straight at us. Does that make us lizard whisperers ??? 

Will get some mealworms for him when wakes up in spring and want to see if he'll accept them from my fingers eventually.


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## lizardloco (May 7, 2011)

But you could also use the water for him to swim in


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## Defective (May 7, 2011)

that is awesome sauce!!! toilet trained and all


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## GeckoJosh (May 7, 2011)

Thats so cool!!!!!!!, be careful if you feed him too many mealies though, if he eats heaps and doesn't get a chance to bask in some decent sun after he may get impacted (mealies can be hard to digest for small lizards)


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## snakeluvver (May 7, 2011)

Your so lucky to get large lizards, the only ones I get are garden skinks.
Ive never even seen a wild bluetongue


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## ianinoz (May 8, 2011)

Geckoman said:


> Thats so cool!!!!!!!, be careful if you feed him too many mealies though, if he eats heaps and doesn't get a chance to bask in some decent sun after he may get impacted (mealies can be hard to digest for small lizards)


 
Thanks for the tip. 

Thinking a maybe one or 2 mealworms a few times a week as treats, and hopefully eventually offering them to him from between my fingers or on the end of a toothpick maybe to build my relationship with Lizzy a bit more when he gets active again.

The cockroaches he's been eating have been big meals for him, and he discovered an errand huntsman running across the carpet one day and dragged up under the TV cabinet where there was a titanic battle (we could hear lots of banging going on, the spider tried to escape a few times only to be chased down and grabbed and dragged back under never to be seen again and Lizzy was very pleased with himself and had very full belly afterwards. 

Can lizards be happy ? He seems to be happy when he gets a roach or a spider or some other bug that wonders in or flies in.

Lizzy is hardly any bother at all. I just assume he is going back under the house to do his toilet. Got no idea how often he should do No.9s. 

I guess lizards kept in enclosures have no choice but to do their business there since they can't get out.


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## ianinoz (Jun 22, 2011)

Lizzy is back.






Spotted Lizzy doing the rounds of the lounge room , was eating a dead bug he found under the TV stand. Guess Lizzy woke up feeling a tad peckish. 

Was not at all phased about my walking into the lounge room, virtually ignored me.


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## graedesire (Jun 22, 2011)

Good news

Always a lil sad when you grow attached to a lil critter then they decide it's time to move on. Looks like it might not be the case for this lil one


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## saximus (Jun 22, 2011)

That's awesome to hear . You seemed quite worried when he/she disappeared


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## bluey87 (Jun 22, 2011)

haha this awesome, at my house ive seen one wild bluetongue out in my yard and that was it apart from birds and those smallgarden skinks etc, its most prob cause we have 2 cats and a 2 dogs i do have reptiles in my house privately bought, but i would love to see more wild ones around, my next door neighbour has a blue tongue that lives in her laundry ive seen it basking out on her concrete and asked her if she had seen it b4 she said yeh it scares her everytime she goes into the laundry but she just lets it be its pretty big one too i would have to say its bigger than the one i own, sorry to hack ur thread just thought i would ad my bit to it, but let us know if u come across lizzy again i hope shes still round for ya


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## ianinoz (Jun 22, 2011)

Think Lizzy's been awake off and on for a week or so, my wife says she thought she caught a glimsp of something with a long tail dashing across the carpet one day last week.
Then I spotted a cheaky house mouse a couple of days ago when I got up just before dawn who was grooming itself in the middle of the kitchen floor. If they didn't poo all over everything, I'd be fine with mouse living with us, but now we have a grandchild who visits, the mouse had to go. The mouse has been dispatched - peanut button on one of those plastic spring traps, got it within a hour of my setting the trap. I had just assumed that since Lizzy was asleep that what my wife saw was a mouse.

I've now put the mouse trap away, wouldn't want to accidently kill Lizzy if Lizzy got curious about the trap, as he's apt to since he has been very inquisitive (do skink's like peanut butter ?).

I'm assuming if the mouse knew Lizzy was in residence, the mouse would have left because Lizzy would probably have seen the mouse or it's babies as food. Lizzy can go everywhere a mouse can. Dispatched the mouse before I knew Lizzy was awake and still living with us. 

Yes - I'm very releaved and pleased that my little buddy Lizzy is OK and has stayed with us.


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## REPTILIAN-KMAN (Jun 22, 2011)

was the laptop battery in use when perched ( heating himself ) or off !! i like his adoptfulness ( is that a word )


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## ianinoz (Jun 22, 2011)

REPTILIAN-KMAN said:


> was the laptop battery in use when perched ( heating himself ) or off !! i like his adoptfulness ( is that a word )


 
Not seen Lizzy back on his fav warming spot (yet, kinda stopped looking at the spot so Lizzy could have been there and I just didn't notice him).

It's the power transformer for our phone-fax-answering machine-copier combo he loves to warm up on.

Maybe Lizzy actually loves or at least really likes and trusts me.


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