# photo's of the devil



## Bloomster (Mar 29, 2011)

Hey all.... a little beauty found north of Kalgoorlie. WA












D. Bloomfield


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## marcmarc (Mar 29, 2011)

Lucky ducky!!, thanks for sharing.


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## saximus (Mar 29, 2011)

Hehe that's awesome thanks. Do many people keep these guys in captivity?


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

Nope Sax two hard to keep, most eat 5000 ants a day. and will not eat anything else.


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## AllThingsReptile (Mar 29, 2011)

no saximus, they are next to impossible to feed


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## Clarke.93 (Mar 29, 2011)

i swear i saw them on youtube somewhere.
Anyway could you handle these or are there spikes to much to handle?


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## saximus (Mar 29, 2011)

Oh right wow. I guess that makes finding them in the wild that much more awesome


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## Xcell (Mar 29, 2011)

Awsome find what a great lookin lizard


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

saximus said:


> Oh right wow. I guess that makes finding them in the wild that much more awesome



They are from what i've been told relatively common in the wild.


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## Jazzz (Mar 29, 2011)

i love these guys!! too bad there so hard (impossible) to keep... =/


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## SteveNT (Mar 29, 2011)

Not hard to find, slow as and fine to handle. Amazing beasties!!


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## captive_fairy (Mar 29, 2011)

WOW...Thanks for sharing...By far my favourite lizard of all time...Would LOVE to own one...If only...


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## MR_IAN_DAVO (Mar 29, 2011)

Bloomster,
You are a lucky devil to find this. They are tops.
Cheers
Ian


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## Braidotti (Mar 29, 2011)

Thats the best find.


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## Bloomster (Mar 29, 2011)

they are awesome lizards.... yes they are too hard to keep, and i am sure in every state they are illegal to keep....
They are common in some area's, but still take alot of luck to actually find...
the thorns are quite prikly, but due to their light weight, they are easy to handle... they are not as slow as some make them out to be, when they want to move, they have quite muscly legs, which can get them moving reasonably quick.... 

Love them.

D Bloomfield


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

No they are legal, well in NSW and QLD anyway. They are no more difficult to keep than a bandy bandy who eats blind snakes... but they are legal. You can buy them legally from Alice Springs Reptile park but they just have very very strict internal conditions that restrict who they sell them to.


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## frogboy77 (Mar 29, 2011)

last year they were at the australian reptile and frog expo in an enclosure on display!


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## Bez84 (Mar 29, 2011)

Bandy bandy eating a pinkie..

YouTube - BandyFeed


And a random vid i just found of a rattlesnake head attacking without its body...

YouTube - SNAKE ATTACK without body! Slow Motion!


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

Bez84 said:


> Bandy bandy eating a pinkie..
> 
> YouTube - BandyFeed



Didn't say it was impossible, I've heard of Thorny Devils on dog food to. Hence my original post said "MOST",

Watch the wording people


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## saximus (Mar 29, 2011)

frogboy77 said:


> last year they were at the australian reptile and frog expo in an enclosure on display!


I saw that too that's why I asked. Maybe they were just on loan from a zoo or owned by a keeper with lots of time on their hands


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## guzzo (Mar 29, 2011)

gillsy said:


> Nope Sax two hard to keep, most eat 5000 ants a day. and will not eat anything else.



I always wondered why you never hear of them being kept...however with all this rain bringing the ants inside I could probably manage too feed one ot two in my kitchen


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## AllThingsReptile (Mar 29, 2011)

Bez84 said:


> Bandy bandy eating a pinkie..
> 
> YouTube - BandyFeed
> 
> ...


that is cool, interested to know how many people actually keep bandy's...


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## dangles (Mar 29, 2011)

gillsy said:


> No they are legal, well in NSW and QLD anyway. They are no more difficult to keep than a bandy bandy who eats blind snakes... but they are legal. You can buy them legally from Alice Springs Reptile park but they just have very very strict internal conditions that restrict who they sell them to.



looking on the deccw approved list i cant find any hint off these guys. so im guessing they cannot be kept in nsw


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

They can be, they just drop off the list if no one has them. If you called and stated you need a species code for them they'll provide it.


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## SteveNT (Mar 29, 2011)

"And a random vid i just found of a rattlesnake head attacking without its body..."

YouTube - SNAKE ATTACK without body! Slow Motion! 

I saw exactly the same thing when I was working in mineral exploration up here. I accidently ran over a big king brown and broke his back. He was going beserk with anger/pain and I decided to end it for him. The only thing handy was a mattock, so I chopped his head off.

The head, with 1 inch of neck was still lunging at me 30 seconds later :shock:

I flipped it into the bushes and left. The image haunted me for months.

Thanks for reminding me :|


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## dangles (Mar 29, 2011)

gillsy said:


> They can be, they just drop off the list if no one has them. If you called and stated you need a species code for them they'll provide it.



cheers gillsy i never knew that.

Doing some research on them atm and seems they only eat 2 diff types of ants?i dont know how accurate this info is


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## gillsy (Mar 29, 2011)

dangles said:


> cheers gillsy i never knew that.
> 
> Doing some research on them atm and seems they only eat 2 diff types of ants?i dont know how accurate this info is


 
That's about right. Sydney Wildlife World had to take there's off display because they weren't doing well. There were rumors they'd died but i think they were just that rumors.


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## jordo (Mar 30, 2011)

Several institutions keep them including Alice Springs Desert Park and Melbourne Museum. There's also a few floating around in private collections, some have even come up for sale in the past few years.
Thorny devils aren't even hard to keep, the main issue is obviously the ants, but ant colonies are pretty easy to maintain once you have an established colony.



dangles said:


> cheers gillsy i never knew that.
> 
> Doing some research on them atm and seems they only eat 2 diff types of ants?i dont know how accurate this info is


 
I'm not sure if this is correct, from my experience I know they will try to eat other species of ants but the limiting factor seems to be the size of their mouth - meaning they will go for larger ants but because the ant is too big, when their tongue retracts into the mouth the ant gets knocked off and runs away.


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## Red-Ink (Mar 30, 2011)

saximus said:


> I saw that too that's why I asked. Maybe they were just on loan from a zoo or owned by a keeper with lots of time on their hands


 
That display was from memory actually the ASDP.... I came up from Vic last year to attend the expo


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## frogboy77 (Jun 19, 2011)

saximus said:


> I saw that too that's why I asked. Maybe they were just on loan from a zoo or owned by a keeper with lots of time on their hands



i found out that they were from alice springs wildlife park and a guy had brought them from there just for the expo, luckily we got to enjoy them!


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## richoman_3 (Jun 19, 2011)

could you feed them pinheads instead of ants? - still cost alot lol


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## Jeffa (Jun 19, 2011)

I wonder if they would eat green tree ants, living in tropical Q.L.D and being a gardener finding hundreds without looking is very common.


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## MathewB (Jun 19, 2011)

Does it have to be ants? They don't feed echidna's a gillion termites a day they feed them some protein/insect thing paste.


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## GeckPhotographer (Jun 19, 2011)

As far as I am aware they eat only black ants, the tiny tiny ones and among them only some several dozen species of black ants.


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## bigfella77 (Jun 19, 2011)

SteveNT said:


> "And a random vid i just found of a rattlesnake head attacking without its body..."
> 
> YouTube - SNAKE ATTACK without body! Slow Motion!
> 
> ...


 
HAha, someone actually tried to tell me if you cut off the head they can still kill until the sun sets.
By the way, love the Devil, by far my favourite lizard.


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## holdenman_89 (Jun 19, 2011)

well i guess if your REALLY keen on having one you could always start a really big ant farm lol , dont they guys squirt bloody from there eyes when threatened?


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## MathewB (Jun 19, 2011)

holdenman_89 said:


> well i guess if your REALLY keen on having one you could always start a really big ant farm lol , dont they guys squirt bloody from there eyes when threatened?



I'm thinking this is an old wives tale


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## SteveNT (Jun 19, 2011)

MathewB said:


> I'm thinking this is an old wives tale



That's an american lizard, looks a bit like a beardy, but yes squirts blood from it's eyes. Cant think of the name (just finished a 800km drive) but it will come to me.


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## MathewB (Jun 19, 2011)

SteveNT said:


> That's an american lizard, looks a bit like a beardy, but yes squirts blood from it's eyes. Cant think of the name (just finished a 800km drive) but it will come to me.



Oh I know what your talking about! I'm not sure if it's actually blood though, but feel free to prove me wrong. Why were you driving 800km?


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## SteveNT (Jun 19, 2011)

Coast horned *lizard* (Phrynosoma coronatum) and yes it is blood.

I drove from Darwin to Ngukurr (west side of Gulf of Carpentaria) where I am training the Rangers in Conservation & Land Management.

My boss, formerly high up in the Conservation Commision up here, kept one for several months by using small amounts of chicken skin to bring in an endless supply of "pissants". She was so happy she laid 18 eggs which the Desert Park successfully hatched and still use in their displays.


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## GeckPhotographer (Jun 19, 2011)

Long drive. At least 4 species of Phrynosoma can squirt blood from their eyes. 

Or if you really want one you can live in the NT/WA areas where they are found and have a fence with a wire bottom allowing ants to wonder through.


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## holdenman_89 (Jun 20, 2011)

SteveNT said:


> Coast horned *lizard* (Phrynosoma coronatum) and yes it is blood.
> 
> I drove from Darwin to Ngukurr (west side of Gulf of Carpentaria) where I am training the Rangers in Conservation & Land Management.
> 
> My boss, formerly high up in the Conservation Commision up here, kept one for several months by using small amounts of chicken skin to bring in an endless supply of "pissants". She was so happy she laid 18 eggs which the Desert Park successfully hatched and still use in their displays.


 
yeh thats the one (phrynosoma coronatum) got a bit confused with the spikes on it head.


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## reptileKev81 (Jun 20, 2011)

I love the thorny devil. My fave Lizard, and is actually what got me started on reptiles and APS. After seeing them on a documentary, I ended up here looking for advice on keeping them, lols


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## jordo (Jun 21, 2011)

Jeffa said:


> I wonder if they would eat green tree ants, living in tropical Q.L.D and being a gardener finding hundreds without looking is very common.


Nope, as I mentioned earlier the limiting factor seems to be size, they'll go for meat ants but when the tongue retracts the ant is knocked off because it's too big.



MathewB said:


> Does it have to be ants? They don't feed echidna's a gillion termites a day they feed them some protein/insect thing paste.


I'd have to see it to believe it, they're very fussy and I doubt they'd voluntarily feed on a substitute.



richoman_3 said:


> could you feed them pinheads instead of ants? - still cost alot lol


Also tried this and they don't seem interested in pinheads. My theories are that it's either the the dark colour of the ants they go for, or otherwise the difference between the movements of pinheads vs crickets put's them off.
On a side note, once established ants are much cheaper, and easier to breed than crickets so it wouldn't be worth the hassle trying to wean them.


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## jedi_339 (Jun 21, 2011)

jordo said:


> I'd have to see it to believe it, they're very fussy and I doubt they'd voluntarily feed on a substitute.


 
it's a funny substitute, they do it at most if not all zoos, very simple paste of I think from memory mince with fly pupae, plus other vitamins/minerals. they obviously try to substitute in termites every now and again for enrichment, but the paste makes up the majority of their diet.

As for Devils, I know a previous reptile keeper from Cairns Trop zoo and he says they had one up there for a while, it was his job to get it eating, it was a bit fussy initially but after a while of being placed on ant trails every day it eventually started eating, but ant size more than anything is the limiting factor, tiny mouths from what he told me


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