Our Lizard Album

Here you will find pictures of our lizard 'family'. I will be adding to them over the course of time.

This is Ellie, our newest addition.

Ellie is a beautiful male-mimic Uromastyx Maliensis that we recently purchased from Doug Dix. She has very pronounced dotted' markings on her back and a gorgeous white 'tiger striping' on her belly. Doug has some rare and stunning Uros and was kind enough to spend a lot of time talking with us about them.

We christened her Ellie in memory or Ernie, our little male who passed away February 17th 2002. When we adopted Ernie we were told he was female (his given name was Ethel). Only after he suffered a prolapse did we discover 'she' was in fact a 'he'. We took the combination of Ethel and Ernie to form Ellie.

This is Ellie's cagemate, Fred. He's an Eyed-Ocellated male Uromastyx Maliensis

We're hoping that Fred and Ellie will eventually breed, as the offspring should be incredible.

This is Brian and Chloe, our Egyptian Uromastyx. Brian, the lighter of the two (seen here on the right) is a Microlepis. Chloe is a slightly more unusual Aegypticus, Aegypticus.

Brian and Chloe are two of the tamest Uros I have ever seen. They have an genuine love and trust of people (unusual for animals that were wild caught). Egyptians can grow big, very big. We expect them to reach somewhere between 2 and 3 feet when fully grown and, hopefully, they will live for up to 25 years.

The Rankins Dragons, Hannibal and Clarise. Hannibal, pictured below, was our first Rankins Dragon. Rankins are a smaller version of the more popular Bearded Dragon.

Hannibal is very big for a Rankins Dragon, measuring about 11" total. His name is also well-deserved, he was responsible for maming several other Rankins in the pet store where we bought him ! These animals have a lot of character. They watch everything and everyone intently and love being in a room where there are lots of people.

Clarise. Our most secretive lizard.

Clarise is a very delicate-looking lizard, who likes her privacy. In two and a half years I have only 'seen' her eat twice. She waits until there's no-one around before eating her food. Despite this, she has a great appetite and, this year, has become a lot more sociable.

The Bearded Dragons, Spot and Lilly. Spot and Lilly were our first lizards and they still occupy the biggest place in our hearts. Lilly (pictured below) is the demure princess, who knows her place is at the head of our lizard family.

Bearded Dragons are, by nature, incredibly tame and Lilly is no exception. She likes nothing better than to lie on a heating pad (or one of our shirts) with a blanket over her and go to sleep. At the moment (March 2002) she's undergoing acupuncture treatment for arthritis in her front legs.

This is why they're called Bearded Dragons. Here's a picture of Spot displaying the famous black beard, from which they get their name

When threatened, or displaying dominance, the animal will extend and darken the pouch surrounding its throat area. Here Spot was showing the camera who was boss. Dragons have a distinct gestural language (over 70 documented gestures) consisting of head bobbing and arm waving.

Those who are no longer with us

In memory of Clarise 1, our first female Rankins Dragon, and Ernie, our Uromastyx, I have created a separate memorial page which can be found by clicking here .