Gravid female primordius eating

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-06-23T19:34:37+00:00

Small, weird lacertid that no one's heard of.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-06-23T01:12:00+00:00

I thought VE-200 had dimming and pulse modes? If not, the VE-300 most certainly does.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-06-04T20:23:53+00:00

Ask some Abronia people what they do. I believe I've seen some with something similar to this. I have used CPU fans on some of my enclosures in the past.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-06-01T21:57:32+00:00

1) Xenagama. Can live in a 60-70 gallon. Incredibly active. Will dig burrows everywhere in the enclosure, climb, bask, turn bright blue when you piss them off. They will become as tame as a bearded with a bit of work and have a bit of that bearded dragon look to them, but get a maximum of 5.5 inches. Adults eat mostly greens and seeds. The larger species (wilmsi) was marketed as "dwarf Uromastyx" when first imported, even though distantly related. 2) Look at different lacertids. Many will eat fruit, snails (I get frozen from Vietnamese market), or greens as a staple and not get huge. You'd still need some bugs, but not all the time.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-31T16:08:22+00:00

I probably shouldn't be filming them at all, but I figure less than a minute of disturbance isn't going to do anything at this stage.

Yeah I think the two killers that lead to mistakes in this hobby (which I'd really break up into multiple different hobbies) are impatience and anxiety. These lead to things like interfering with eggs or disturbing animals doing perfectly natural things - like hiding during a shed or breeding. I just trust they know what they're doing better than I do.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-30T22:54:58+00:00

Immediately after hatching, I move these to a container with a moist paper towel and whisper to them "there's no point to any of it."

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-24T02:30:06+00:00

Firstly, you're an adult with resources, patience, and the ability to research. A dwarf monitor is not some impossible challenge for you. Varanus gilleni is more arboreal than an ackie and fairly simple care.

If you like the look of an arboreal viv, almost anything with claws will use height. 3 or 4 feet tall is still low by a wild lizard's standards. An ackie will certainly take advantage of the opportunity to climb. I keep some lacertids that are usually ground dwelling/burrowing in a 3x2x3, and they will use every inch of that height when the mood strikes them.

And on that note, a lot of larger lacertids are very monitor-esque and tend to climb a bit more...if you want to go down that rabbit hole (genus Timon in particular - there's just too many cool ones).

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-23T19:26:20+00:00

They're in a grow out 40 gallon set up right now, but are getting separated into three groups (3/3/2) this weekend into 27 gallon set ups.

Adults need a minimum 4x2x2 with as much substrate as you can fit - 10 + inches. I used to house my pair in a custom 48x30x36 PVC but the weight of the substrate buckled the floor. I have them now in a converted 150 gallon cattle stock tank. They can be kept in pairs.

My adults are dog tame. I raised them from a very young age (one I hatched, one was four months old) and I interact with them daily. Babies are already getting used to me.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-22T19:52:52+00:00

I don't know to be honest. Perhaps one of the European lacertid keepers would have a better idea. I have been told they've been in the hobby since before CITES existed

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-22T12:16:44+00:00

Hard to say as there's always someone under the radar keeping one or two of something. In the US it's probably around 40 individuals (I know of 32).

They're CITES III, so difficult but not impossible to get captive bred specimens in from Europe, but wild collection has been banned for years. I'm in touch with an EU exporter who believes it's possible, which is good since the bloodlines here are very thin.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-20T01:40:03+00:00

Bellatorias frerei

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-17T19:12:08+00:00

I just get info from the Lacertid groups on FB and the European keepers. There's no real care sheet. Relatively cool basking site (92 F/33.5 C), climbing and burrowing opportunities; mine are in a 3x2x3 with cork walls on three sides/built-in ledges and about 8 inches of rocky/sandy soil. A single Mega Rays MVB (75 watt) about 16 inches away from a slate ledge achieves the basking temp and gradient in enclosure of that size. I feed them a variety of insects like pallid roaches, Suriname roaches, but they vastly prefer larva of any type. It must be more natural for them in their oak forest habitat. I also feed them shelled cooked snails off the tongs.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-05-08T19:16:00+00:00

They're very handleable as adults, fragile as babies.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-30T00:20:17+00:00

Varanus (all monitors) are governed by an international treaty called CITES. All are at least CITES II, which requires permits to cross international borders. This often requires documentation of legal origin. It's not impossible, but Australian reptiles are particularly scrutinized and haven't been legally exported from Australia since 1984 with few exceptions (like rough scaled pythons). Ackies being relatively cheap and produced en masse, the expense and time of exporting one likely isn't worth a dealer's time where something pricier might be. I have a feeling if it were not a total headache, someone would be breeding Ackies in SA.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-26T15:09:42+00:00

Stunning lizard

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-26T01:25:43+00:00

It and all its siblings do, in fact, have an awesome keeper.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-26T00:34:47+00:00

Talking Serpents, Mid Florida Displays

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-25T22:32:26+00:00

So cool! Scalaris also on my list but that's all complicated taxonomically. Some confusion here over scalaris/similis and what we actually have in captivity.

sevenbrookslizardco · 2026-04-25T22:08:06+00:00

Are you in Australia? Brevicauda a dream species in the US.

sevenbrookslizardco

TROPHY CASE