# Lizard holding mouth open



## dakotapotts (Jul 21, 2013)

The other day I got a second curly tailed lizard for my terrarium. Today I went to set it up and decided to go with live plants for the first time and mixed up a substrate of organic potting soil, moss, small amounts of coco fiber, and wood chips mixed in at the bottom. 

A consequence of all of this is that her basking spot, a tiki hut like building is closer to the basking light than before. 

I noticed her hanging out on top of the basking spot with her mouth wide open. I had just introduced the two lizards so I was keeping an eye on them and thought it might be a sign of aggression, but they tolerate each other perfectly well and hang around with each other, so I'm sure it's not that. I thought maybe she was doing it to me as she did it the whole time I was trying to handle her to clean the cage earlier in the day (goodness knows curly tailed lizards hate being handled). I was also across the room not moving much, watching TV, so I assume she wasn't tracking me from that far away. 

I did notice that while she was doing it, it was a very open kind of gesture. I could see clear down her throat and she would hold her head up. I did some research and found that this could be gaping for thermoregulation, but I've had this lizard for over a year and a half and have never observed this behavior. I'm hoping that's all that it is. There's no sign of mucus or discharge and the whole mouth passage was very clear, so I can't imagine it's any kind of infection. 

I turned the light off and she wandered over under their smaller light (just a daylight blue bulb for some illumination). A couple hours later I turned it back on and she immediately jumped up under it again. Not long after that, I heard a clanging noise and she had jumped up and grabbed the screen, dangling upside down from it. 

I've added some pictures here. I know some lizards do this but I've never heard of it associated with curly tailed lizards. What do you guys think? 

Imgur
Imgur


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

I have no experience with this species, but 2 things come to mind...

Gaping...a way of cooling down, quite common behaviour among allot of lizard species, and not something to be concerned about as long as they have a good gradient


Dominance...ideally a communal/cohabited setup would provide an individual basking area for each animal, preferably with décor setup so that each animal can bask without being in the eye-line of the other lizards, and therefore not feeling the need to display or behave submissively (stressful)


Gaping is my guess at whats going on, but keep an eye for other possible dominance (and submissive) behaviours, which may lead to stress and ill health, and modify their setup to give them all peace of mind


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## dakotapotts (Jul 21, 2013)

I definitely will keep an eye out for anything that seems dominance related. There are several high basking rocks available but all are within the line of sight of the others. The two lizards lay on/with each other (something CTLs do a lot of) and I haven't seen them be in any way disagreeable with each other, so I'm hoping it is just gaping. 

What would be other dominance behaviors? I've been on the look out for head bobbing and things of that nature but haven't seen anything. They have been especially active since they were added together but I think it's just all the change.


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

lying on top of one another is a dominance behaviour in some lizards, but then again its also a communal behaviour in others

as long as they all eat well, that's probably a good sign things are reasonably harmonious, appetite is one of the most obvious things to change when dominance becomes problematic


hopefully someone who has kept this species will give you more useful and specific feedback and info, i'm just generalizing


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## Tongue Flicker (Oct 26, 2014)

CloudForest said:


> I have no experience with this species, but 2 things come to mind...
> 
> Gaping...a way of cooling down, quite common behaviour among allot of lizard species, and not something to be concerned about as long as they have a good gradient
> 
> ...


Agree with gaping ang dominance/territorial defensiveness..

Also interesting to note that to some other reptiles this may indicate R.I.


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## dakotapotts (Jul 21, 2013)

Thanks for your answers. 

The behavior has stopped so far. I have noticed that now that the basking spot is higher, they'll opt to only sit directly under the light for a few hours and then move t a lower edge of the platform. They've been hanging out together and I haven't noticed any conflicts so far. They go into a minor state of brumation around this time every year, so some days I've only seen one or the other, but when they're both out they get along. 

I think she was just mad from being handled so much (this species really does hate it) and was actually seeing me all the way across the room and giving me a warning. She gives me stink eye for a few days after I handle her but then forgives me when she remembers I give her food.


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## Tongue Flicker (Oct 26, 2014)

Well that's good to hear (read).. 
99% of reptiles in captive care dislike handling so that's understandable lol
Anyways, best of luck!


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