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The Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological Society

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Captive Bred Leopard Lizards
(Gambelia wislizenii)

by Scott Patterson

I slipped the noose around his neck, and -- VOILA -- we had caught our first baby leopard lizard! To my surprise, the young leopard lizard didn't try to bite. We put him in our carry cage and drove further down the road. The temperature was 87°F [30.6°C] and on the rise. We spotted six more baby leopard lizards, all facing the sun, all easily approached and noosed. There were five males and one female. Jay kept a male and we released the rest. We also spotted an adult leopard lizard and an adult desert horned lizard, two hatchling desert horned lizards, and two young Coachwhip snakes. All were captured, studied and released.

I named the young leopard lizard I had caught "Gilbert", and he became tame quickly. He was 7" [17.8 cm] long and a brown-gray color. He had tan stripes across his back with red and black spots from his neck to the base of his long, slender tail. I guessed he was close to a month old. I got him home and put him in a 40 gallon terrarium, and I put a full spectrum Reptisun Bulb at the bottom of the tank to give him ultra violet light. I put a spotlight on one side of the cage and aimed it at a couple small rocks on the side of the cage. On the cooler side I placed a hide box for him to sleep in.

On Gilbert's first full day in his cage, he ate two crickets and a grasshopper (all dusted with Repcal Vitamin D3 and Calcium). And as with all young desert lizards, I took him out for sunshine in my mesh sunning fixture, two times a week for two hours. Unlike baby collared lizards, which are curious and adventuresome, Gilbert seemed content to sit on my hand and watch the world go by. Gilbert thrived in October, November and December, even taking down pinkie mice during the last month. He had grown to 9" [22.9cm] long and his red spots were fading.

At the end of December, I decided to hibernate him; I remembered that my previous leopard lizards had all hibernated well. His first week of hibernation-prep, I gave Gibert water and heat, but no food. The second week Gilbert got water, but no heat or food. This emptied out his stomach and he was ready for hibernation. I had cooled my basement to 50° to 55°F [10° to 12.7°C], and placed Gilbert and his cage down there for three months, checking on him periodically.

In early April, Gilbert emerged from hibernation. He spent four days at room temperature and then the heat was turned on and he was given food and water. Through 1996, Gilbert enjoyed sunshine, a diet of pinkie mice, crickets, zophoba worms and grasshoppers. He was given water twice a week and he grew to 10½" [26.7 cm]. He lost his reddish spots by May and his coloration went from yellowish-brown to an adult silver-gray.

In August of 1996, I went back to the same area of the Mojave desert, this time with my good friends, Steve Cook and Randy Cordero. We got our California fishing licenses and drove down the same road that afternoon. At about 5:00 PM we spotted a large female leopard lizard sunning herself near a hole on the right bench off the road. I grabbed my camcorder and took a few minutes footage; she did not seem concerned with me. Randy grabbed his fishing pole and noosed her. She was a beautiful 15" [38 cm] long female leopard lizard. We named her "Lady". Randy got her home and she thrived on a diet of pinkie mice, grasshoppers, crickets, and jumbo mealworms. Our hope was that Gilbert would breed with her next spring.

Gilbert hibernated in early 1997, and we brought him out in March. By April, Gilbert was 11" [28 cm] long and on April 12 Gilbert was introduced to "Lady". She was in her full orange breeding color with stripes from her face to the base and underside of tail. The second she was placed into Gilbert's cage, he jumped on her and they twirled over and over and Lady shook Gilbert off, hissing and arching her back. It was almost comical watching Gilbert dwarfed by Lady, yet undaunted trying to mate with her. Gilbert would approach slowly and gently, seemingly aware of the danger presented by the much larger female. The next few days, Gilbert was cautious, yet persistent. They copulated several times, usually for about 60 seconds, longer than collared lizards, but not as long as chuckwallas.

Lady's appetite was ravenous; she would eat pinkies and up to 15 insects a day, each dusted with Repcal. Before long, Lady was showing bulges on her side, eggs were forming and she was eating heartily and drinking more often., Her hide box was filled with moist vermiculite. On May 7, she stopped eating and I knew the time was near; I made a special effort to keep her hide box vermiculite moist.

On the morning of May 10, I went down to the basement and checked Lady's egg box and there were five eggs inside. I was surprised that Lady had not buried them, but they were fresh and not indented. One of the eggs had been sliced by a toenail, but the other four were good. I placed them in a Tupperware container with a 1¼ to 1 ratio of vermiculite to water, then placed the container in a baggy and into the incubator.

The incubator was set to vary from 82° to 86°F [27.8° to 30°C]. I opened the baggy twice a day to give the eggs fresh air and to mist the baggy. On the 14th day, one of the eggs deflated and went bad; the other three looked fine. Meanwhile, Gilbert had mated with Lady again, and her appetite was once again insatiable, eating practically anything that fell in the cage. She seemed to have had enough of Gilbert, each time he moved, she was up on her haunches with her back arched. In this defensive posture, she hissed and bobbed her head up and down slowly and repeatedly. Gilbert heeded the warnings. It was 23 days after her 1st clutch that Lady laid her second clutch of eggs. This time there were six eggs in the egg box. We made the same preparations as we had for the first clutch and put these eggs in a container in the incubator.

Once again, after the eggs were laid, Lady drank two syringes of water and an hour later was on the prowl for food. The eggs from the first clutch were getting larger; they were at 27 days and looked a beautiful chalky white. It was the fourth day for the second clutch and three of the six eggs turned a beige-yellow color, however they were increasing in size, just like the white eggs.

On day 37, I noticed the first clutch eggs were losing their white coloration, and on day 38 our first captive bred leopard lizard emerged from its egg, and on day 39 its two siblings hatched. I was caught off guard, my collared lizards usually hatched in 50-60 days, consequently I figured I had two more weeks to get cages prepared. That morning I got a 40 gallon terrarium and filled it with sand, a couple rocks and a hide box. I then placed a Reptisun bulb inside the cage and a spotlight aimed at one side of the enclosure.

The first hatchling bit me and then got comfortable on my warm hand; the other two, while uncertain, didn't bite. All three were 5¾" [14.6 cm] long and healthy. The third hatchling had an extra left foot, so we called her "Footie". The extra foot didn't seem to hamper her running, for she had never known anything different; so she got around just fine.

The babies were a brownish-gray with light tan horizontal lines and a series of red dots that extended from the base of the neck to the base of the tail. Their colors (like their parents) lightened with warmer temperatures and darkened as it cooled off. They lost their umbilical cords by the second day and were eating medium sized crickets and grasshoppers by day three. All insects were dusted with Repcal. It was interesting to watch the baby lizards stalk their insect prey. They would approach slowly with their bodies flattened close to the ground and then suddenly spring at their prey. They drank from a syringe two times a week. While they didn't show hostility toward one another, there was a lot of slow vertical head bobbing toward each other. They also, while stationary, moved their head side to side, perhaps to help them judge distance better. I had hatched several different species of desert lizards before and the babies all had healthy appetites, but these baby leopard lizards were voracious. Much of the time these lizards looked as if they were going to bust. As with all baby desert lizards the need for sunlight is paramount. So, my wife or I put the lizards in mesh "sunning" cages for an hour or two each day. They thrived, and by their third week they were devouring large crickets and Zophoba "Giant" mealworms. Still at six weeks, the head bobbing between the siblings was going on. It seemed to serve as a warning to the other siblings. At six weeks, the smallest, "Footie" was 9" [22.9 cm] long, the other two were 9¾" [24.8 cm]; just about doubling their hatchling size.

All six eggs of the second clutch second clutch hatched between day 40 and day 43. The three eggs with the yellowish hue, hatched first, then the white eggs lost their white coloration and hatched after. All six were healthy, and yes, the first hatchling bit me, and the other five did not. All six were between 5 and 6" [12.7 - 15.2 cm] long and looked much like the babies from the first clutch, except for two hatchlings that had less spotting. They displayed the same head bobbing characteristics, and insatiable appetites of their older brothers and sisters.

One of the hatchlings jumped out of my hand and began to explore the lizard room. Since all the other lizards were caged, I let her walk around the room. Lady (her mother) dashed toward her, only to be stopped by the glass wall on the cage. This event reassured me, that given the chance, leopard lizards are cannibalistic. I picked up the hatchling and put her back.

In July, Lady laid a third clutch, this time there were three eggs, however, I didn't get to these in time, and they shriveled up. In August, the second group of babies were thriving and I gave them to Steve and Randy. I kept the first group, two females and a male. The largest female was clearly the queen of the cage. She was the largest and the strongest. At the age of three months, in September, she was 12" [30.5 cm] long with a snout to vent length of 3¾" [9.53 cm]. Her brother and sister were 11" [27.9 cm] long with a snout to vent length of 3¼" [9.26 cm]. It is easily apparent at this age to tell the females from the male in the cage, not just by the enlarged postanal scales of the male, but the females' head is much larger and the body more powerfully built.

It is now early October and the lizards' appetites have subsided and they are drinking more water. Their biological clocks are telling them to hibernate. They would hibernate today, if I let them, but my other lizards aren't ready, so they will have to endure, until December.

I have found captive bred leopard lizards are just as easy to keep as any other captive bred desert lizard. By meeting the basic needs of these lizards -- natural sunlight (when possible) ultra violet light, heat, a spacious cage, natural food, vitamins and water, they will thrive and make excellent captives.