This summer had some big changes to our lizard family including the addition of a new species! On a cricket run to our new pet store at the end of August we saw Bahamut walking around his tank looking so pretty and small. I'd been considering adding a small new addition to our family for weeks at that point, so the timing felt serendipitous.
We asked about the required care for "racer runner" lizards as they'd labeled him and they went in back to find an answer. A guy came out and told us they need the same care as anoles. We bought our crickets and headed to pick up our pizza. I told D I was 60% serious about bringing him home.
I started Googling and found a collection of scientific data on racerunners. They didn't seem much like anoles. I grew concerned about the care he was receiving and might receive from a future owner. I told D I was 85% sure I wanted to adopt him.
As we ate I continued my research, found nothing that didn't quote that article, no forums about raising racerunners, no Facebook groups about keeping them. I converted Celcius to Farenheit. I was 98% sure.
I started setting up a tank. I used my temperature gun to prove that I could create a hot (>100°F) basking area while still providing cooler places to hide and dig. An area of mid-high humidity, and a dry zone because the article didn't specifically mention humidity levels. I told D I was 100% sure and we left for the pet store with a carrying case coated in a thin layer of leaves and substrate.
They opened the tank and lifted the log he was sleeping under and we saw Tiamat sleeping with him. Uh oh. "Do you want to buy that one, too?" D looked at me as if to say the choice is mine. No, I only have one tank prepared and I think the article mentioned territorial behaviors.
"The blue one" didn't put up too much of a struggle as the clerk transferred him to our carrier and attached a sticky note with the price to the lid. The cashier called him to ask what species she was selling us and gave Bahamut the same confused look we saw on every other worker's face in relation to this unusual pet store livestock. The paperwork said we had two weeks to return him if he died. I sure hoped he was healthy and that I'd prepared the proper conditions in his tank.
He was remarkably calm the entire ride home. He settled into a spot in the dirt and stayed alert but seemingly relaxed about everything moving around him. I tried to keep him in the sun as much as possible as we bumped along the roads. He checked out the corners once or twice, but mostly laid down and watched.
The transition to his tank was much easier than I hoped as he let me gently pick him up and carry him in. His two weeks passed and he remained very friendly, calm, and even started gaining some needed muscle and fat. It seemed that I'd built him a proper tank.
I, on the other hand, was not at ease. I'd left his sister/friend/mate? behind to wallow in the care of the pet store, or worse to possibly die in the care of a misinformed customer looking for a small, cheap lizard for their kid. I'd struggled with my decision ever since discovering her existence. The problem is that I know taking care of four or even five lizards is easy when everyone is healthy, but when someone gets sick, even managing four becomes a lot to handle. Was it safe/fair to the other lizards for me to bring her into our house and again split the individual attention I get to spend on each? Was it wise for me to take on the extra burden? Did I have the proper supplies needed to set up an additional tank? Could I stand the potential guilt of believing I could have given her a better home than someone else?
Three weeks in and Bahamut was still nameless. I asked my sister if she had any suggestions. She asked for a guideline and got to work shooting suggestions my way. The fourth name she sent was Tiamat immediately followed by Bahamut. I looked up the lore surrounding the names and my decision was finally clear. I had perfect duo names for a perfect duo.
As I gathered supplies for a second tank we were surprised to see a brand new Sunray lamp sitting-in-wait, forgotten on top of our lizard shelves. This tank already has a heat rock and a quite hot heat pad in place buried under a bit of substrate and tiles. I added loads of wet coconut coir to give her something softer to bury herself in and moved the cork tunnel from hanging to sitting on the ground. I stuck an aquarium thermometer on the cool side of the tank to see what the ambient temperature is with all heat sources on and it settled around 82-84°F, perfect. The next morning before work we headed back to the pet store. On our other cricket runs to the pet store in the past three weeks we'd noticed the tank was still labeled and set up for her despite never seeing her active. It was possible that she wasn't in there anymore. Maybe they'd sold her since Saturday? As we walked in I told D if she was still there waiting for us it was meant to be.
I was so anxious walking to the back of the store where the reptiles and fish are kept. I forced myself to keep my hopes dampened when I saw the tank was unchanged with a fresh calcium cricket walking the perimeter. It was still possible she was gone. We waited for a family with children to get their bag filled with fish before the clerk asked us if we needed help. "Do you still have the other racerunner for sale?" Yes. Whew, what a sigh of relief. He went in back to put on gloves and opened the tank. I offered to pick her up since I now had a little experience handling them and I was afraid this nervous young man might squeeze her fragile body too tightly. She wasn't cooperative, but after a few tries she was in the same carrying case we'd brought Bahamut home in.
I told both the clerk and the cashier that I didn't feel racerunners should be sold as pets as they make terrible pets. They sleep for all but a few hours each day. They go dormant for six months of the year. They need far more space than most herp keepers are willing or even able to give to such small lizards. They need very high temperatures when they are awake. They are very small, fragile, and highly energetic making handling very tricky.
I hope the pet store understood what I said because all my tanks are full; I can't take in anymore racerunners they might get. Hopefully since nobody at the store seemed to even know what a "racer runner" is this pair are just a fluke and Cal Zoo won't supply any more.
It's weird not having any clue where these babies are from, roughly how old they might be, exactly which racerunner species they are (I think six-lined, but I'm not positive), were they wild caught or captive bred, how long were they in captivity before arriving at the store, how long were they forced to live together?
Tiamat was very cold from being in the store so her first explorations of her new home were slow. She finally discovered the perfect basking spots and, after literally bouncing off her walls for hours, found her place to sleep below the heat rock.
I reintroduced the two on her second day to see if they missed each other and actually enjoyed being near one another. The article was proven correct as Tiamat extracted herself from the open play tent and down the hall giving us our first chase together.
The next day I let her explore the tent all day alone, stretch her legs, and feel direct sunlight warm her skin. That night I learned that racerunners sleep like they are dead. No really, dead, super dead, or dying, definitely not ok, but actually completely ok just super sleepy and dgaf if they get eaten in their sleep apparently. We thought we'd set a record for shortest-lived lizard (excluding our hospice friends): half a week. We were quite surprised to see her bouncing off her walls again the next morning and now know that when you pick up a sleeping racerunner there is a chance it will run like lightning from you until it passes back out and can't easily be reawoken even by rolling their stiff little body from hand to hand. You might get a lazy tongue flick, or a half-opened eye, but that's it.
Did I mention that racerunners make terrible pets?
She has since given me two more near heart attacks as she needed to explore the shoulder-height shelf her tank is on before trying and once succeeding (last night) to dive off of it. Dad wonders how I'm so good at catching lizards mid-air: too much practice. And the time she didn't dive off the shelf I tried electrocuting myself by spilling 14oz of water onto the floor in the center of all the power cords. Thankfully I have most of them off the floor, and my recliner caught the water that might have headed toward my computer's power strip.
So yeah, racerunner lizards are loads of fun, keep me on my toes, and RACERUNNERS SHOULD NOT BE PETS!
Tiamat didn't wake up today after her diving adventure last night. That's nothing to worry about, but it is almost time for them to start brumation or hibernation or whatever it's technically called for a lizard to sleep away half of the year so it doesn't get eaten before procreating. So I'll need to keep a close eye on them and their habits and make sure they poop out everything they eat before sleeping for months because otherwise the food will rot in their gut and kill them.
RACERUNNER LIZARDS SHOULD STAY IN THE WILD!
Every other day they get to play in the 6.5x 6.5ft mosquito net tent where they have room to safely play and the chance to bask in direct sunlight. They still spend most of their time trying to escape and explore further. They are used to living on 800m squared, not 4. I let them chase their crickets and track them down if they hide. Racerunners are unique from fence lizards, anoles, and alligator lizards because they will continue to hunt their food even after they've lost track of it. They can also sniff out their water source. I love them with all my heart and I want the same things for them as I want for all my babies, human and not: to be healthy, happy, and safe. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get to know another unique lizard species, but I really hope pet stores and suppliers understand that racerunner lizards are not good pets. I'm giving them the very best life I can, but I know this is a species, like savannah monitors, whose natural environment and lifestyle we can't simulate well enough to justify raising them as pets.
One more time for those in the back: RACERUNNER LIZARDS ≠ PETS!
