HC wrote:
G'day all

At various times I've had baby Water Dragons in the garden that borders
the pergola attached to the back of the house......they are so ugly, but
oh so cute!!! Each time when a baby appears I get it used to me coming
and going, then introduce tiny pieces of meat to supplement his/her
diet, but also to get them a little quieter. Unfortunately, thanks to a
neighbour's cat, they don't get past being 6 rows of bricks in
length.....I measure them by this method as they climb the brick wall.
Of course, the last one disappeared about a month ago, much to my
disgust, then had those tiny 'acid' ants invading the ensuite and main
bathroom, because the baby dragon usually sits on the windowsill in the
ensuite and I didn't realise how many ants he/she was eating. Anyway
last week ago I had no alternative but to spray the ants because they
started invading the lounge room too.....but.....while spraying I found
a tiny (about 100mm, or 4 inch) dragon and yes, he/she had been sprayed.
Naturally I rushed inside and got the ironing spray bottle of water and
doused the poor little thing, but he/she survived so I didn't feel quite
so bad.

Now today from the kitchen window I could see a dragon on the ensuite
windowsill as well as something else??? but what??? so I sneaked
outside (because this little guy is still VERY shy) and I soon found out
what he was up to. I can now say HE because you guessed it.....he was
'otherwise engaged' with a smaller, darker (brown) water dragon. In my
haste to get the camera I disturbed them....maybe it was a shock that a
human saw what they were doing....anyway I missed the photo opportunity,
but it started me thinking that at what age do these little darlings
start to reproduce??? I would have thought they should have been
older.....or is that what I used to tell my kids many years ago??? LOL

A quick search didn't give any answers, so I'm hoping that someone can
enlighten me (to their reproductive age), I know about the other, LOL
;-)) I'll watch them again tomorrow morning as the sun hits the
windowsill and keep the camera closeby in the hope I can 'catch them in
the act' again!!

In the meantime I need to work on the b*****y cat, trouble is that it
only comes into my yard when I have dragons or lizards feeding. Think
I'll have to take to wearing hob-nail boots, but it can run faster than
I can kick.....any other suggestions?

HC ;-)

The CSIRO has a *wonderful* site which involves identifying all sorts of
insects, animals, plants and stuff. Google it (I'm sorry, I haven't got
my bookmarks handy) and see if the Reptiles page at CSIRO can help you.

HTH

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, Australia