How do you know if your lizard, or your snake, or your tortoise is stressed?

Muhammed Mahdi Karim photo is here

When animals are under stress, the nervous system responds by releasing adrenaline and other hormones to prepare the body for action. The adrenal glands flood the body with hormones like adrenalin (epinephrine) to prepare the animal for action. Similar hormones are produced in the brain.

For a long time it was thought that cold-blooded animals were “primitive” and therefore did not suffer from stress as much as “higher” animals.Yet reptiles respond in a very similar way to warm-blooded mammals, though their adrenal glands and their hormones are slightly different.

If the snake or lizard or tortoise has to run away, or hide, or do something in response to a threat, then these hormones help them to do it. For instance some lizards shed their tail when chased by predators. But if there is no action available, the hormones just flood the system to no avail. The animal has no relief from emotions like fear. Reptiles in bad conditions of captivity that cannot escape, for instance, will experience the emotion of frustration in countless escape attempts.

This means that they suffer.

And if the stress is chronic, this affects the animal’s welfare. Chronically stressed reptiles (and humans) have a lowered immune system. They are more likely to get various diseases and disorders.

One problem in measuring tis in reptiles is that their response will vary according to their temperature. They cannot produce their own body heat, so when a reptile is cold, its body functions slow down. So the stress hormone levels in a cold reptile will be different from the stress hormone levels in a warm one.

What can we look for? We can look for harmful repetitive behaviours, like the way lizards or tortoises repeatedly push at transparent barriers. We can look for lack of appetite, aggression, and even a change in skin colour in some lizards.  We need to know how a normal reptile behaves, before we can tell how a stressed one behaves.

What can we look for? Diseases and disorders due to stress may involve inability to reproduce, susceptibility to infections, emaciation from lack of appetite or its opposite, obesity.

What can we look for? We can measure the stress hormones or other chemicals in the blood, but taking blood samples, for instance, will cause even more stress. Or we can measure them in the faeces – a better way as it doesn’t hurt the animal.

But….. we don’t still know enough about what is normal for a corn snake, say, or a crocodile, or a boa constrictor, or a Hermann’s tortoise, or a bearded lizard. Each species may differ in the way it responds to stress. We have a lot of research to do.

Read

Silvestre, A. M. (2014) ‘How to Assess Stress in Reptiles, Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine, 23, 240-243.

How to kill your dragon - slowly and painfully.

This is a very sick bearded dragon,  brought into Evolution Reptiles in Kidlington.  It was probably in pain every single time it moved. It was desperately thin and its skin was a dull grey colour. It barely moved when handled. Bought off a Facebook page and it had been kept for three years without heating or UV light.
'It was very underweight," says Pete Milligan the owner Evolution Reptiles. "The spine was protuding and if you touched it it felt sharp. Each rib could be clearly felt. It was also lifeless when picked up."
He advised the owners to take it to a vet, sold a UV light to them, and discussed the lizard's welfare. Buying a lizard online (like buying a cat or a dog) is always dicey. They may come cheaper but the remedial vets bills will probably end up making these pets more expensive.
Other signs that the lizard was ill - its tail was flat not rounded: it had swollen joins on its feet: its elbows looked as if there were two elbows. Because it hadn't died quickly from lack of heat and UV light, its owner probably thought that it was OK to keep it that way. But the poor animal had survived in pain all that time.
"This all completely avoidable," says Pete. "People are still mistakenly thinking that reptiles don't need UV light. There are vivariums still being sold in which you cannot install UV lighting. And these are often sold with printed labels that give the wrong advice. It's time manufacturers got up to speed."

A healthy beardie with bright colours thanks to UV light

"The worst set up I see is tortoises that are kept without UV light. They are given Vitamin D supplement and people think this is good enough, but it is no substitute for ultra violet light."
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Looking through a glass darkly - can your lizard, tortoise or snake?

This snake has hiding places but the reflections might worry a chameleon.

Recognising ourselves in a mirror is something we take for granted. Or recognising that a glass door is a solid barrier (though drunk humans have been known to crash through glass doors!) Just because we can do this, we shouldn't assume other creatures can. Much suffering can be caused to reptiles kept in all-glass cages. Aquariums with four transparent walls are often sold as the right enclosure for reptiles.
But are they? Many lizards don't recognise that glass is a barrier and will make repeated attempts to push through it until they have injured noses. Green basilisks have a habit of just running into the glass full tilt. If you already have a four-sided aquarium  for your lizard, you must stick an opaque paper barrier on the outside of the glass in three sides. If your lizard is pushing at the glass in the front, think about doing the same for the bottom half of the glass there too.
The other problem with bog-standard aquariums is that they need a lot of extra equipment - escape-proof tops, UV lighting, arrangements for temperature gradients, etc. etc.  And they may be difficult to clean. So it is always better to buy a proper vivarium from a good reptile shop with all this built in, rather than just stick your reptile into cheap aquarium.
Chameleons have a different problem with glass. They can see their own reflection and think it is a rival. This is common with many species, even dogs and cats but these pets will generally learn to ignore reflections. Chameleons don't learn. Having a threatening rival within their enclosure is a constant worry to them. Moreover glass aquariums don't give them enough fresh air.
Tortoises feel much the same about transparent barriers. They will push like tanks against a transparent barrier whether it is glass or garden netting. If they can see a way through they will take it - somehow. They will also dig underneath it or round it. And a determined tortoise is very persistent indeed. So it is vital that any barrier is opaque, not see-through.

For snakes, a four sided glass enclosure is stressful for another reason. Snakes need hiding places - one in a hot area and a second one in a cool area. If they don't have them, they get very stressed. And chronic stress may mean they don't eat, or they get a respiratory disease.

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Why is your snake fainting?

A Youtube video of the death feint https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pm6hsIDXVc

The snake you are handling or are about to handle, suddenly goes limp and faints. It looks completely dead but it isn't. This is what Darwin called "the death feint." Or playing dead - though this is far from being a game for the snake.
The modern scientific term for it is "tonic immobility." Many animals including other reptiles and rabbits faint like this.
If an animal faces intense danger then an automatic reaction kicks in. There is a huge surge of adrenaline (epinephrine) and a reaction with what is commonly known as the five "Fs" - flee, fight, freeze, faint or fool about (ie do something odd which distracts the predator). Faced with being handled, a captive snake hasn't got the option to flee or to fight a large human. So fainting is one of the options left to it.
This death feigning reaction sometimes looks like a relaxed animal and ignorant rabbit owners think the rabbit is enjoying it.  Far from it. Rabbit owners are beginning to recognise this, as should snake owners. If your snake goes limp it is in utter terror.
Fainting is a last resort for an animal faced with a dangerous predator. With luck the predator will think the snake is dead and for a moment shift it's attention elsewhere. Then the snake has a chance to escape. This may work, for instance, with predators like the domestic cat.  If you watch a cat "playing" with a living mouse, when the mouse goes immobile the cat stops play for a little while. A cat's predatory drive is turned on by movement so sometimes the cat will poke the mouse to make it move so the play can continue. Cats that catch snakes often do a similar kind of playing around.
Patrick Gregory of Kent University tested the response of grass snakes to being captured. Snakes that were held by the tail rarely fainted when first grasped. Those held by the head were more likely to feign death. The larger the snake the more likely it was to remain immobile after being released. Perhaps because bigger snakes have less to fear about remaining still. The snakes that didn't faint would usually slither away as soon at they were released.
* More info at  Gregory, P. T., (2008),  'Bluffing and waiting: Handling Effects and Post-Release Immobility in a Death-Feigning Snake (Natrix natrix)', Ethology, 114, 768-774.

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