Nubbie the Coast Horned Lizard

This is Nubbie. While she waits for a routine examination, she examines a ladybug that was in a nearby vial 😄 But Nubbie can't have ladybugs, because they're toxic, as are fireflies. I found it in some clover that I had picked and was going to release it. Hopefully wth warming temperatures, Nubbie will soon have plenty of harvester ants to keep her happy, which is their favorite food.

Nubbie came last year from southern CA. after having lost her right forelimb to a predator or some accident. She was apparently also found in a stream where she almost drowned. None of the zoos I contacted in the area were willing to take her, and weren't even working with her species, to my surprise. I had her shipped here at my expense, for about $100 so that I could try to save her. She lost most of her arm after the bone and soft tissue continued to die back to where there was still good blood supply, but I was able to save her life and prevent a life-threatening infection. She has trouble moving well, and trouble getting her food. She needs assistance, but she is still hanging in there, and she tries. She wants to live. She'd have never been able to survive in the wild though. She can no longer really run, and just limps along and can't turn to the left very well. I've kept most of the native species of Horned Lizards, including some of the hardest there are to keep alive, but I've never kept her species before. She's a Coast Horned Lizard, and they're very similar in size, stature, and structure to the Texas Horned Lizard, but she's colored much differently, and her disposition is completely different. She's very mild, whereas almost all Texas Horned Lizards are very skittish and constantly stressed out. I'm well known in this area of husbandry and rehabilitation of these lizards, which I have been involved in since about 2002. I've even written a care and rehab manual on them which many zoos have used for years as a resource. The only species I don't have experience with is the Pygmy Short-Horned Lizard of the Pacific NW. Although I do like the opportunity to get experience now with the 7th of the 8 commonly recognized species native to the US, bringing her here was the last resort. I would have preferred a zoo there would take her and put her in a breeding program as one of their producing females, but they weren't even working on their own native CA. species! They were breeding Texas HLs though, but closest they come to CA. in the wild is SE Arizona! It was nonsensical. However, if Nubbie must remain a special needs case in captivity, then she is in one of the best places in the world for sanctuary for that, given my decades of experience with this species, and the availability to provide her specialized diet of harvester ants, which are also very common here in this part of Texas.

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