OK, I’ve known about Scott since the day he/she arrived in his/her forever home. There was a Facebook post and I couldn’t resist asking! It’s been a few weeks and I circled back to hear how Scott is doing. NOTE: This is a first for Savvy Pets! A lizard! In fact, a Leopard Lizard!!!
We are the Suvalle Family (Rick, Jen, Arden and Alex) and both of our daughters are T1D warriors. This year, for Arden’s 15th birthday, she got a Leopard Gecko as a pet, who she named Scott (after Michael Scott from The Office.) Unlike some reptiles, Leopard Geckos love to be held and don’t grow too big. They are also crepuscular, which means they are most active at dusk and dawn, but Scott is happy to play any time. He also loves to eat live crickets and live melee worms. Watching him hunt from them around his terrarium is one of our favorite family pastimes. Leopard Geckos are pretty low maintenance and live for up to 30 years! So Arden will be taking him to college in a few years. 🙂 Scott is a true member of our family. Along with our French Bulldog, Bacon, who can get a little jealous of Scott sometimes.
I have one sister and she also has T1D!
Neither me or my sister are currently on DIY loop, but we both used to be. Now we both have the T:Slim X2. I was diagnosed first, when I was 8, and my sister Alex was diagnosed when she was 5 or 6. She’s about 3 and a half years younger than me.
As for this years craziness, I’d like to think I’m coping generally well! I am in remote learning, which seems to be treating me great. I definitely enjoy being able to go to the kitchen and make lunch rather than wait in the cafeteria line just for 20 minutes just to get a bad slice of pizza.
Blogger @ GenZ Education
https://www.genzeducation.org/post/when-life-takes-its-place
About Scott:
Is he a blunt nosed Leopard lizard or a long nosed Leopard lizard? I’m pretty sure that she’s a blunt nosed Leopard Gecko.
Are you his favorite? I’m definitely Scott’s favorite, she never wants to leave me!
Is he/she a girl or boy? And how do you know? While we’re not too sure right now, think she’s a girl. She’s very small which could indicate that she’s female.
Does he respond to commands or touch? She does respond to touch! Sometimes she will wave her tail at me when i touch her hand.
Does he comfort you when you are diabetes-frustrated? She’s very comforting, it’s always good to look over at her cute face when my blood sugar is especially high.
Do you have an
y special pix or even just a photo of Bacon? I understand that there are no pictures of them together. Yes! I’ve attached some pictures of him below.
Not pictures with Bacon as Bacon may try to eat Scott. 
Bacon is named Bacon because “everyone loves Bacon.”
GOT QUESTIONS????? Here’s a little bit about Leopard Lizards:
Leopard geckos (also known as Leos) go crazy for a succulent mixture of worms and “gut-loaded” crickets — that is, live crickets that have been fed the vitamins geckos need. Adult Leos only need to eat four to five times a week, which makes them a relatively low-maintenance lizard.
Due to their docile, placid nature, Leopard Geckos really are a pet for all members of the family. They’re happy to be held by children of all ages and will slowly walk across gentle hands. They’re not aggressive by nature but like all animals should be treated with respect.
In other words, most leopard geckos will not eat scrambled or boiled eggs. Rather stick to live insect feeders such as roaches, mealworms, and crickets because leopard geckos normally eat food that moves.
leopard geckos cannot but swim but float on water. You should avoid letting them swim due to the high drowning risk.
Yes, leopard geckos are born with a smile. … That gives the geckos the illusion of a permanently fixed smile on their face. But if you thought they smile like humans when happy, that is not the case. Their smile is more to do with a physical feature than emotional state.
Lizards help humans by eating pesky insects that make our lives more difficult, like flies and crickets. Not only that, a lizard in the house is said to be a sign of good luck.
It’s thought to have spectacularly good eyesight, able to see color in the dark.
Do leopard geckos get attached to their owners? No, but they do start to recognize you’re scent the more you’re around them. This is why owners who have owned their leopard gecko for a very long time have gotten attacked when wearing a new cologne or fragrance, for example.
I guess I’m not done talking about lizards!!! But it’s not my fault! This article popped up in The New York Times JUST TODAY!!! Note: the research focuses on the southern alligator lizard … probably different than the leopard lizard. Like people in Mumbai, India are different that people in Boston, Massachusetts, right? I just had to share!!! Warning: I usually just give a few highlights from an article, letting you follow up later by linking directly to the article. But I just didn’t know where to stop on this piece. There’s more than I include, if you are still curious!
Hold Me, Squeeze Me, Bite My Head was reported by Cara Giaimo for TheNewYorkTimes.com, 29 September 2020. Two recent research efforts looked into the southern alligator lizard, which has one of nature’s more extreme mating strategies.
Last year, Katie Goldin was walking in her Los Angeles neighborhood when she saw, in the middle of the sidewalk, two lizards interlocked. The male, flecked like a pebble and about a foot long, had his jaws fully around the slightly smaller female’s head. “He was tenderly clasping her neck in his mouth,” said Ms. Goldin, host of a podcast called “Creature Feature.” “She seemed like she was in a trance.”
Even in a world absolutely full of bizarre reproductive strategies, southern alligator lizards are up there. The pair Ms. Goldin spotted were engaged in what’s known as “mate-holding,” a part of the copulatory process in which a male grips a female’s head in his mouth for hours or even days at a time.
It’s not clear why the lizards do this. But recently, two research projects have looked into the animals’ ecology and anatomy to better understand where, when and how this strange behavior happens. By approaching the same subject from these very different vantage points, scientists can inform each other’s research, and get a clearer picture of what’s really going on. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Since 2015, the museum has put out a yearly call for photos and videos of alligator lizards getting it on, which it collects through emails, social media and the platform iNaturalist.
Unlike more subtle natural processes, this is the kind of attention-grabber an ordinary civilian might stop to gawk at. “It’s a biological spectacle,” Dr. Greg Pauly, the museum’s herpetology curator.
Over the past five years, the museum has collected nearly 500 observations of mating southern alligator lizards, and another 88 of their similarly freaky cousins, the northern alligator lizard. This year, he said, city dwellers seem especially happy to play the part of lizard paparazzi during pandemic lockdown: “We saw a big uptick in submissions” from urban areas, he said.
The data set has yielded some surprises. About 7 percent of observed couplings are actually threesomes, with two males biting one female — or, in some cases, a male biting another male who is biting a female, in a kind of reptilian love sandwich. Cross-referencing the observations with weather data suggests that mating season lasts about a week and corresponds with temperature, and that mating activity increases in wet years.
The jury is still out on why the lizards mate in this manner, exposing themselves to predators, cars, the elements and prurient citizen scientists. The male might be guarding his partner, trying to make sure another doesn’t come along to take his place — although this theory is complicated by all the group sex. Or the female might be assessing the male’s strength. More long-term observations will help tease out “what in the world is going on,” Dr. Pauly said.
A. Kristopher Lappin, a biologist at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is also befuddled by the mating behavior of the alligator lizard. But to him, a different mystery sticks out. In his own observations — as well as those he has perused on iNaturalist — he has noticed that “the male is holding with some degree of force,” he said. “You can see the female’s head is sort of squashed.”
Ordinary vertebrate muscles can’t exert significant force over such a long period. Imagine squeezing a stress ball all day without ever releasing, he said: “It’s not possible.”
For a paper published last week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Dr. Lappin and colleagues took a closer look at the southern alligator lizard jaw. The reptile’s strange mating behavior, they found, is underpinned by a special kind of muscle fiber, one rarely seen in the animal kingdom.
Read more: Hold Me, Squeeze Me, Bite My Head
Darn talk about bitten by love. I cant say I would be over the moon for a gecko, but I love that people love any animal. I say bless the Suvalle Family , Leo and the dog who is pictured.
I so honor and respect their family, with 2 T1D daughters! And you gotta admit, Scott is cute … and the dog is Bacon, ’cause nobody doesn’t love bacon!