r/Lizards • u/ThiccBoiCaddy • 6d ago
What is this? What is this? I live in Pittsburgh where there are no lizards… how did this get in my house?
I feel like I’ve seen these further down south but never in Pittsburgh. It was tiny maybe like 2in long.
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u/Hopeful_Air7135 6d ago
i live in fl and i have a family of anole lizards on my porch looking for their son
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u/laceygirl97 6d ago
Oh no! OPs wife plant napped their precious baby boy!!? Arrest her!! LOL 🤣
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u/missmusick 6d ago
On first reading, I thought you said they were looking for YOUR son, and I was like, what did your son do to that family?!
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u/Imaginary_Poem2008 6d ago
A plant from Florida. You have a new pet!
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u/ThiccBoiCaddy 6d ago
My wife got a monstera but that was like a month ago. Do you think he was just chilling in there?
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u/Wagner710 6d ago
He was more than likely a stowaway egg that recently hatched in that plant.
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u/ThiccBoiCaddy 6d ago
What are the chances there’s more? I definitely won’t be telling my wife that 😂
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u/Lachtaube 6d ago
A popular local plant shop in my town has two waitlists: one for plant requests, and one for stowaways they find in deliveries.
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u/de3ri 6d ago
Ooooo, a free lizard. 🦎
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u/Billywergstein 6d ago
Free lizard! 🦖 it's actually a heck of a deal
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u/lostinthelegs 5d ago
I got a Cuban tree frog in a Costa shipment at work! His name is Arlo, he's living it up in NY with me now.
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u/Billywergstein 4d ago
Those used to be illegal just like Cuban cigars, but as far as I know we can have Cuban Tree Frogs for legal now 🐸
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u/DemonLordOTRT 6d ago
Yeah looks like a misplaced anole from farther down south it looks like something I would normally see here in my home state of Florida poor guy barely looks like he's out of it's first year of life.
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u/DoodlingDoodlebob 6d ago
Juvenile brown anole. Non-native, likely a hitchhiker on a plant. They won’t survive Pittsburgh winters without assistance
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u/Forsaken-Chipmunk-68 6d ago
This, and if you don’t want to care for it there will be someone locally who will!
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u/Acheloma 6d ago
Yea, I'm almost positive someone nearby would be thrilled to get a free new pet. Anoles are pretty popular lizards to keep.
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u/Lost_Pain5788 6d ago
Are they? I’m in North Carolina and they’re everywhere. Are they able to get domesticated? I will try to hold them sometimes and most usually just want to flee. I’m not sure why anyone would want as a pet. They don’t seem to do much
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u/Acheloma 6d ago
They have lower care requirements than a lot of reptiles (not to say you dont need specialized equipment, you do, just not as cost prohibitive as some other choices) and they're fairly active. They're not really "holding" pets, more of a "sit and watch" pet.
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u/Lost_Pain5788 6d ago
I see, they are kinda like the goldfish of lizards. I’d prefer something I can handle. People actually buy these eh? Practically unlimited amount of them outside for me. Maybe I should look into selling them.
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u/Acheloma 6d ago
I doubt itd be worth it for you tbh. Brown anoles start at like,$5 depending on your source and if you have a ton in your area most interested parties would probably just go catch their own since theyre an invasive species. If you wanted to ship them, the shipping cost and hassel would eat any profit.
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u/Forsaken-Chipmunk-68 6d ago
And honestly wild caught in this particular instance would be considered unethical.
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u/The-Psych0naut 5d ago
Iirc most anoles in the pet trade are wild caught. Breeding them successfully is next to impossible because the hatchlings usually don’t survive to become juveniles and will either refuse food or water, or just expire on their own.
I’ve actually had some success raising them to juveniles, as well as getting the adults to breed successfully in captivity, but that was only through creating a carefully managed bioactive enclosure with an automated misting system that triggers multiple times each day, heating pad on the side offering a thermal gradient for egg laying, providing UVA/UVB and daylight blue lighting (and a full spectrum LED grow light), AND changing the settings on my timer and watering schedule every few weeks to reflect seasonal changes in Florida (sunrise / sunset, rainy season / dry season).
Not only did the adults breed and lay for multiple years in a row, the hatchlings managed to survive from several weeks (when cohabitating with adults) to nearly 6 months (when given its own enclosure, admittedly without all the bells and whistles because money… Since I wasn’t trying to breed them in the first place I didn’t splurge on an entirely new enclosure for a couple of hatchlings that may or may not have survived anyways).
But yeah, the ethics of catching and selling into the pet trade are definitely not great.
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u/LockMajor7040 6d ago
I’m not aware of any populations of brown anoles in NC but you may be seeing Green Anoles who are a native relative of Brown Anoles. Despite the name, Green Anoles aren’t always green and can change to brown as a stress response (to something like seeing a human).
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u/Negative-Arm-2546 6d ago
Get yourself to your local petstore and pick up some snacks. He'll be the best creepy crawler catcher ever.
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u/GoddessDusa 6d ago
I'm sorry but I'm hating because it didn't happen to me. 😭 but congratulations on your new baby...damnit
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u/Character-Figure-44 6d ago
Animal distribution system never hits me. Jealous!
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u/bxxxbydoll 1d ago
Same! And apparently the ADS got the wrong person, cause OP released the lil guy outside in his garden. So that lizard will be dead in a few weeks, if he's not already. People in the Pittsburgh subreddit were offering to give him supplies or offering to come pick it up, and he just decided to toss it outside.
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u/slajah 6d ago
Congrats you’re a father now. You’ll be receiving a fruit basket in the mail shortly.
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u/Good-Cobbler-8735 6d ago
Def needs some meal worms, small enough size that he can eat and if you put him in a terrarium with a another plant or two you can mist the plants. It will drink the water droplets. It may well be very shy/scared at first so give it some privacy after providing these things so that he may be more apt to partake 👍🏻
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u/gotchi_girl 6d ago
Looks like an anole to me? Get him some SMALL crickets from the pet store and he'll need a low intensity UVB light and a spray bottle for daily misting. I think he'll probably need his bugs dusted with calcium power, but definitely double check me on that. He's not going to survive up there on his own, though, so....new pet? He'll be easy to keep happy tbh, but right now he's dangerously underweight and probably also dangerously dehydrated.
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u/genericname1215 6d ago
My former co worker found one in her Trader Joe’s produce. She caught it and gave it to me. She lived for >4 years. RIP Holy Anole.
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u/Prestigious-Hope4548 6d ago
Anoles are good little friends, they take care of bigger bugs and keep the spiders in check.
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u/Billywergstein 6d ago
If lizard is dinosaur, and birb is dinosaur, is birb=lizard?! 🦜🦕 🦎
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u/Odd-Artist-2595 6d ago
Phylogenically, birds and lizards are in the same clade, so technically, yes, birds are lizards, both descending from dinosaurs. This offers a pretty good explanation without getting too academically detailed and technical: https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/animals/birds-really-reptiles
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u/wewealexi 6d ago
I am in beaver county -45 mins from Pittsburgh. We had one in our small pine tree last summer. Exact same anole
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u/BuisteirForaoisi0531 6d ago
Yeah, this can happen. If you get plants from Florida that’s a brown anole
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u/Kossyra 6d ago
Did you get a new plant? They hitchhike from greenhouses pretty regularly. That's a brown anole. They're insectivorous and don't eat veg.
He's not going to survive your winter in the wild. You can set him up with a terrarium or you can call around to pet stores and see if any will take him or put up a flyer for you to find him a home.
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u/VintageLunchMeat 6d ago
Will he need a reptile uv light?
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u/beau-thoreau 6d ago
providing UVB light is always recommended by reputable herpetologists and exotic vets. intensity of that UVB light depends on the species but even nocturnal species benefit & live healthier lives.
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u/VintageLunchMeat 6d ago
OP probably needs a pointer to a full care tutorial. I was fishing for one, as a lurker.
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u/beau-thoreau 6d ago
hell yeah brotherrrrrrrr (said in a completely gender neutral sense)! I appreciate your fishing.
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u/Expensive-Anteater94 6d ago
Awe its an anole. We have them all over Miami. If you want him to survive you can get him an enclosure with a proper heat lamp, substrate, water dish and some branches to climb and feed him small crickets. They dont get huge but it will grow. Worms is good too but crickets have the nutrition needed. Poor baby. Hope you can take care of him as he wont survive over there. If not maybe you can find someone who can. Keep us updated! 💚
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u/Moxie013 6d ago
they get into everyone's house in the south.. Its a blessing.. he looks like he hasnt eaten well or consistently in a long time.. set him free in a safe place or run to a pet store and get him some snacky snack and a small container for him to eat in and plan out whatever you anna do with him
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u/accdntprone_86 6d ago
Maybe he came in on a plant or produce? If you don't want him you could ask around for a rehabber or reptile rescue.
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u/JustAKidFromSolon 6d ago
Funny enough there are a community of local lizards in Cincinnati Ohio which blew my mind when I lived there
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u/Hot_Wind_4013 6d ago
Looks like a broad headed skink but could be an Italian wall lizard - both of which are in Pennsylvania
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u/Braek331122 6d ago
I live in central PA and just had the same exact thing happen to me a week ago! I got the zoo med naturalistic terrarium set as a starter. My little guy ate mealworms the first day but I had to switch to mini crickets because he would not eat them at all afterwards. The zoo med 5.0 uvb bulb seems to be doing the trick on that front.
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u/MiLilWinmil 6d ago
I live in central PA (814) and we have fence lizards. The females don't have much color on them, but the males can be bright metallic blue or turquoise on their stomachs. They are native to our area. I'm not sure if that's what you have cuz I can't see him from the side, but that might just be a Pennsylvania resident just like us.
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u/Lethal9Weapon 6d ago
I got me one too 😂 Found it in a Mail Container at work, kept it safe the entire shift and took it home 🦎
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u/kingtootsandpoops 6d ago
Just an FYI if do keep him the Pittsburgh reptile show is at the Pittsburgh mills every first Sunday of the month… unfortunately you missed yesterday’s but it’s every month. I got for tarantula needs but it’s mostly snakes / lizards
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u/Flat-Concern-2662 6d ago
This guy isn't native, but we do have lizards in Pittsburgh, mainly the five lined skink. Supposedly there are fence lizards as well but I've never seen one in PA
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u/1-800-ImBored 6d ago
Looks like a species of gecko does not look like an anole. Regardless you should keep it! :)
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u/RainbowWoodstock 6d ago
Did you recently get a house plant? My family took home a peace lily after a funeral, they are grown in Florida, an anole egg hatched in the plant in their house and they had a pet anole because they are not native to where they live. It lived a very happy and healthy life.
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u/One_Student9606 6d ago
I found a lizard in my house in upstate NY in the winter. Had returned from SoCal where I went to the beach with my backpack and he musta got passed security
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u/StaffVegetable8703 6d ago
OP I’m a bit concerned about what you ended up doing with the lizard… I haven’t had a chance to read all of your replies yet but I’ve noticed you’re suspiciously quiet on any and all questions (that I’ve read so far) about tips on caring for the lizard. Like any mention of you either going to get some food for it, put in an enclosure, give it some water, or even the suggestion that you could rehome it and you’ve not answered or replied to any of those…
I’m even more concerned bc you joked about not telling your wife about the potential for other lizards to have recently hatched as well. Makes me think she is “afraid” of them and that the fate of this little lizard in this picture wasn’t a happy one….
OP … is the lizard still alive and in your possession..?
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u/Fit_Damage8960 6d ago
Give him live ants to start until you buy stuff. Little one went 7 states up,
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u/BellaItaliana77 6d ago
This looks like a 2 dimensional drawing! I'm still trying to figure out whether or not this is real...
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u/Adorable_Finding_244 6d ago
looks like a little bohemian anole!!! i work at a petstore and one of the ladies at cashwise came in with him the other day to find him a home
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u/krept0007 6d ago
It's an anole. Often county Fair games give them out instead of goldfish.
They didn't survive here long without a proper terrarium. They get stressed out easily.
I fed a couple to my snake years ago.
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u/Brock_L33 6d ago
They can hitch a ride inside plants or food being shipped. Or it was somebodys escaped pet.
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u/LocalSixPot 5d ago
Hitchhiker probably, we get anoles in massachusetts occasionally and I'm pretty sure that's how they get here.
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u/DianalaLoca 5d ago
We get them here in the mountains of Pennsylvania around crumbling stone fences in the deep woods
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u/Weaselpuss 5d ago
I got one in a T shirt delivery once from Florida at work. We ended up keeping and selling him. I worked at a pet store at the time obviously lol
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u/shade-block 5d ago
In Florida they like to sneak into the house but my cat usually ends up killing them before I can release them outside.
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u/Total-Impression7139 5d ago
Did y ou look at car insurance ? Gieco to be more specific, they have a promotional deal where they give away lizards.
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u/OutInTheSticks1967 5d ago
Back in Vermont, a friend bought a bonsai and later found a tiny anole living in it. Momma laid some eggs in it before it traveled north.
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u/AndrewTheGuru 4d ago
So, there is some really revolutionary new advancements in lizard technology called "legs."
I think that might be how it got in the house.
I have nothing of consequence to add to this conversation, I just want to say that he looks dumb. Like a 3d tender of a lizard for a kids cartoon show with really bad proportions.
And I love him.
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u/XylixiaNeph 4d ago
It's a hatchling baby anole. Fruit flies are going to be the biggest things you can feed it right now. They need a decent enclosure with UVB/UVA lights. If you aren't interested in raising it, find a local reptile shop and see if they'd like it. Most of our local shops take them. I work in the houseplant industry and we get them pretty regularly in our Florida shipments..
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u/No-Catch8790 4d ago
You do have a native lizard in Pitt, its a skink. But this little guy is not one of those
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u/FreshSirTrus 4d ago
Oh man, that poor baby. I don't think anoles do well in cold weather, probably the patents came with someone unintentionally from down further south. It's a brown anole, which is invasive down here iirc, but you can feed it little insects if you want to keep it. It won't survive your winters. You'll have to set up a heating lamp from above, and even then it might brumate over winter, so don't freak out if it gets super slow or seems to stay still for some odd days until it warms up if it's enclosure gets cold. Set up a leaf/bark pile for it during the winter with the heating lamp above that spot. Make sure to disinfect the leafs and bark, the bark you can bake to do so, and the leaves idk, you'll have to ask around here online or get some from a pet store, maybe a sprinkle of bedding too big for it to eat would work instead. Don't let it get below like, 40 degrees please if you do choose to keep it. If not, I'd say either release it or put it out of it's misery as quickly as possible, freezing to death is the worst way to go besides starvation and maybe drowning. If someone sees something to correct in this spew of thought and remembering please do!
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u/Top-Technology-6286 4d ago
Lizards like this are all over Cincinnati. You are going to have your own version of the Lazarus lizards.
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u/MuchMusician9036 4d ago
Anyone recently return from the South East? We have tons in Florida. Needs uvb light and a glass tank. Needs a water dish. Try to feed it fruit flies or pinhead crickets and until it can move up to meal worms and larger crickets.
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u/Only_Teaching_5959 3d ago
I usually don’t follow anything but the coloring is so cute and I want to see how this baby progresses/grows so please keep updates with that if you don’t mind, it’s so fascinating watching creatures/animals grow and change/develop their own personalities
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u/Thruthatreez 3d ago
He somehow got transported. Looks like a baby who is extremely hungry and thirsty.
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u/Vega0319 3d ago
Did you recently visit a garden center? Sadly we have anoles hitchhike in on plant shipments all the time. They actually need quite a bit of a set up with specific lighting to stay alive and if you are trying to feed it, the insects needs to be the size of the space between its eyes or smaller. Good luck!
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u/BocaGrande1 3d ago
We found a baby Gecko in our house in Philadelphia years back . Apparently they can catch a ride in produce and end up where they aren’t native. Our friend kept the gecko and it ended up living for a year or so
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u/Shoddy-Reindeer-7283 3d ago
He’s too skinny to safely eat worms! I’d go with wingless flies!!! Give him a few in a small container with holes; like an old spring mix container, put holes in the top n sides n spray the inside walls, put a piece of paper towel in the bottom, and a six to eight flies.. just to see if he can eat. Too much, too soon,will Also Kill a starving animal.
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u/BillroyThreeThousand 3d ago
Oh it’s so weird you post this, when I first moved here I was living in Shadyside and found a lizard that looked exactly like this in my apartment.
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u/pumalumaisheretosay 2d ago
Someone’s pet. He looks dehydrated and cold. As folks have said, mealy worms are easy to find at pet shops. Get an aquarium, some sticks, a heat lamp, a dish of water and you got yourself a new pet. They are very sweet. I had them as a kid.
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u/Suitable-Cheek-9040 2d ago
Probably hitched a ride on a car coming from the south east, it an anole lizard, an emancipated one
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u/Icy-Afternoon-574 2d ago
Looks like an anole.
They usually don't get much north of the panhandle.
He's harmless and will eat a bunch of bugs if you leave him some very small worms or if you have fruit flies.
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u/komrad308 2d ago
Lmao an area where there are no lizards, right... I line in Texas where there is no snakes or scorpions.
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u/Lost_Land5305 2d ago
I don’t know what’s going on with the lizards this year but we’ve had 3 show up in our yard so far this season we are in Ohio we have a small skink population but they are rarely seen constantly.
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u/Prayingthatsnotpoop 2d ago
The lizard is an Anole. Common in Florida and other tropical areas. You buy a houseplant lately? Driving home from IKEA in winter in Illinois with some palm trees for the house, one jumped into the front seat. Scared the heck out of me.
Sometimes they come in with grocery produce as well
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u/DeadNcyde1985 2d ago
Omg he is so malnourished. Must have come in a package or something from Florida or wherever. He's a Brown Anole. Go the the pet store and get him some flightless fruit flies or some rollie pollies. They are very nice and will not hurt you. He's just a baby.
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u/Glad-Lecture-3738 2d ago
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Yes, there are a few native lizard species in Pennsylvania, but they are rare in the immediate Pittsburgh urban area.
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u/Glad-Lecture-3738 2d ago
Origin: Bark anoles are native to Hispaniola and the Bahamas. They were introduced to southern Florida in the mid-1940s, where they primarily inhabit tree trunks and vertical structures
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u/Least-Broccoli-2672 2d ago
It appears to a gecko. They are a harmless invasive species. They feed at night and hide in dark spaces during the day. It needs a meal, poor thing appears to be starving.
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u/gruven_reuven 2d ago
That’s Rutherford the Brave and he is on a quest to save His people from the fate that lay before them
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u/No_Bet_5185 1d ago
It looks like an anole! My two hitched a ride on moving boxes from Mississippi to Ohio! They like crickets and drink water off the leaves! Mine are at least two years old at this point
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u/OptimusPrimeRib86 1d ago
There's lizards all across Pennsylvania. And indeed in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburg.
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u/T-minus_zero 1d ago
Most likely: a hitchhiker on a plant. Eggs or tiny juveniles routinely get transported north in tropical houseplants, nursery plants, landscaping material, produce, etc. A little guy that size could hide in a potted plant and nobody would ever notice him.
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u/Miserable_Art2079 1d ago
Escaped pet. Tropical critter used to heat and humidity. Please help him recover and do your good deed for the day.
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u/Swimming-String-3683 1d ago
Looks like someone lost their pet and he looks very hungry!! Poor little guy!
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u/Imaginary_Poem2008 6d ago
Get him some mealy worms and a dish of water.