Today was spent helping a grad student. Michelle is in charge of the lizards that I have been studying and she needed to do some tests herself. I volunteered to help and figured I could learn some tips, since she has been working with them for a couple of years. And indeed I did.
I learned that the easiest way to get these little escape artists out of corners and off of walls
Pin...
...and capture.
On feeding days, it’s less likely that one (or more) of them will make a run for it if you put the food in first and then take the nest box out to check for eggs. Then they’re too busy fighting over mealworms/crickets/waxworms to even notice that the top of the tank is open. Unfortunately, they are only fed four days a week and the nest boxes must be checked daily, so that will only help me half the time.
With the exception of the catching technique, these little tricks would appear to common sense, but I hadn’t even thought about them. Just goes to show again that common sense isn’t really that common.