Lizards are everywhere, but we barely see them drinking water, and that confuses us. We think they don’t need water to survive. Is there any biological defect that they cannot drink water, or is it that they don’t need water? What is the truth?
So can lizards drink water? Yes, a lizard can drinks water. They also need water to survive, so they have the capabilities to drink water. Lizards put the tongue inside the water, then pulls it out and then put it inside the body to assimilate the water. The requirement of water or fluid depends upon the size and species of the lizard.
How Lizards Drink Water?
A lizard approaches the water and then puts their tongue inside the water. Then it pulls the tongue outside of the water using it as a bucket and puts the tongue inside the body to drink the water.
They need to have a proper water source from where they can drink the water. The water source cannot be like streaming water where it is the water is moving too fast because that will wash the lizard away. A wrong step from the lizard and the water will wash away the lizard.
In the case of house lizard or home gecko, the best place to drink water is from a glass or from the bathroom from where they can get stable water that is not moving. They can put their tongue inside the water and can drink as much water as they want.
You won’t see them drinking water in that way because they will only come down when they feel that we are not watching them they only come down when they feel that we are not watching them because they consider us to be a threat and will not come close to us. They know humans can be dangerous.
They can also actually water that is stored in the bathroom, like in a mug or tub. You can see lizard trapped in a water tub. This happens because of two reasons. One is that the accidentally slipped and fell inside the tub. Another reason can be because they were trying to drink water from the tub, and it fell inside the tub and couldn’t get out from that place.
Lizards can try to lick drinking water which is stored in glass or somewhere. So if there is an infestation in your house, make sure to keep your food and drinking water covered.
Why Lizard Drinks Water Or Fluid?
Lizard drinks water to keeps it’s bodily functions active. Almost all living beings require water or some fluid to carry the substances within their body. Water also helps to regulate body temperature, and it also helps in excretion. So lizard needs water or fluids from some source.
Lizards get the fluid from drinking water or from eating its prey. Lizards absorb the fluids stored inside its prey, and that is enough for them to survive. A lizard can either get the fluid from drinking water or from eating its prey.
What Happens When A Lizard Doesn’t Drink Water Or Fluid?
Lizards can get fluids from insects, but if they don’t even get that their bodily functions will start to slow down. As their functions slow down they won’t be able to hunt and will starve, and if they don’t eat all other functions within the body will stop after some time, and the lizard will die.
They will have difficulties in digesting food, in moving around and every other process will get affected. Then eventually, a time will come when their body will dry out, and they will die.
Why Don’t We See Lizard Drinking Water?
We barely pay attention to what lizards do all day. We don’t know about their activities. We don’t know what they do other times when you’re not watching them.
We only notice them when they come outside for feeding. We think that the lizards always remains at the same spot. However, that is not the case; they change their position and does different kind of things, including drinking water.
Water may not be available all the time, so lizard sometimes has to find a water source when they are thirsty and then drink it from there. Usually, home lizard goes to from the bathroom and drinks stored water.
In the wild, every lizard needs to find a place from where they can drink water so whenever they feel thirsty, they can go over there and drink water from there. Lizards can also survive by drinking the fluid from their prey. This is really useful to them.
Is It True That Desert Lizard Don’t Drink Water?
Thorny Devil Lizard
Thorny devil lizard can absorb the water from wet sand using their skin. This is a fascinating technique used by Thorny devil lizard to survive. Since water is scarce in the desert, the Thorny devil lizard uses this tactic to store the water within their body. They use gravity to move this water around their body.
Do Lizards Feel Thirsty?
Like all other animals and like all other reptiles lizard also feel thirsty. They need fluid from some source to keep on living. The fluid can be from the insects or from the water. When they don’t get enough fluid or when their body is short on fluid, they feel thirsty. If they don’t get fluid for a long time, then they can eventually die.
So fluid or water is essential to for their body. Much like many other organisms, they also need fluids. The only difference is they can survive on insects or animal fluids, whereas animals need to drink water to survive.
Should You Give Water To Lizards?
It’s not mandatory, but you can give water to lizards. They will love your generosity, but they will be cautious. So after you provide water to them move away from that place, and the lizard will drink the water if it is thirsty and if it feels safe.
Once you build the trust, then the lizard won’t mind drinking water in front of you. The requirement of water depends upon the size of the lizard. So if the lizard is small, then it won’t need a glass of water, but if the lizard is big then it will need a bowl of water (For a big lizard it’s much more convenient to drink water from a bowl instead of glass)
Lizards can find water on their own if you don’t give them water, but if you provide them with water, then you can build a bond with the lizard.
Every time the lizard feels thirsty, it will come to you for water, and it won’t run away when you are close to the lizard. These behaviors show that the lizard trusts you. Although the lizard may not exactly remembers who you are, but the lizard can become comfortable around humans.
The trust can be built with any lizard. Still, you need to understand that every lizard has its temperament so you cannot force this relationship. It takes time to develop this kind of trust.
When the lizards repeatedly get water from you, it will understand that you are trustworthy and then they will get comfortable. It can take months to develop this trust, but it will happen.
Conclusion
Lizards can drink water, but some lizards can also absorb water from the skin. Lizards can even survive just by sucking the fluid from the insects or the animals.Lizards submerge their tongue inside the water and use their tongue as the bucket which brings the water back to their body.
Small lizards usually drink water from a little water body because going near the pond or rivers can be dangerous. They don’t require lots of water, so small sources are good for them however big lizards require much more water, and they drink from a pond, lake or from a place where there is substantial water.
Welcome to my blog. I have been doing pest control for years since my house, garden and pets were always attacked by various kinds of pests and as a result I had to know proper pest control techniques that works. In this blog I share all the tips and tricks that I know and I hope you’ll find it helpful.