I had a thought....

[Rocky2022]

We know that's not a good thing.

Why aren't reptiles afraid of skulls? I see the decor but think they may be freaked? Why don't they feel that it was a friend or it could be them.

Ruby would probably lie as if he did it and see it as a badge of honor but I'm just wondering.

 

[xp29]

We know that's not a good thing.

Why aren't reptiles afraid of skulls? I see the decor but think they may be freaked? Why don't they feel that it was a friend or it could be them.

Ruby would probably lie as if he did it and see it as a badge of honor but I'm just wondering.

I've thought the same thing, I never buy those.

 

[LarryTheLizard]

We know that's not a good thing.

Why aren't reptiles afraid of skulls? I see the decor but think they may be freaked? Why don't they feel that it was a friend or it could be them.

Ruby would probably lie as if he did it and see it as a badge of honor but I'm just wondering.

Interesting

 

[AHBD]

C'mon guys, they don't know what they are. Anyway these are creatures that would , if hungry , see their own baby lizards as food.

 

[ChileanTaco]

We know that's not a good thing.

Why aren't reptiles afraid of skulls? I see the decor but think they may be freaked? Why don't they feel that it was a friend or it could be them.

Ruby would probably lie as if he did it and see it as a badge of honor but I'm just wondering.

I think it's because it does not look like a predator.
What should a skull do, really? It's dead. No body that's moving around, no eyes that follow you, no sound...
I think it's more us humans being (more or less) afraid of skulls as we know we can die, and skulls remind us of that. And we've learned to associate them with "scary" as in scary movies, Halloween, pranks where something seems to suddenly jump at us...
(Btw.: It's IMHO always quite interesting to try to look at culture from outside. Why that white "ghost" thing made from bed linen should be scary? Because we have learned it should be. Why somebody appears competent and all grown-up with that narrow piece of fabric hanging down from their neck? Because we have learned that's a tie and should symbolize "being competent" )

Buying those or not:
I would have no problem with putting one in my dragon's enclosure, but I just don't do so as I prefer a more naturalistic setup. But I'd bet he would use it as a functional piece if it works for that (for climbing, or if it's large enough as a hut to curl up inside), or ignore if just too small.

 

[Rocky2022]

C'mon guys, they don't know what they are. Anyway these are creatures that would , if hungry , see their own baby lizards as food.

So true. Sad but true.

 

[LarryTheLizard]

I think it's because it does not look like a predator.
What should a skull do, really? It's dead. No body that's moving around, no eyes that follow you, no sound...
I think it's more us humans being (more or less) afraid of skulls as we know we can die, and skulls remind us of that. And we've learned to associate them with "scary" as in scary movies, Halloween, pranks where something seem to suddenly jump at us...
(Btw.: It's IMHO always quite interesting to try to look at culture from outside. Why that white "ghost" thing made from bed linen should be scary? Because we have learned it should be. Why somebody appears competent and all grown-up with that narrow piece of fabric hanging down from their neck? Because we have learned that's a tie and should symbolize "being competent" )

Buying those or not:
I would have no problem with putting one in my dragon's enclosure, but I just don't do so as I prefer a more naturalistic setup. But I'd bet he would use it as a functional piece if it works for that (for climbing, or if it's large enough as a hut to curl up inside), or ignore if just too small.

I used to be afraid of skulls as a kid, they still kinda freak me out. My uncle hunts deer and he has tons of deer bones and skulls in his house so I dreaded going there when I was around 10 or 11. I have no idea why, i knew they wouldn’t hurt me but I still was freaked out. I wasn’t old enough to comprehend it yet but that helps me understand why I was so scared. Totally off topic but I was afraid of Santa Claus too, the moving statues at stores? Yeah i hated those, my brother took videos of me screaming when they tried to get me to take a picture with it. lol they wanted to capture my emotional trauma

 

[xp29]

I used to be afraid of skulls as a kid, they still kinda freak me out. My uncle hunts deer and he has tons of deer bones and skulls in his house so I dreaded going there when I was around 10 or 11. I have no idea why, i knew they wouldn’t hurt me but I still was freaked out. I wasn’t old enough to comprehend it yet but that helps me understand why I was so scared. Totally off topic but I was afraid of Santa Claus too, the moving statues at stores? Yeah i hated those, my brother took videos of me screaming when they tried to get me to take a picture with it. lol they wanted to capture my emotional trauma

There was a KFC back home that had a life sized Colonel Sanders. It was seated on a bench with one of its legs up and crossed across it's knee. The paint was pearlized. Even as an adult that thing freaked me out. An employee told me it made kids cry all the time.

 

[AHBD]

Just remember, most people are terrified of cockroaches, various worms and other bugs our brave beardies eat them right up !!

 

[ChileanTaco]

Just remember, most people are terrified of cockroaches, various worms and other bugs our brave beardies eat them right up !!

... and in some countries they are considered a delicacy to be found in a nice dining restaurant or from your snack food vendor prepared like country fair food on a stick, and things many of us likely eat gross out people.
A lot of fear and disgust are a cultural thing based on what we have learned to associate, for those many cases where it's not something that's absolutely dangerous.

(Just this week, when visiting my parents, I showed them photos of my hissing cockroaches. They find them disgusting, despite they know I was always a "bug person" and as a kid, teenager I always had some critters with more than 4 legs, and they know the hissing cockroaches are properly kept and are clean.)

And really, despite I have no problems with bugs, I find it quite brave to catch a wiggly superworm that bites on one end with your (soft) tongue - when being of the size of a beardie.
Indeed, superworms were those insects for which my Taco hesitated the longest and always grabs them the most carefully.

 

[xp29]

... and in some countries they are considered a delicacy to be found in a nice dining restaurant or from your snack food vendor prepared like country fair food on a stick, and things many of us likely eat gross out people.
A lot of fear and disgust are a cultural thing based on what we have learned to associate, for those many cases where it's not something that's absolutely dangerous.

(Just this week, when visiting my parents, I showed them photos of my hissing cockroaches. They find them disgusting, despite they know I was always a "bug person" and as a kid, teenager I always had some critters with more than 4 legs, and they know the hissing cockroaches are properly kept and are clean.)

And really, despite I have no problems with bugs, I find it quite brave to catch a wiggly superworm that bites on one end with your (soft) tongue - when being of the size of a beardie.
Indeed, superworms were those insects for which my Taco hesitated the longest and always grabs them the most carefully.

I wish he would teach my guys caution. They grab everything in sight, including my figures occasionally lol

 

[xp29]

Just remember, most people are terrified of cockroaches, various worms and other bugs our brave beardies eat them right up !!

My girlfriend managed apartments communities for over 30 years. She very nearly murdered me the first time I brought dubia roaches home

 

[ChileanTaco]

My girlfriend managed apartments communities for over 30 years. She very nearly murdered me the first time I brought dubia roaches home

My husband had never anything to do with managing apartments or renting out, but also he was very afraid.
(We once lived in a place where we had a problem with cockroaches, mice and slugs (!). Not our fault, we cleaned like crazy to keep it at bay - the problem were a lot of gaps and holes and they came in.)

 

[xp29]

My husband had never anything to do with managing apartments or renting out, but also he was very afraid.
(We once lived in a place where we had a problem with cockroaches, mice and slugs (!). Not our fault, we cleaned like crazy to keep it at bay - the problem were a lot of gaps and holes and they came in.)

She's not afraid of them, but in apartment communities cock roaches are a none stop problem/fight so bringing any kind of roach into our house was a very dangerous proposition for me lol.
Dubias won't survive here if they escape, and they wont breed without help. Because of that she eventually calmed down. She still don't like them, but at least I can sleep at night with both eyes closed now lol.

 

[ChileanTaco]

@xp29
This might have been a misunderstanding what I meant with "afraid":
He was not afraid of the dubias themselves but that they might lead to an infestation and then time-intensive cleaning, pest control... would follow. (Likely the same for your girlfriend who knew what is going on with "roaches".)

Same as, me absolutely not being afraid of insects themselves, I was afraid of... expensive stuff that follows after I saw cockroaches entering our former apartment. Or when I found mice running around in the same apartment - not afraid of mice at all (as a pet, in the garden, in the forest), but afraid of having to throw away stuff (food they got into - just can't lock away everything into mice-proof boxes, so expensive), them gnawing on wires (I once wanted to unplug a device and had almost touched live wire - insulation was gnawed away at the side facing away from me so hard to spot!), what if they might get into important things such as documents or my (work) laptop... Things to replace that are really a "pain in the ass" if money is tight when it's not like "oh, I might have wanted new boots anyway" but rather "oh no, these were meant to last a few winters more!"

That kind of "afraid" like "oh no please not..." and not the "afraid" like "screeeeeeeeam and running out of the room".

Dubias won't survive here if they escape, and they wont breed without help. Because of that she eventually calmed down.

Same for my husband. I was knowing they can't reproduce here if escaping, and thus he's more fine with them now. Same with hissing cockroaches.

She still don't like them, but at least I can sleep at night with both eyes closed now lol.

Same for him. He doesn't like them, but he knows that there won't be an infestation.