Lizard advice

[presspirate]

So my wife is in favor of "No more fuzzy pets." But has no problem with a lizard. I'd like to know the pro's and con's of the different lizard species. That you all are experienced with As well as specialized requirements and size ranges. What should I get?

[Grimleo]

Bearded dragons make an incredible lizard pet. Though there are so many cage requirements and issues going on about improper care with newbies I wouldn't call them a good newbie lizard. Other people say they do. x.x

Anyway, beardies make some of the sweetest, and funniest lizards. Even though it's a lot smaller, I would say that they have such dynamic personalities...Comparable to iguanas and monitors.

Beardeddragon.org is the best site you can go to get information on beardies. I am a member there if you need, and you can ask on here or there about any questions that have to do with lizards or beardies. xD

Cons of owning a beardie..UV lighting is being very troublesome. There are many brands and companies that make UV bulbs that give beardies so many different problems. Zoomeds reptiSUN is the best brand. UV lighting in itself is just a pain in the butt.
They eat A LOT. A(healthy) baby beardie, all the way until it becomes an adult, will eat as much as 80-100 appropriately sized crickets a day. When they become adults they hardly eat any meat, but love the veggies. If I let either of mine, they would eat over a hundred crickets a day. They look at me like "where's the rest?" when I put like 50 in with them.

Pros..Great personalities, loyalty grows as they grow, easy to take care of once you get the hang of it...uhmm there's much more. People on BD.org can help you out a lot more if I've sparked any interest

There's leopard geckos. They come out at night so you don't see them a lot, but they can be really sweet when they become tame. When they are small they can be jumpy but they never bite. Compared to Beardies they eat like nothing. For one leo you can offer a bowl full of meal worms every night and you're good. As long as you calci/vit dust them(beardies need dusted food, too).

There are crested geckos, too. They eat a specialized diet. It's kind of a 2 part water, 1 part powder that you mix into a little mushy shake. Put that into a bowl and that's all they need to eat(EVER). They need a bit higher humidity and much lower temps. Misting twice a day and putting a small UTH under the tank is perfect. If your room temp hits up at around 80 that's perfect for them so they don't need extra heating. These are by far the easiest to take care of in my experience. Pretty much no cons apart from daily misting, which isn't even really a problem.

I have a lot more lizards and info if you need it. Just ask

[infernalis]

what about roaches for feeders?? roaches are much bigger than crickets, I feed my leo roaches.

[Grimleo]

I have a tub full of roaches and I feed them to all but my beardies. I wouldn't have any left if I fed them to the beardies. x.x An easy 30-40 small roaches or 15-30 larger roaches per feeding for each beardie. Forgot to mention a baby beardie should be fed 2-3 times a day. Juvies are good with 2 times a day until they are adults. Adults can go with one feeding per day, with a salad dish sitting in the tank throughout the day.That's a lot of roaches to go through in a day. x.x *edit* usually only adult beardies should be fed adult roaches(blaptica dubia). Smaller beardies will eat something too big for them and it can cause pain or worse. x.x

A good healthy beardie WILL eat a LOT. No joking there. They also grow faster than any lizard I've kept. An inch, to two inches in length A WEEK, haha. >.>

[BlindOne]

Originally Posted by presspirate

So my wife is in favor of "No more fuzzy pets." But has no problem with a lizard. I'd like to know the pro's and con's of the different lizard species. That you all are experienced with As well as specialized requirements and size ranges. What should I get?

I love Savannah Monitors, they are personable, reasonably sized and are happy to be lap lizards. They are moderately sized at 3-4" and they are slow growers IME.

I've also kept Argentinean Tegus and they are rapid growing, highly intelligent and incredibly active. They grow to around 4" and you'll need a lot of space and time to keep a Tegu. Almost like having a dog.

Between the two, I prefer the Savannah

[Lankyrob]

We have a spiny tailed monitor - personality is amazing and he is very cute and loves coming out for cuddles.

[Nafun]

Tegus eat a lot. A sub adult tegu can nom through 8 ounces of food per day, each and every day. A mixture of ground meat (beef liver and turkey mixed with vitamins and cod liver oil) and whole prey (fish, rodents, and hard boiled eggs). Once they reach adult hood, they'll be on a more stable diet of three meals per week. They start out as insectivores, and wean themselves off of insects as they get older. They grow extremely fast (a hatchling can reach a couple of feet in its first year!). They'll also hibernate if you let them for up to 7 months out of the year. If you plan to let them hibernate, you have to feed them more often so that they get "fat" before the winter fast. They love to burrow, so they need thick substrate. They need a water dish large enough to submerge in, and a cage 6' x 3' minimum for an adult.

Water dragons eat insects (but not as voraciously as bearded dragons). They aren't terribly active. Mine spends most of the time sleeping in the 'sun'. They are semi-aquatic, and semi-arboreal so they need a ton of space relative to their size. They need a large water dish (big enough to swim in) and plenty of climbing branches. They also like to poo in their water, which necessitates changes every other day at a minimum. (No easy task if they've got a 10 or 20 gallon water dish.) Their diet is similar to tegu hatchlings, a mixture of live insects, ground meat, and rodents, with a smattering of fruit if they'll take it.

Iguanas get massive. A healthy adult iguana can be over 6 feet long. They love to climb and need an absolutely huge enclosure, with lots of head room. An iguana "room" is more appropriate than an iguana "cage". Iguanas take 7 years to reach adult size, and if they do not receive proper nutrition (a mixture of 45% greens 45% veggies 10% fruit, dusted with calcium, absolutely NO lettuce or animal protein. Just because he's begging for pizza doesn't mean you should give it to him) their growth will be stunted permanently and they'll never reach full size. Iguanas should NEVER be kept together. They are very territorial and even if they don't fight, the dominant Iguana will declare ownership of the best basking area, and won't let the subservient iguana eat until it is finished.

Those are the lizards I know about. If you decide you want a tegu, I can point you to a good breeder.

[presspirate]

Thanks for the input everyone. I was thinking Bearded dragon, but now I am curious about Savannah monitors. Off I go to do more research. oooh, or a spiny tailed. Savannah monitors sound like a handful.

[LISA127]

How about a blue tongued skink? I've had mine for almost 11 years and he has never had a health problem of any kind. He is very, very tame. BT's are also a good size. Not too large and not too small. Mine is about 2 feet but some are a little smaller. They are omnivorous lizards and so easy to feed. Mine eats nightcrawlers, superworms, scrambled eggs, boiled chicken or turkey, blueberries, grapes, thawed out frozen mixed veggies, etc. As you can see, live food is not a necessity. I think they are much easier to set up and care for than a lot of the other lizards also.

[Freebody]

umm yall forgot geckos! they make very cool pets , specially the crested or the leachianus geckos ike i have, leachies get about 12" long, very tame and got some really nice colours, they also eat very few crickets in their diet and rapashi foods makes a 2 part food you just add water too, no heat or lighting required as long as you house is around 70'd, and they walk on walls which i still find so cool to see them walk up a wall across the cieling and down the other wall like nothing. leos are also very cool but have claws instead of very fine hair on their feet so they cant walk up glass and stuff.

[Jenn_06]

if you really what a Savannah monitors find a good breeder most Sav's are from the wild. they are great pets i love my jojo.

some links
Savannah Monitors
The Savannah Monitor, Varanus exanthematicus