Top 5 Best Lizards For Beginners
Video Credits: Elle’s Reptiles
Lizards are always liked as a pet reptile for many pet owners. They also are the closest reptile next to dinosaurs. The impressive thing about them is that they never carry the innate fear snakes would often bring to people. They are indeed great as display animals. But it will as well depend on the species that could be handled regularly.
Below are the selections of the perfect lizard that you might want to consider.
Leopard Geckos
Originating from the desert, the Leopard Geckos love their dry and warm environment. They loved to hide in a place that is lovely and moist. That’s the time that they can retreat when it is about time for the skin to go shedding. Almost 3 leopard geckos can thrive in the same terrarium. However, only one leopard gecko should be male.
When you keep the leopard gecko, it will need to be in a well-ventilated terrarium. At least there must a screened lid in it. Begin with a 10-gallon tank. Now, if you will get 3 geckos, consider increasing the size of the tank.
What makes it the perfect lizard to breed is that its habitat can be kept toasty. Just provide a cool side and a warm side of the tank. And let it decide the space that it likes best. Place some heat light right on one side of the habitat. Measure the temperature using a thermometer at each end.
Aim to just maintain the terrarium between 85-degrees and 95-degrees. It should also fall to 10-degrees lower on the cool side. It also is essential to get a hygrometer that will keep the humidity in a 10-percent to 30-percent range. This is what the gecko would usually prefer.
Provide it with 12-hours of light that is visible in a day. Pick up a night bulb as well to know what it does under cover of darkness. You’ll then see what the reptile pals are up to. That also is without disorienting it with bright light during the night.
One more reason that makes it a perfect lizard to breed is that afterward, you enjoy seeing it playing hide and seek. Especially when you placed a branch, a rock, and a hiding place on one cool side of its habitat, the more you will enjoy having it as a pet.
Make use of branches and rocks that make the reptile friends indeed a desert playpen. Put some moistened moss in its hide house. This will readily help it shed off its skin. Mist the moist using a spray bottle. This will keep the humidity a lot higher in its hide house.
Lepidodactylus Lugubris
Such another perfect lizard to breed, the Lepidodactylus Lugubris, is also best kept in groups or pairs of breeding. Two females will also stimulate each other by way of pseudocopulation. That ultimately results in two-gravid geckos. The mourning gecko would reach sexual maturity at about eight to ten months. It also will lay clutches of two eggs every four to six weeks.
Just when you decide for Lepidodactylus Lugubris to be your pet lizard, the next thing to think about is the vivarium size. It will thrive in a small enclosure with 5-gallons. 10-gallons or larger than that are best suggested for multiple animals.
It’s up to you to keep it in naturalistic vivaria and house it along with bigger dart frogs. This specie kind is a natural escape artist. It is best to fully secure its enclosure to avoid them escaping.
What it does prefer is a temperature in the mid-70s and the low-80s. It can thrive at such temperature with a low-watt basking light for cooler climates.
Give it smaller foods for it to readily eat. It will also devour fruit flies and pinhead crickets. It can feed on a complete diet, but it must be dusted and gutloed with a mineral and vitamin supplement.
Breed it as you want as it can easily be done. It does not any help as the lone female can produce eggs but not as consistent as the groups or pairs. The eggs take about three months before they finally hatch at room temperature.
Cresteds
Love the idea of having Cresteds as the perfect lizard to breed. They are easy to handle and are docile. What’s more, they are simply coming in different numbers of patterns and colors. They also wear that perpetual smile you would like about them. They are now becoming the most popular pet.
With their well-developed senses, they can alert themselves when it comes to predators. Their senses helped them locate their food in the dark. They don’t have eyelids, but they feature such a protective and transparent membrane that covers each eye.
They would lick their eyes to maintain them moist and clean. Their ears also appear as huge openings on the side of the head, having no external projections.
Although they are considered low-maintenance pets, there are still things that need to be considered when buying one. Educate yourself more about them to best understand their food, behavior, and housing requirements. Provide them with enough care not only because they are a novelty and are cute.
Keep them in a separate area from other reptiles and geckos. Keep the cage simple to clean it up easily. Add some water and food bowls. Wash your hands between working with established geckos and quarantined geckos.
Proper housing is needed to make it feel comfortable and secure. But, ample room is also enough for it to move around. Add up some layers of a towel for the substrate having a cork bark and artificial greenery as its hiding areas.
Breeding groups of 3 to 4 females and 1 male can be housed in a screened enclosure. That would approximate be in 18-inches length and 18-inches width by 24-inches tallness.
Tokays
The Tokays are just so easy to breed. They sense the drop of the barometer having the rain as a good breeding trigger. As for the female Tokays, they would often lay 2 eggs just in one month after mating. That also in the case that a good vertical nesting site can be found around. They could hold the sperm if ever the conditions are deemed not acceptable.
Such the easiest gecko species to breed and keep in captivity, the specimen of Tokay Gecko, is offered for sale as a wild-collected animal. Avoid exposing to stressful situations that could only cause it to inhibit illnesses or infections. Know as well what to look for when choosing a tokay.
Look for a Tokay Gecko having a robust appearance. Look for the vent area while you make sure there are no smeared feces or caked feces present. Pick it up and examine the body of the lizard using your hand. Make sure that no depressions or abnormal bumps exist in its body. That would only indicate broken bones or some sort of infection. Grab it by placing your hand gently and directly behind the head of the gecko. That will help avoid you being bitten.
Expose it to a strict quarantine period of not less than thirty days. It is better if it is exposed to sixty days as much as possible. It is best if it will be introduced to fecal analysis and endoparasite by a qualified veterinarian. This is mandatory for newly-bought animals.
Feed it on a wide range of food items like moths, mealworms, and inoffensive insect. Boost its nutritional value by adding mineral and vitamin supplement once a month. That’s just how easy it can be having Tokays as the lizard to breed and to keep.
Bearded Dragon
Such widely cared and captive-bred of lizard, the Bearded Dragon is just so amazing. Its care requirements can be easily established, provided that the right information is followed.
Provide it a basking site of about 100-degrees Fahrenheit at the end of the enclosure. Give them as well an equal size of the enclosure and a minimum of 75-gallon. Add some UVB lighting in a full spectrum. They like it eating plant material and insects that are known to be picky feeders. They also are available in different color morphs. They also eat both meat and plants. Feed them 2 to 3 times a day, especially the young hatchling with small insects.
Keep them naturally healthy for 3 to 4 days. Let them visit the vet and follow some safety tips as they may carry diseases that are contagious to humans.
Anole
Boasting such a colorful pouch on its neck, Anole is indeed the perfect lizard for pet parents like you. Since you are a novice in this area, know that it can live for more than 5 years. It could as well grow up to eight inches long. It also likes the idea of chillaxing in a tropical habitat. It loves to eat worms and crickets that make it so much more fantastic.
Set up its home, but first, know that it can live in groups or even alone. The male alone can display its dominance while bobbing its head and flaring its dewlap. That also in the case that it encounters a male rival.
For its terrarium, add some moss, coconut fiber, and bark bedding. The moss added can raise its humidity when necessary. Clean the bedding for a possible spot once a week. Change the bedding once a month.
Create a hiding place right below the tank with wood, artificial rocks, and natural rocks. Provide some vertical branches and live plants for the anole to climb. Provide it too, with a humid and warm environment. Its terrarium should as well stay warmer on top and cooler down below. Keep its temperature on top at the range of 85 to 90 degrees.
Make use of a ceramic heat emitter or heat bulb. This will essentially keep the warm part of the tank at the right temperature. Monitor its habitat temperature by 2 thermometers- one down blow and one on top.
Maintain its humidity by keeping the water dish full. Mist your pet’s habitat two to three times a day. Make use of a mister, a drip system, and an automatic fogger. Use a moisture-retaining substrate like moss and coconut fiber.
Since the anole is a diurnal type of animal, it stays active during the day. Install a UVB/UVA bulb in the terrarium, mimicking sunlight for twelve hours.
Switch to a night bulb so that you could watch it at a minimum disturbance.
Now, you have learned the perfect lizard selections to breed. Just choose which one you like best and doe appeal much to you!
