[Important] What are you looking for in a pet lizard?

Being in with the Illuminati is a must.

Oh wait, you said pet lizard, not lizard people. Never mind.

I would get a blue tongued skink. They seem to hate people less than other lizards. The one I play with snuggles.

He needs to do his research. Whatever he wants he needs to know what temperature he has to maintain for them what living situation he needs. A larger lizard that may not be in a terrarium all the time may have special needs for how to maintain your home. I’m speaking temperature and humidity. Some are really not good to have in places where it gets really cold, think about the iguanas falling from the trees in florida. You have to remember that lizards are reptile and they’re not warm-blooded. They can’t Thermo regulate themselves like people or pet cats or dogs. We never had much in the way of lizards but my daughter had snakes Galore for 3 or 4 years before she left for college and frogs for 8 years of college and more. And you really do have to pay attention to the thermostat what it’s going to do your power bill and your heating bill and to your clothing bill just joking but you really don’t wear warm clothes around the house when you have it regulated to be warmer for them. I’m rambling I’m gone

How to keep a lizard warm (is my cat, not my lizard; if you look closely you will see the lizard’s tail come out on the other side of my cat)

What are you looking for in a pet lizard?

Whatever the lizard ate that I want back.

We don’t have a pet lizard, but we do have lizards, living in the South as we do. Every now and again a porch lizard (as opposed to a lot lizard found at certain truckstops) will find its way into the house, probably by sneaking under the door sill.

The wife, who is not a fan of anything in the reptile kingdom, hollers. Then it is up to moi to throw a butterfly net, which we keep for that purpose, over the poor thing. I then try to get a towel over that, while keeping the critter entrapped. Easier said than done.

It is my goal to pick them up and take them back outside to do whatever things lizards do. I try my best to do so without harming them.

And those suckers are fast, let me tell you. They will dart under something and it is well nigh impossible to get to them when they do.

One just has to back off and wait until they reappear on the rug and try again. If I can’t catch one, it will eventually die from lack of water, or maybe loneliness from being away from all its lizard pals. I don’t know which. We no longer have a cat, so no worries there.

Now these are small blue-green lizards and are harmless, unless, of course, you’re a bug.

I like my pet lizards wild and eating bugs outside, so not a pet in the traditional sense.

In my alternative pet-owning years, I have had anoles, boa constrictors, a plated lizard, a savannah monitor, a green iguana, and red-eared slider turtles.

The plated lizard was kind of cool, but was never really tame or handleable without extreme care because of trying to escape [primarily an insectivore, but did try to eat a small garter snake- unexpectedly.

Ditto, the monitor, but because he would bite- seriously. He was a carnivore, primarily of small rodents- although once when I put the garter snake referenced above in with him and the plated lizard, he won the tug-of-war that ended with him eating it [whole].

The boas were docile, mellow, and cool to varying degrees, but they got pretty large relatively quickly- requiring larger and larger rodents for food- and they weren’t really compatible with other [furry] pets d/t possible predation/aggression.

The green iguanas are frightened frantic little things when young- because they’re prey for so many other things.

As they grow they need larger and larger cages- to the point of becoming furniture

As he got bigger Iggy mellowed out and got pretty cool, although it was problematic when he decided SWMBO was mate-worthy.

He would be fine most of the time, but at some points of the year/month/her cycle?, he’d grab for and latch onto her [luckily he only got to her hair and clothing, never skin] and didn’t want to let go.

He was OK to let wander around our living room for short periods and tolerated being held- the Newfs and Wolfhound just avoided him and he them likewise.

It was though, a very difficult thing to get and feed him the right balance of fruits and veggies- it was tres importante though, because they can develop metabolic bone disease from calcium-oxalate imbalances.

We raised him from a very small juvie at maybe 10-12" long to a big boy at about 7-10 pounds, and upwards of 6 feet long over about 12 years.

But one day, he must have slipped and fallen from the branch at the top of his 7’ cage, because we came home to find him dead on the bottom [where he never went otherwise] of it.

We were very sad.

My experience otherwise [like @Steficake] is that almost all Geckos [Geckoes] bite- and especially Tokay Geckos.

I like larger docile, more intelligent lizards- like Argentine Tegus- which I learned a lot about in this video:

They can be a lot of work, and require a lot of space, but they’re awesome.

I recommend that ANY wanna-be owner watch a lot of Clint’s videos before making the leap.

I’m surprised no one else has mentioned bearded dragons. Our beardie has been a pretty good pet–doesn’t require as much space as an iguana, eats veggies, fruits, and superworms, and is pretty chill.

Just saw this in this week’s National Geographic Newsletter
10 lizards were smuggled into Cincinnati in a sock. Now there are tens of thousands.
Native to Europe, common wall lizards are growing bigger, faster, and more resilient in Ohio. Scientists say the city itself may be driving their evolution.