Liann & all reptile owners - questions

purple_magada

Cathlete
My 7-year old son has really developed an interest for reptiles. He has been begging me to let him get a lizard - why I'm totally fine with. I've never owned one before so what am I getting myself into? What type would you recommend? Any info you could share would be great. Thanks!
 
Dana! Liann just got on a plane for a trip to Florida for a week. Didn't want you to think she was ignoring you.
 
Dana!!!! Oh boy! I bet Ralphie will love a little reptile -- LOL!! How are you sweetie? We need to resurrect Smileyville ;) . I'll be sending off a little group email soon. :)
 
Thanks Robin - I'll send her a pm. Not like we're going to be buying one in the upcoming week or anything.

Hi Michele!!!!!! We will keep the lizard upstairs - I'm sure Ralphie would eat it if allowed to play with it. I miss you!
 
I had two leopard geckos growing up and they were so fun. We fed them crickets and it was fun to watch. Their skin is so soft and they are very mello.
We have two cornsnakes now and I don't like it much at all. They are almost three years old and i have to weekly feed them mice. NOT fun to watch. :( They were a gift to my DS from my SIL. Its a pain to drive to the store where I can buy the mice, cleaning the tank is grose and their bedding is expensive. I kinda like the snakes but all the trouble makes me more bothered with them. DS rarely holds them anymore. And since I'm preggo and DH is NOT doing a good job of taking over their care I'm debating selling them. :( I feel bad for DS but I doubt I should be touching mice/snakes right now. I've been using gloves. I'd get DS something else but DH is a pain about pets and would like NO pets in the house so thats another reason I'm reluctant to get rid of them. I want DS to have something. :(
sorry if thats too much info.. but yeah leopard geckos rock. I had an iguana once and that thing was mean and wild and didn't want to be held at all. I got it very young and tried to hold it daily to no avail. I ended up giving it to my brother. But I guess some people are successful with them. They do get very large though maybe too much for a little kid. Whatever you do get something that eats only fruit/vegis or crickets and no mice. ha.
 
Jess, that info on snakes is helpful. My little guy really wants one but I worry about how big they'll get. He wants a red tail boa. Right now I have tarantulas, . . 15 of them to be exact. They are super easy to care for. I want to get a bearded dragon. I hear that those are great lizard pets but they do grow big and you have to have a heat sourc for them
 
No WAY are we getting a snake. Both of my boys really like them but no thanks. LOL. Thanks for the info though. I can't see myself driving to get mice. My son was looking at gheckos and bearded dragons. I want to know as much as possible before we get one.
 
Well if you get something that eats crickets make sure you have a place that sells them nearby. We do have a petstore down the street that sells those but they do not sell mice for feeding only for pets so they cost more. I have to drive to the reptile store almost 20 minutes away weekly. We started getting three weeks worth and caring for them at home to save the trip but thats a whole nother ordeal. I have to try NOT to get attached to the mice. they are so cute ha. but they are also filthy and they sometimes fight. I have a wheel in the tank and they are constantly playing on it. SO I have to keep them in a backroom and only go there to clean/feed them. sigh. That is another tank I have to clean. grr. One time I got a mouse that was pregnant. We let her raise the babies and it was SO hard not to get attached. They ended up snake food. that just stinks. I am a total animal lover and it doesn't work with my personality at all. The snakes are fine though, they are very mello too and easy to hold. I don't hold it against them lol. But I hate the mice ordeal.
Is it ghecko? lol. I was thinking I was spelling it wrong but was too lazy to check. lol. I loved the leopard gheckos. They were pretty easy to care for.
 
We have to have a heat source for our snakes. I can't remember about the gheckos. You'd have to look it up online or at the petstore.
 
A Pet Smart just opened about 15 minutes from us but with the winter coming, I'm not sure if I want to treck out into the snow to buy crickets. LOL.
 
One winter, we had a warm spell and lots of flooding, due to rain and snow melt. DH was out back, digging around the outlet for the cellar sump pump. He dislodged a hibernating frog, who started hopping around. He brought the frog inside and we called Clyde Peeling (Dana!) who told us the frog wouldn't go back into hibernation and if we let it outside in the freezing weather, it would die. So we kept it in an aquarium for the rest of the winter and fed him crickets and meal worms. We let Mr Froggy go in the spring.

I know, that doeen't really answer Dana's question, but I thought it was a good story. Dana, you could try calling Reptiland with any questions. They've been helpful for us with a couple retile related questions. You can get crickets and mealworms at pet stores or bait shops.
 
Liann here, reporting from Tampa! ;)

I would definitely recommend a gecko over a bearded dragon. I have both and the geckos are SOOOO much easier to take care of. All of their basic care is much easier than a beardie. They do not need special UV lighting like beardies do (which can be very pricey). They do not need as large of a cage as a beardie does and their dietary needs are not nearly as complicated as a beardie - I spend more on greens for my beardies than I do on veggies for myself. All my leopard geckos eat are mealworms. They are so much easier and less stinky to deal with than crickets. In fact, they stay in the refrigerator in a little tub. They hibernate at cold temps, so they last forever. The only think you need to be careful with with a gecko is that babies are really jumpy and hard to hold and if you get ahold of the tail, it will come off. It will grow back in time, but it's never as pretty. My geckos are all adults now and sooo tame. They will come right out and crawl right on my hand. They sometimes lick me and I'll rub them on their neck and they will actually close their eyes. Aside from all the care required for a beardie, they can also do a lot more damage if they decide to bite than a gecko will. I learned that the hard way when one tried to take off with my thumb. Don't get me wrong, beardies are great pets too, but in my opinion, not a good starter lizard. :)

Here is my Lola waiting to be fed. She actually sits at her dish and waits for her worms!
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Here's Sabine in her luxery digs:

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Thank you Liann!!! I'm so glad you could help since I know nothing about lizards. I told him that I would buy the aquarium and the accessories but he has to buy the lizards. He only gets $5/week for his allowance so it might not be until Christmas until he has saved for it. Thanks again!
 
Beautiful gecko's. Oh I'm so glad to read your post about bearded dragons. Can I ask what makes them so hard to take care of in comparrision to the gecko's? Is it just the diet? How big do the bearded dragons get? I have a couple of friends who have the bearded dragons and they just let them wander around the house uncaged. I find that weird but anyway. Gecko's seem so soft and fragile. Do you need a heat source for them in the winter? I live in California it gets cold here even in the fall. When they hibernate do you need to provide more bedding?? How often do you change their tanks? What is their life span like?
 
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Dana,

I'm laughing reading your post bc I also have a 7yr old boy...and they love reptiles. You should try "Grow a Frog". you can find it online. You actually get a tadpole in the mail, it grows into a frog and they live forever. Seriously, they get to be 14 yrs old. My boys love it. The frog hates me and has tried to escape/attack on various tank cleaning events.
good luck
 
My little brother has a leopard gecko. It is a cute little pet. Like other posters said they are easy to tame and take care of especially compared to some other reptiles. However one time my little brother did not shut the cage correctly. As anyone that has had reptiles for pets knows they are little escape artist if their homes are not shut properly. The poor little thing ended up getting out. My family could not find it and did not see it for months so they basically gave up on it. Then one time they came home from a vacation and saw something scurry across the floor. The followed it to were it went and found a skinny but still alive leopard gecko. It must have hunted and lived off of ants or something for those months. Now it has fattened up again. They are also soft and I think the coloring is neat on them.
 
aww they are so cute! I miss the ones I had growing up. Oh yeah and we did mealworms sometimes too. I forgot about that. I love their soft skin. I am still kicking myself for not insisting on leopard geckos over the snakes. oh well. My son was snake crazy for a while.

Our snakes have got out a couple times. I have to keep heavy books on the top or they can push the lid up and get out. Its crazy. They usually just end up curled up underneath something like a bookshelf. One time my SIL was petsitting them for me while we were in the middle of a move and one got out and into one of her clothing drawers. She totally freaked out. lol.

I don't think you'd have to worry about a leopard gecko escaping. I don't remember them being able to climb or anything? Ours never got out.
 

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