What should I get?

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Posted by steffke on May 06, 2003 at 16:31:06:

In Reply to: What should I get? posted by TheNakedCowboy1 on May 05, 2003 at 21:27:43:

As you are posting to the Chuckwalla forum, I suspect that you ar interested in chuckwallas. They do have great personalities. They have several color combinations, but the females are dull in color. (At least mine is.) Another animal that you might consider is a bearded dragon. They also have neat personalities and might be a bit more active compared to a Chuckwalla. They also come in a greater variety of colors. Chuckwallas are vegitarians. Most other lizards eat insects or a combination of insects and greens. The Reptile magazine has a lot of good information on various reptiles and their needs. Whatever animal you choose you should get copies of several caresheets. This way you'll get a wider variety of information. Subscribe to a newslist for animals that you are interested in, read up, and ask specific questions. A larger lizard, like the ones you are interested in, need more room. A trio might require as much as 8 square feet of floor space. Some animals need to be able to climb, so you could be looking at a massive cage or tank. Most animals have specific heat and lighting requirements that vary with each species. A lot of this information is included in a good caresheet. Type in the name of the reptile and the word care sheet in a search engine like Yahoo or Google. "Chuckwalla Care Sheet". That should give you a great start.
The budget that you have should be enough to get you a healthy animal and a good start at basic necessities like food, bedding, emergency supplies, etc..... especialy if you can build your own enclosure.
Go to some reptile events, meet breeder, build your tank/cage BEFORE you get an animal, and choose a healthy animal! If you do all of that in addition to the above you should find yourself a neat pet that will bring you many years of happiness. Remember the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.
Blessings,
Angela

:- 1-2 feet or so long
:- Very tame yet not totally boring (as in it will still walk on me and stuff)
:- Colorful and interesting looking
:- Looking for one of the following colors: Green, Red, Orange, Yellow. Pretty much anything but brown
:- Not a skink (my stepmom doesn't want me to get one for some reason)

:Now I can take care of it and I have about 500$ to spend on a tank and everything. I plan on doing a tube-feeding type system where you drop the food in and they scurry out the hole in the tube and the lizard gets them. Is this optimal or is there a better way?

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