The weans have been asking for a new pet, and the current fascination is with reptiles.

We have a dog (mental ex rescue giant Schnauzer) – have had tropical fish (cichlids) for 8 years or so.
Am looking for any advice on what sort of reptile to get – bearded dragons look like the default choice, followed by geckos and chameleons…

Advice, good sources for info, recommended suppliers (particularly in the Scotland Central belt) all welcome…

I could probably cut you a cracking deal on a Leopard Gecko. Son number 3 insisted on having one three years ago. Lenny as he’s called soon became family property as the lad lost interest and now sits in his box at the end of the kitchen. Happy, healthy with a big fat tail. He’d come with his vivarium, light & thermostatic heat lamp.

We’re not advertising him as such because we need to know he’d be going somewhere where he’d be looked after and cared for.

email in profile, located East Lothian.

Dave

Make them do the research. Make them pay for it. Make them look after it.
They will be into something else next week. guaranteed.

@cbike – I’ve asked the kids to work out EVERYTHING that they can ahead of any purchase. The eldest (11 – he has a name as well as a number) has been told to create a project/presentation on all of the detail that his mum and I need to know about the creatures (we’re doing research in parallel) – I really wanted to go down the chameleon route, but heard that they are high maintenance – I’ve got two daughters, so via that a a relative term 😉

@Davesport – might come back to you on it – subject to the powerpoint 😉

Look at the costing and food, and any vitamins etc that goes with it.
Also what is the best bedding for the animal as some adverts lie and can cause illness or death. Will it be eating live food/dead or veg.
After all the looking at what you need. look at what types of illneses the animal is prone to and the costs of vets.

Don’t forget housing (vivarium, avoid glass as it loses heat quickly IMHO and ventalation is a pitta)

Avoid heat mats and heat rocks 👿

Geckos seem to be good for keeping down the invertebrates during warmer weather. Wish we had them in the UK.

Chameleons are supposed to be tricky. We had a leopard gecko for years, he was easier to look after definitely.

We have a Leopard Gecko. Adopted from my nephew when he went overseas with the army.

Dead easy to look after, he’s like a pet rock. He will sleep all day either on or under his rock, gets up about teatime, prance around his viv, hunt a couple of insects or worms, then go and sit on his rock looking proud as punch, then goes back to sleep. A bit like a teenager.

Leopard geckos need a heat mat rather than a basking lamp. They absorb heat through skin contact during the day, in their natural habitat they burrow to escape the sun, then hut at night. Basking lamps can damage their eyes.

Lizards are cool, I have one but they are not a ‘pet’ like a dog cat or rabbit.

They will tolerate handling but won’t appreciate hours of being out, passed around countless friends, dropped etc.

As such, from a child’s perspective they can get pretty boring very quickly. Not anyways, but certainly a lot of the time.

Note certain equipment is mandatory – UV light source (for the vast majority of lizards – there are rare exceptions so research first), heat source, thermostat to control heart source, a vivarium of the right size etc.

Quick note on bearded dragons. Great lizards, the most pet like of them all. They will suit in your knee and chill with you. But, only get a single one regardless of what the store may try and flog you. Young bearded dragons are quite hard to sex. Two males will fight, two females may tolerate each other. A male and a female may produce 100 offspring in a single breeding season. What are you going to do with 100 babies?!

Finally, buy from a reputable reptile shop, not pets at home et al. If your anywhere near Sheffield I highly recommend Snakes and Adders. They’ll give you the right advice, won’t all anything unsuitable care wise and can sort you out a complete set up.

If you are not in Sheffield feel free to post here or email me (in profile) and I’ll give you some recommendations. Email also if you have any other questions about reptile keeping in general.

Good posts! I have worked briefly with these beasts, and I think you’re getting good advice here.

Cheers folks,for all,of the advice so far. The guy in the shop steered us towards beardies, but he did have a clutch of little ones to sell… I really liked chameleons, but have heard they are high maintenance and moody – I have two daughters already.

Any real differences in ease of maintenance between nocturnal geckos and bearded dragons ? Both seem reasonable (warned off day geckos as they can’t be handled easily – probably wouldn’t work with the kids)

Ta

A colleague at work has a lovely bearded dragon looking for a home – bought for christmas present for son age 9, who it turns out cant cope with all the live feeding of crickets etc! Dragon in penicuik – and comes with vivarium lights etc as well as cages for insects etc etc …email me if interested and I will give you more details – alimunro@sky.com

Several friends have recently got second hand bearded dragons. Seem to be no issues, but wonder why they have been got rid of?

As with all pets, kids need to be involved with feeding and cleaning, or it doesn’t happen. And an idea of cost.

As an alternative have you thought about an ant farm or bugs, spiders, scorpions or millipedes?
You can also set up a tank with earth from where you live and place interesting animals in it for a while. Let them study and enjoy them and release back into the wild and find something new. It’s a great way of understanding their local environment and seeing things they would normally miss.
If they have a hankering for a certain species they could then go more exotic and difficult.

What kind of cichlids? Let’s have a pic!

Yes 🙂

I’m getting some Apistos soon!

I was expecting more conspiracy theories from jivehoneyjive when I opened this thread

My brother had Yemeni Chameleons a few years back, I don’t ever recall him saying they were any trouble. They were generally pretty chilled out although the male hissed at my GF a lot.
He had them in a large custom built enclosure I think he managed to breed them too.

Also Cichlids. Pics? What you got. I’ve had cichlids for years up until about 4 years back when I lost my F0 N.Hatiensis pair.

Got rid of the cichlids about 6 months ago. Perfect for kids, indestructible

I don’t think that’s a real lizard.

I suggest you consult a vet and perhaps seek a refund from the shop.

Bearded Dragon they need uv bulbs changing every 6 months and calcidust on their bugs. Just sprinkle some on the locusts/Veg.
DO NOT put them on sand they will get impacted I use Orchard bark with mine the bigger the chunks the better they lick everything so sand is a no no.

Mines getting a old boy now but still runs around like a knob. The Bosc Monitor is scared of him.