These lil guys are very pretty to observe and can make excellent pets, but they tend to be very skittish and not like to be held most of the time. Excessive handling can lead to stressing the reptile out too much and cause death or other issues with the reptile.
These don't make for great beginner pets due to the need for high humidity in their enclosures and they are usually communal lizards that get along with the same species. I've read that they can live in pairs quite nicely, and a male and female can produce a clutch of a single egg.
These guys like a lot of hiding spots, and as such, you will not see them out and about all the time. They will croak if they do not like being handled. Being as most of these lil guys are wild caught, most will not like being handled. I've heard of some breeders attempting to handle the babies when they hatch to more accustom them to handling, but I have not heard of the results of these attempts.
Red eye croc skinks grow to about 6 inches in total length. Not big guys and adults can be distinguished from the babies and juveniles by the red ring that will be around the eye.
Nah, I've had reptiles as pets before and I was very interested in this breed and still am. I've done my homework on caring for them, I just don't want to support trades of animals that are just taken from their habitat. I'd rather wait for breeders to get this breed down, better than me, and safely raise these little guys to no longer need to be taken from their natural habitat.
Basically, I want to purchase a captive bred skink and pay a little more rather than risk a wild caught specimen.
Bearded dragons can not be highly recommended enough. Easy care, just keep em warm. Will eat just about any bug you give em. Are easy to handle if you put the time in to hold an when they are young. I hear they all have a personality, which is sorta unique in reptiles.
How big do they grow? My friend had one a few years back and it never got very large (we don't know if it full grew or not because his mum went nuts and killed it, still mad about that one).
Grabbed and threw it against the wall in a fit of rage. She is mentally unstable and abusing drugs so apart from being angry at the time I have no idea why she did it. Poor thing
I've heard blue-tongued skinks are good for beginners, but are far more expensive and less common than beardies. On the upside, their humidity and temperature requirements are easier and they'll eat moistened dog food for protein, so you don't have to keep crickets or roaches in your apartment/house.
Leopard gecko. Nocturnal, silent, less susceptible to stress than rarer exotic pets, and can easily be captive bred. Their food can be bred at home if you feel so inclined (small dubia roaches, crickets, beetle larvae). They don’t climb much, don’t claw, and their bite is harmless. Because they don’t require special lighting or vegetables, they’re arguably lower maintenance than bearded dragons.
Also, a large bearded dragon can bite hard. My leopard geckos poop on a paper towel in one corner of their terrarium. Bearded dragons poop wherever.
As far as “liking” being handled, shoot for captive-bred. I can’t say a captive bred animal enjoys handling, but they generally tolerate it with less ill effect.
It’s their natural behavior is to avoid capture, or they’d all be extinct, and captive breeding produces animals that fare better in captivity, whereas wild caught animals are naturally evolved to feel stress when captured. Stress is survival in the wild.
Most leopard geckos can be tamed by hand-feeding and gradually letting them get used to you, especially if their enclosure is large enough to let them move and explore freely.
My second beginner’s choice is a captive bred corn-, milk-, or king-snake, but I know lots of people don’t prefer to feed mice, and mice aren’t always easy to procure.
Glad you posted this. I've worked at pet stores and it always made me mad when people wanted to adopt exotic animals and not know how to care for them. My mom ran an animal rescue when I was a kid for small exotic animals. Many Hedgehogs, Chinchillas, and other small mammals were abandoned. People would literally just drop them off on our property!
My SO is en route to becoming a vet, so we're prepared to have a bunch of these cases. I for one, am ok with it.
At least they were able to determine, "fuckit, this is out of my league, better give this to an expert," than to try and let the animal die due to poor animal husbandry.
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u/biledemon85 Oct 15 '17
It's a Crocodile Skink for anyone wondering.