What lizard should I get?

Question

Where do you live: In a small town in Massachusetts

Would you like to be able to hold your lizard: Yes

Do you have kids in your household: Yes

Are these lizards going to live with other lizards: No

What other pets do you have: A dog, a guinea pig, and a fish

How often are you at home: I have school and then after school stuff so basically 5:15pm-7:30am

What level of maintenance could you care for: Easy or Medium

What size lizard are you looking for: Small or Medium

Land or Water: Land, please

Would you mind feeding live animals to your lizard: Sort of, I would prefer not but if I have to, yes

Would you like a friendly lizard: Yes

Would you like it to bond with a whole family or one person: Either way, probably one person

How long are you planning on keeping this lizard: 10-20 years, throughout high school, college, etc.

That is a quiz I made, hope it helps!

Answer 1

Sounds like you and leopard geckos OR fat-tailed geckos were made for each other :)
Both of these have similar care requirements.
Cage: A 15 gallon tank will be fine for a pair, or a 20 gallon tank will be fine for a trio of them. If you want only 1, 10 gallons is enough, but I always think bigger is better :)
Food: Crickets, with the occasional waxworm, mealworm or silkworm, gutloaded and dusted with calcium and vitamin supplements.
Heat: A heating pad under the tank or a heat lamp over the tank for a warm basking area at around 88F. The rest of the cage should be between 80F and 85F.
Decor: They will need a water dish and a small dish for calcium powder. They will also need at least 2 hideboxes, one in the cool end (like a halflog or a half coconut) and one in the warm end (a moist hide - like a tupperware with a hole in the top filled with vermiculite or shagnum moss kept moist). Rocks, driftwood, etc, to climb on.
Substrate: The easiest way to go here is paper towel. It's easy to clean, it's cheap, and it isn't dangerous. If you want a more natural look like sand or dirt, you'll have to be careful, because they tend to ingest some of the substrate when they are hunting or tongue-flicking, and there is the possibility of impaction. The best choice for natural substrates would be Bed-A-Beast - it's ground coconut shells that comes in a solid brick; you soak it in water and it expands into a dirt-like substrate.

Leos and fat-tails are typically quite handleable. They won't bond with you or anything (reptiles don't work that way) but they will tolerate being taken out of the cage and man-handled a little bit. Just be careful never to grab them by the tail.

Answer 2

I have a water dragon. Right now, he's about a foot long, but he will be 3 feet at adulthood. They're friendly and tolerate handling more than any lizard I've come in contact with. They DO eat bugs, so that is a downfall, but so does almost everything lizard-like.

If you dont want to feed bugs and want to feed greens, your choices are limited. Iguana, Mali-thingy....(cant remember its name but its butt ugly) or, and this is my fav, a tortoise. Russians are pretty hefty(price wise) but they keep small, about 8-10 inches. The males are cheap and if you go to reptiledepot.com, they're only 39.99! Females are 79.99...... Anyway, thats not the answer you were looking for but I hope it helps a bit.

Answer 3

I have breaded dragons they are very entertaining and very friendly. They grow to around 2 foot long, live on land, eat live food but eat more veg. If 2 foot is to long for you there is ranking dragons they are the same as bearded dragons but a smaller version and get to around 1 foot long and they are like babies all through there liv very cute xxxx

Answer 4

http://exoticpets.about.com/od/lizardsaspets/a/lizardspets.htm