# Site General > General Herp >  Best Display Reptile?

## jjsnakedude

Im thinking about getting a display reptile to get to show off and to look at.  I would really like a green tree python but that would have to have some pursuading the parents. or mabey some type of Chameleon.  I would really like to now everyones input on a beautiful display reptile that does not require sooo much care but still more than ball pythons.  :Rolleyes2:  :Dancin' Banana:

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## Wh00h0069

Green tree python for sure. They look amazing, and are always visible. You can also make their display visual appealing by adding greenery.

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## monk90222

> Green tree python for sure. They look amazing, and are always visible. You can also make their display visual appealing by adding greenery.


I agree 100%.

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-14-2010)

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## Chocolate Muffin's

GTP for sure. In fact, if I were planning on getting one, I would really invest in a beautiful display. These are majestic animals that show so well.

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-14-2010)

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## BallsUnlimited

GTP or some type of albino snake or lizard. I have all my snakes in a rack and keep my female albino ball het for piedball out in a tank because she is absolutely beautiful. Has much better color than my male albino ball python.

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## jjsnakedude

I was really leaning towards them too but really hadnt decided. Does anyone have any recomendations for great arboreal cages?

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## Wh00h0069

> I was really leaning towards them too but really hadnt decided. Does anyone have any recomendations for great arboreal cages?


Yes, the 2x2x2 cage from this site: http://www.pvccages.com/id94.htm. The complete cage comes with the RHP, perches, and a little greenery. However, you will want to add more greenery.

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## jjsnakedude

Would a GTP be able to live in that cage forever? And would I want the 40 or 80 watt heat panel?

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## illini4x4

Definitely a GTP, I think they look amazing! I heard they are not as docile as BP's and RTB's though. To the people that own them..is this true?

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## OhhWatALoser

> Definitely a GTP, I think they look amazing! I heard they are not as docile as BP's and RTB's though. To the people that own them..is this true?



like every single snake, its going to be up to the individual snake. My GTP that passed away a while ago was by far the tamest animal I've owned. She was the one I gave to my little cusins to hold because I knew I had nothing to worry about. My girlfriend has one she keeps here and hes tame also.

Really the only snake I own that is pissy are my pinstripe out of all things

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## Andrew24

> Definitely a GTP, I think they look amazing! I heard they are not as docile as BP's and RTB's though. To the people that own them..is this true?


gtp have a bad rep for biting.. so what i thinnk is they bite due to that bad rep... because people are afraid of getting bit so they don't handle them.. people are afraid of getting bit cuz of the bad rep.. and the bites can be kinda bad because the gtp have the biggest/longest teeth of all none venomous snakes... ive seen pics and they are very big!!.. which makes them not for beginers in my opinoin..  ive heard if you HANDLE them they will tame out.. ive seen some gtp that can be handled like a ball python.. due to being handled.. but ive seen one at a pet store that NEVER! gets handeld.. and the guy said that would be the 1st one of all the snakes to bite you.. and its because it was never handled.. he even told me it never gets handled..

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## luna13

> Green tree python for sure. They look amazing, and are always visible. You can also make their display visual appealing by adding greenery.


i agree! :Smile:

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## STEW

I want a GTP so bad.... My wife has other feelings about it though.

If you go the Chameleon route, definetly go with a Male Panther. They have awesome colors. Chameleons are true display animals (they hate to be held), chams that tolerate human interaction are the exception to the rule. So if you are wanting something you can interact with, stay away from them.

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## juddb

Even though i dont own any, i have to say chameleon's would be awesome display animals.  Anyway, i keep Chondro's and cant stop :Good Job: 

Sometimes they hide behind plants!

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-17-2010)

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## DrLew

I have "several" varieties, but nothing attracts a guests attention more than a GTP.  Come on man!

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-17-2010)

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## DrLew

> I want a GTP so bad.... My wife has other feelings about it though.


Maybe someone will take her in trade?   LOL :Bowdown:

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## STEW

> Maybe someone will take her in trade?   LOL


Might be able to get a garden snake for her.....haha

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-17-2010)

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## withonor

I'm jumping off the bandwagon.

First I would say a false water cobra. Just telling people you have a cobra would be reason enough. It will sit there watching you watch it and is very active and very fast, things that are exciting to look at. They like to climb and you can give them a semi-aquatic base. Just as beautiful as a GTP enclosure.

Blue rhino iguana. Looks prehistoric, gets to a nice size and has a horn on it's nose.

Last, but lot least, a basilisk. Love the name, everytime I see it I think I'll turn to stone if I look it in the eyes.

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-17-2010)

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## jjmitchell

In my oppenion GTP are awesome, but I also love the ambilobe panther chemeilions if i managed to spell any of that right... Anyway at the pheonix reptile show they had some that were very bright, blue's and reds...

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_jjsnakedude_ (01-17-2010)

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## Calift

I love GTPs....but I'm wondering why there haven't been more votes for the Chams? Is their care really intensive??

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## jason79

I have a friend that has a breeding pair of canary GTP they are still yellow as adults and they are both really tame and never try to bite. I think they make awesome display animals.

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## Wh00h0069

> Would a GTP be able to live in that cage forever? And would I want the 40 or 80 watt heat panel?


Sorry just saw this post. Yes, they could live in a 2x2x2 forever, and they require a 40 watt heat panel.

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## STEW

> I love GTPs....but I'm wondering why there haven't been more votes for the Chams? Is their care really intensive??


If you go to a chameleon forum, they make it seem like they will die if you look at them wrong. They arent that hard to care for if you ask me. Keeping crickets alive is the hardest part of chameleon keeping as long as you set up the cham's enclosure correctly

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## Warocker's Wife

ATB or GTP display well

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## mqbuchanan

No doubt GTP, although my Panther Chameleon wow's people just as much.  

Side note, not sure if this is allowed, but if anyone is looking for a really nice GTP checkout Southern Chondros, she is taking reasonable offers for 1 or 2 more of her 09 clutch (I picked up KB-09-06 already!) to raise some funds.  Great chance a highend designer GTP with a lineage, and Kim is super helpful.  This will be my first GTP, have a slew of BP's and others now.

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## jonnydanger

> Green tree python for sure. They look amazing, and are always visible. You can also make their display visual appealing by adding greenery.


I agree 100% also. Just need to save up some money so I can have one too haha

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## WingedWolfPsion

A group of small, active, diurnal lizards would make the best display.  Anoles, Lygodactylus geckos, Curly-tails, or other active lizards will hunt, court, put on social displays, and generally entertain absolutely anyone who would stop to watch them.  When kept in groups with one male and several females, there's virtually always something going on in there to watch.

If you keep them in an area with low but regular traffic, they learn to get used to the passage of people, and will eventually stop freaking out and hiding when someone walks up.

Ball pythons are great pets--but the small lizards are tops for an interesting display.  None of the other species you mentioned can compare in terms of sheer enjoyment from watching them.

I just got a trio of Lygodactylus williamsi, and I can watch them for an hour at a time.  They're intelligent, curious, and they're always up to something.  

Don't let the low prices of some small herps influence you, either.  Green anoles (for example) are great fun to keep, and that's what it's really all about with a display.  A gorgeous fully-planted vivarium with naturalistic landscaping and brightly-colored, active, engaging little animals is going to make a much more dramatic impression than the lump of green stillness that is a chondro, or the occasional twitch from a bored frilled dragon basking under a heat lamp.

When you're setting up a display to WATCH (rather than just look at in passing), think of species that actually move around and do things that will hold your interest.  :Smile:

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## tsdsbd

chameleons have intense husbandry req's so if you get one make sure you know what your doin!

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## SK_Exotics

I was going to say either dwarf caiman or green anaconda, because i want to get one of them if i do a zoo quality display.

After seeing this though, i am giving thought to a gtp of my own!

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## Lolo76

I voted for GTP, like so many others - they are just stunning!! But I also have to add Panther Chameleon to the list, as I'm always impressed by their beautiful flashy colors. You can probably tell by my current avatar, LOL.  :Good Job:

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## anthonym

My Asian Vine Snake makes a really nice display animal. Especially since they are diurnal, so people can actually see them moving around and doing their thing

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## Seru1

Brazilian rainbow boa? they are so beautiful.

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## reggi-BP

emerald tree boas r great

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## WingedWolfPsion

YouTube - Electric blue gecko feeding

Gotta love 'em.

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## mainbutter

I love our Panther Chameleon to bits.

They're just too cool.

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## maverickgtr

A GTP would be cool but I love me some desert animals so I went with other and my other is bearded dragons. Their color morphs are pretty damn cool looking and I've never had my bearded dragon hide at all. Not even really blend in with his environment. He just likes to sit on the highest branch he possibly can and then kamikaze onto his food bowl.

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## Hypnotic Exotic

I voted green tree python. I might get some eventually myself (won't be for a LONG time though). I have a friend that has them. Once past the baby stage he says they're a lot more bullet proof than say an Emerald Tree boa. But most definitely aren't snakes you want to handle. He can lift them out on the branch to clean and not get tagged but pretty much all of his will tag you if you mess with them. But to another person's point, he did have one a while back that was really tame. But that seems to be the exception. Also, I'm wondering why you list frilled dragons as a display animal? If you raise them from a hatchling, you can handle those. The same friend (he owns a pet store), had one that literally would eat crickets out of his hand! Those are amazing animals and I've long debated back and forth between one of those and a bearded dragon. If only I had more time for another animal that needs day to day care.

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## jjsnakedude

that was just an Idea.  Ive only seen them once at a specialty reptile store. It was just a baby and it looked awsome and you really dont see a lot of them.

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## jjsnakedude

> A group of small, active, diurnal lizards would make the best display.  Anoles, Lygodactylus geckos, Curly-tails, or other active lizards will hunt, court, put on social displays, and generally entertain absolutely anyone who would stop to watch them.  When kept in groups with one male and several females, there's virtually always something going on in there to watch.
> 
> If you keep them in an area with low but regular traffic, they learn to get used to the passage of people, and will eventually stop freaking out and hiding when someone walks up.
> 
> Ball pythons are great pets--but the small lizards are tops for an interesting display.  None of the other species you mentioned can compare in terms of sheer enjoyment from watching them.
> 
> I just got a trio of Lygodactylus williamsi, and I can watch them for an hour at a time.  They're intelligent, curious, and they're always up to something.  
> 
> Don't let the low prices of some small herps influence you, either.  Green anoles (for example) are great fun to keep, and that's what it's really all about with a display.  A gorgeous fully-planted vivarium with naturalistic landscaping and brightly-colored, active, engaging little animals is going to make a much more dramatic impression than the lump of green stillness that is a chondro, or the occasional twitch from a bored frilled dragon basking under a heat lamp.
> ...



What cage are you using?
(sorry lots of questions  :Very Happy:  )
where exactly do you get the little lizards?
are there any species you would recommend?
do you have to clean the cage at all?
Any info on the set up?

Yea you cant tell im interested :Very Happy:

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## WingedWolfPsion

The best display cages for them are probably the ZooMed or ExoTerras.  You can keep a pair in a 12 X 18--that's a minimum size.  I would go one larger for a trio, for comfort.  They won't get lost in there, no worry about that--they'll use every part of it.

Naturalistic is the best choice.  Have fun with cork bark, live plants, and artificial rock structures.  The Pangea elevated mushroom feeding platforms are virtually a necessity.  They adore bamboo, but you can use PVC if you're interested in incubating eggs in a separate place.  (PVC pieces can be caulked at the ends and put together with connectors, then simply switched out as one end has eggs deposited in it).  
Bromeliads and pothos are both good plant choices.
They need UVB lighting.  Temperatures are typical for tropical rainforest species--90F basking, 80F ambient.  Temperature drop to room temp at night.
Humidity range from 60 to 80%.  Drink from droplets, so mist once or twice a day.

You can go two route with cleaning--use a thin layer of inexpensive coco fiber or moss substrate (you need to keep humidity up), and change it frequently, OR...
Use a soil mix (no vermiculite or perlite in it), with some bioballs underneath, and make it fairly deep.  Add some tropical springtails and woodlice (roly polies).  Once a week, brush droppings from sticks and leaves, clean anything badly soiled, and wipe the glass down.  The scavenger bugs will take care of the waste, and you may possibly not have to actually break down the cage for a complete cleaning more than once a year.  This is less disruptive to the animals.  If you see any sign of plants dying in this setup, break it down--some balance is off if the plants start to die when they were previously healthy.

I personally recommend Lygodactylus williamsi, because I have found them to have amazing personalities in comparison with most small lizards.  They lose all their shyness within a couple of months if they're kept in an area of the house with some traffic.  Green anoles and some other anole species also have a reputation for losing their shyness and getting to trust their keeper.

L. williamsi are more active than most anoles.  They always seem to be busy doing something, and their interactions with each other can be amazing and hilarious.  They're also complete chow-hounds, and they'll do anything for a snack (be careful not to overfeed them, they can get porky quickly).

L. williamsi do not like to set foot on the floor of the cage.  They'll come down to within an inch or two of it, but they don't want to touch the ground, so put most of their decor higher up.  Provide visual barriers, sometimes the subordinate animals need a place to be comfortable out of sight of the dominant animals.  You may want 2 feeding platforms with some visual barrier between them.

They thrive on dusted flightless fruit flies and Repashy CGD.  New imports may need to be coaxed to try CGD by mixing it with peach baby food first.  Once they realize it's food, they'll have no problem. lol  (Ours got a huge sugar buzz when we gave them the peach/CGD mix for the first time--after living off of insects alone for several weeks, they practically went into orbit after scarfing a bunch of it down--they were doing back flips to catch gnats).

Some also feed them roach nymphs, pinhead crickets, mini-mealworms, etc.  I have found that williamsi will eat whatever you offer them, even if they don't care for it much.  None of my Lygodactylus species like silkworms, but only the williamsi tried them, made faces, and then ate them anyhow. lol
I don't like to use crickets in naturalistic setups, because some of them always manage to escape, and then they hide until they're too large for the lizards to eat them.  Those big escapee crickets would then pose a hazard to the lizards and their eggs.

"Electric Blue Geckos" are still being imported--for now.  Their habitat is a valley pocket of rainforest in Tanzania, and it's being deforested.  We have no idea how much longer they will be imported...in reality, it should never have happened in the first place.  But since it's happening, it's a good idea for anyone buying imports to carefully establish them with an eye toward producing CBB babies.  Not only may the flow of imports be shut off soon...we have to face the idea that they may have no home left in Africa once it's done.  
That being said, I have seen imports recently as low as $25 for males.  One male and 2 females is a good setup, but you can add more animals with really large cages.
They are insanely prolific.  As soon as they feel their body condition is good enough, they'll begin courting and breeding.  Females will lay eggs that adhere to surfaces--usually 2 at a time, like most small lizards, 2 or 3 weeks apart.  This is why I dust all of their insects with calcium, it's important that they get plenty of calcium in their diet.  The CGD has plenty of calcium too.

Hatchlings are delicate.  Adults may eat them, so most remove them to a separate cage.  Due to their size, it has to be pretty tight.  I modified a ZooMed by affixing bits of plastic screen over every opening I could find.

Hatchlings grow fast, if they make it through the first 3 weeks.  They quickly become robust and fairly hardy.  They eat dusted flightless melanogaster fruit flies and CGD, and will also eat the springtails.  I haven't found them to be especially difficult to care for, but mortality due to misadventure can be high--due to their minute size, I have lost one to mysterious disappearance, one to a door hinge (it was hiding in the crack and was killed when the door was opened), and a few simply hatched out a bit weak and never thrived.  I had one escape during a transfer from incubator to cage--it showed up high on the wall the next day, and I was able to recapture it unharmed.  It's been a loss of about 50%, over about 3 months time.  Steel yourself for the fact that you can't raise every hatchling successfully, because they're the size of ants, fast, stubborn, and sneaky.  They hatch out seemingly as unafraid of you as the acclimated adults--they get more wary after a couple of weeks.

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EchoPyrex (08-20-2010),_jjsnakedude_ (07-18-2010)

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## The Hedgehog

> You can go two route with cleaning--use a thin layer of inexpensive coco fiber or moss substrate (you need to keep humidity up), and change it frequently, OR...
> Use a soil mix (no vermiculite or perlite in it), with some bioballs underneath, and make it fairly deep.  Add some tropical springtails and woodlice (roly polies).  Once a week, brush droppings from sticks and leaves, clean anything badly soiled, and wipe the glass down.  The scavenger bugs will take care of the waste, and you may possibly not have to actually break down the cage for a complete cleaning more than once a year.  This is less disruptive to the animals.  If you see any sign of plants dying in this setup, break it down--some balance is off if the plants start to die when they were previously healthy.
> 
> I personally recommend Lygodactylus williamsi, because I have found them to have amazing personalities in comparison with most small lizards.  They lose all their shyness within a couple of months if they're kept in an area of the house with some traffic. * Green anoles and some other anole species also have a reputation for losing their shyness and getting to trust their keeper.*


All the the things that you've said so far are absolutely true.  All the lizards in my sig are all in one of my larger tanks.  They are probably the most fun to watch, and each one has their own personality.  T-Rex is my favorite by far.  He's dominant to the others, but he's also laid back and chill.  

The best part about watching them is that they are infact always moving around, eating, fighting for territory, or mating even.  They don't mind being watched either.  I fed them last night some mealworms, in a dish on the ground.  It was fun to watch a few of them look at the dish for a minute or two after I set it in there, and decided what it was, and then realize it was food.  As soon as they did, they all enclosed on it very stealthy like, and grabbed what they wanted.  It was very cool to watch some of them hand upside down and pluck the meal worms up.  T-Rex will even eat out of my hand.

Sorry, I know I show this a lot but here is me and him for a good photo:


He is very calm, and he will chill on my shirt all day if I let him.  I even do normal activties sometimes and forget he's hanging out with me.  One Time I even was brushing my teeth before I realized there was a lizard on my shoulder. Haha

So I would say +1 to getting some form of lizards such as Anoles, or others.

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## SpartaDog

I don't know much about chams, especially their behavior and how often they hide, but by appearance alone, I have to go with ambilobe panthers.

Look at these colors. If that doesn't wow whoever's walking by, nothing will.
http://www.lostlakechameleons.com/images/MrLemieux.jpg
http://www.flchams.com/inventory/Red...e(Stamper).jpg
http://www.screameleons.com/Portals/...on_111104b.jpg

But obviously, and I'm sure you know this, do your homework before you get one just because it looks pretty.  :Wink:

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## nicolexdisaster

green tree pythons are great display animals. so i would go with one of them. but if your having trouble convincing parents, i would go with a chameleon. However, they can be hard to maintain if you don't know how to manage their conditions. Definitely do your research!

x nicole

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## crapwhereaminow

PANTHER CHAMELEON

They're awesome, meet Gunther.

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