a little help picking a herp for my daughter

she has 1.1 beardies and has decided they are two high maintenance for her. she likes lizards but dont want anything much larger than a beardie and shes not a fan of geckos as they need regular handling to remain calm. She basicly wants something as easy to care for as a bp but in lizard form. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks. also anyone know of a reputable breeder of dwarf monitors? thinking about getting a red ackie for myself.

lol seems like she needs to put in a little more work. Beardeds are the perfect beginner pet, unless your going to get a snake I cant think of anything else that doesnt need as much attention.

Crested Geckos are perfect for easy maintenance.
They don't need special lighting or extra heating elements unless your house is really cold. They do well in room temperature.

They don't need insects. You can feed a powder + water mush diet.
All they really need is humidity, but a spray once or twice a day from a spray bottle works fine for that.

And honestly, beardies are already a pretty novice level animal.

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I would personally suggest an adult crested gecko. They are usually pretty calm they don't really mind being handled, pretty low maintenance, and they are attractive. It is the only lizard I have ever kept but it was so easy to care for.

-Alex

Uromastyx?

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Originally Posted by Peppe

Uromastyx?

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While they are easy animals, I don't think the daughter will like a uro that much since the care is similar to a beardie.

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I vote crestie 100%!!!

Crested gecko. They don't need really constant handling..might be a bit jumpy, but adults tend to be pretty chill. Plus they are easy.

Pet rock! :gj:

I completely disagree with cresties. I have met some awesomely calm crested geckos, but I have also met those that were not handled often and now cannot be held. I have also personally experienced "mating frustration" and was shocked. I love cresties, but I would not suggest them to anyone who isn't going to handle and socialize them often. Also they require MUCH more cleaning than a beardie!

IMHO leos do not need to be handled often to maintain calm, not sure where you are getting that, but we've got more than 10 yrs with leos and one was only handled once a month by a friend and was still the sweetest thing. I think it depends a lot more on personality.

Like a lot of people here, I can't help but recommend the Beginner Three: Leo, Beardie, Corn. That's just the tried and true options for low requirements and ease of handling.

A crestie would be easiest as everyone else has said, but if she doesn't want a gecko, I can't think of anything much easier than a Beardie. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Tfpets

Pet rock! :gj:

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lol i already sugested that to her.

x2 pet rock. If you have pets, just let your kid enjoy those. Kids lives and attitudes change too quickly! This is coming from someone who definitely pawned off some pets on my mom when I was younger.

What was it about the beardie that she found to be too much work? Beardies are fairly low maintenance and a good beginner herp. If she found a beardie too much work, she will probably find other species to be the same. The only other type that comes to mind is maybe a Blue Tongue Skink. Though, they are about the same work if not more than a beardie.

Beardies are a bit more maintanance than a Leo or crestie. The veggies, the large amount of food they eat, special lighting, high temps, and big poops you've gotta clean daily.
I never recommend beardies for beginner people or people that don't want to spend alot of time on an animal. They are great animals as far as handelability, but they get large, and need special expensive things. Secondly for people that don't want to spend alot of time I thoroughly encourage no pets. But if anything I'd recommend a crested or a Leo.
Cresties don't need anything in particular special except for Repashy. Leo's need heat, and crickets. And I personally have never met a mean crested or Leo. Even in "mating frustration".



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Low maintenance, doesn't need much handling to stay calm... x 3 on that pet rock. Blue tongue skinks, leopard geckos, and beardies are all easy friendly lizards, and if the care is already too much with beardies then I'd say just wait till she's older and can handle it.

Perhaps rethinking your beardie's setup could reduce some of the work load to more manageable levels?

I've seen a lot of people who line the enclosure with tile so poop is easy to spot, and cleanup is a simple matter of spot treating and wiping away.

Perhaps a food processor or something to dice veggies and fruits instead of doing it with a knife, and instead of crickets which need constant cleaning, smell terrible, and are a real nuisance to handle, you should look into starting a dubia cockroach colony?

Just saying, maybe you've made things harder than they need to be and that's why your daughter is finding it to be too much work.

Otherwise, I concur with the rock. Beardies are fairly bare basic. I'm assuming she's not the one paying for special bulbs, etc, so I don't see how that sort of equipment would factor into it for her.

Tile seems like a great idea for beardies, and it is, if you are home all day and you catch them poop. Otherwise, they run through it, smear it everywhere, and then it dries and you are washing beardie poop off of the tiles in your sink. Dishwasher works well too.

Beardies do need new bulbs every 6 months and the daily food prep. Definitely harder than my BPs.

I hadn't heard that issue about the tile. I know it's pretty well the standard recommendation at a couple beardie forums though. No personal experience to really comment one way or the other.

Tile is probably one of the lesser evils. But its still not rainbows and cupcakes with you are scrubbing the smear.

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Originally Posted by Wiggy

I hadn't heard that issue about the tile. I know it's pretty well the standard recommendation at a couple beardie forums though. No personal experience to really comment one way or the other.

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Tile is often recommended with newspaper or some sort of substrate covering it. Tile has zero absorbency so the mess spreads out further and the dragons run through it, easily smearing themselves. It's extremely unsanitary and you would need a gallon of chloro a week for the tiles and daily baths to clean the dragons! Tubs are very easy to clean but bp owners still line them with an absorptive substrate such as newspaper or aspen.

I concur with the classic 3 beginner pets: beardies, leos, and corns. You really can't go wrong with any of them. If a single beardie is really too much work and a pet rock isn't appealing, I would suggest a Beta fish which probably has the least onerous upkeep of any animal.

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Originally Posted by Don

What was it about the beardie that she found to be too much work? Beardies are fairly low maintenance and a good beginner herp. If she found a beardie too much work, she will probably find other species to be the same. The only other type that comes to mind is maybe a Blue Tongue Skink. Though, they are about the same work if not more than a beardie.

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she gives them fresh veggies/greens 2x a day spot cleans the cage daily + fresh water daily, worms and crickets 3x a week and her thought is its more work than the enjoyment shes getting out of them. it takes her 15 minutes to get the male calmed down when she gets him out to play with him. maybe its just him cuz the female is chilled 24/7 thanks for your imput.

15 min is a little long for a male to calm down. They are very tranquil and easy to handle normally so he may not enjoy being handled. Is she 100% set on a lizard? Most species are going to require daily food, water, and spot cleaning. A snake would be much less upkeep and it sounds like a tame bp or corn would be much more enjoyable to handle than the male beardie.

I used ceramic tiles with my Beardie with some texture for traction and it was awesome. Very easy cleanup. I would just wipe, spray, and wipe again. I had mine grouted into a wooden enclosure and the grout sealed with waterbased sealant. That was better than loose tiles because the poop and urates/liquids would end up underneath. The loose tiles were in a glass terrarium.

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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

And I personally have never met a mean crested or Leo. Even in "mating frustration".

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I didn't believe it either, but come say "Hi" sometime to the girl in my avatar... I had a beautiful look at her tooth layout two years ago - unfortunately, it was in my own blood on my hand. Never in my dreams did I think a crestie could draw blood, but to quote my husband, "She becomes a pitbull trained to not let go." We both about went insane when she bit him the first time earlier - we had never heard anything like this. Thankfully we don't live far from the CrestedGecko.com guys and they finally gave us the answers for her behavior. It has been a huge source of frustration for us and has turned me off of getting any cresties in the near future.:(

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Originally Posted by Jabberwocky Dragons

15 min is a little long for a male to calm down. They are very tranquil and easy to handle normally so he may not enjoy being handled. Is she 100% set on a lizard? Most species are going to require daily food, water, and spot cleaning. A snake would be much less upkeep and it sounds like a tame bp or corn would be much more enjoyable to handle than the male beardie.

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thanks for the input. ive been trying to convince her to look at different snakes because of the ease of care and she likes some of the bp morphs but says she can play with the ones she likes of mine whenever she wants and the same for the wifes geckos. shes set on finding her own niche and wants something unusual in the lizard arena. after the advice from all of you (thank you all very much!) i've learned its not so much the level of maintanence that is the problem. its more of the male beardies attitude and the fact that they aren't exactly what she was looking for. She is still doing research on different lizards and is starting to narrow the field down to under a dozen to take a better look at.

If that's the case, I wonder if something like an anole might interest her? I've never kept them, but at least they are small and different than a snake or gecko and very common - easy to buy. Just a random thought.

I'm getting lost with what is a requirement/preference. If she wants an easy pet she wont hold frequently, and more for looking at, she has a lot more options (several species of tarantulas come to mind as far as ease of care). If she wants something she can handle regularly, but is also easy... aside from those already mentioned, you don't have many options for lizards. If she is open to snakes, well obviously, she has quite a few more options as well, since a lot of snakes are also perfectly docile if not handled regularly, and there are lots that are very low maintenance.

Just want to add, as I noticed in your original post that you asked about a few species of monitors, that NO monitor is going to be "easy" and they are definitley not a beginner lizard. There are a few, a very few such as ackies, that make a decent "beginner monitor" but they are not beginner lizards and I would never recommend one for a child.

Your best bet, honestly, is to either stick with the beardies (maybe even consider placing the male with someone else??) or look at cresteds or one additional suggestion would be a rhinocerous iguana.

Rhino iguanas get very large, but they are known for being exceptionally docile and easy going. They are strictly vegetarians (no crickets!) and their care is simple (about equal to a beardie which is about as basic as you can get for a lizard) and the only real 2 downsides are that they are not particularly pretty and they do need a large enclosure (they get bigger than the average green iguana). But they have super temperaments which more than makes up for their somewhat drab appearance! Just a thought....