Plated Lizard

I went to the pet shop today hoping to pickup two new house geckos, the lady on the phone lied and told me she had them. She meant leo geckos, not house.

So I look around and find some five lined skinks, too skittish. Then see some plated lizards. They were cheap, 14$. Healthy, I did a little quiz on the lady, she knew her stuff. So I bought the male, brought him home, setup a 20 gallon, moved him in. He's got a real sweet setup, he loves it.

He lost the last 2 inches of his tail, so it's regenerated. Only at a 90 degree angle in the air... He's real healthy besides that. He ate extemely well.

He's about a foot by my estimates, a real measurement to come soon.


Yeah, sorta an impulse purchase. I knew a bit about them, had all the equipment, ect. So who cares.

Don't whip me for not knowing everything 100% here...

But what would ya'll recommend for feeding veggies. Gonna pick some up tomorrow. I know lettuce is pure crap...

I wonder how soon I should try a pink. I'm so excited, it's all cute and docile.

NICE!

Gotta see that tail too! They like veggies with a high water content - I'll just list what we've fed ours and you can go from there.

Pinkies (mice/rats) and hoppers/fuzzies when big enough - he gets one of these a week.
Crickets - they wolf em down like popcorn (effect heightened w/ calc powder) - between 10 and 20 midway between pinkie feeds.

Handfeed/foodbowl items:

mangos
oranges
kiwis
tomatoes
green peppers
cucumbers (peeled)

Was hesitant at first to give acidic fruits/veggies but from what I have read they have no problem at all with citrus etc. Haven't tried anything else yet but I imagine he'd go nuts over watermelon, canteloupes etc.

Please post some pics and keep us posted!

Way cool! I was very tempted by the plateds, too. But the lizard I'm going to buy is for my son, so I let him have some say in the matter. We've finally settled on a beardie. But I bet I end up with a plated one of these days! Can't wait to see pics of yours!

congrats homie. gotta' love the feeling of bringing home a new pet.

Thanks guys. Smulkin, I'll pickup oranges and kiwi tonight.

I got the final measurement. Technically he's 9 inches long. Adding the 2 inches that fork directly up, he's 11 inches. Dunno how long he'd be if his real tail was there. Think I should do anything about his tail?

Got quite a surprise today from our plated. He's gotten really attentive on feeding days (they must have killer sense of smell as he has a perfectly placid reaction every other time we open it to handle) and when we brought a pinkie in he was looking upwards in anticipation. This is the pose he strikes when he (somehow) KNOWS we got goodies for him:

http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/bramm...eat122904a.jpg

Note the short and not so stocky legs. Hardly a "leapin' lizard" that one. But while lowering the pinkie down into the cage he SPRUNG into the air, launching off his hind legs and I kid you not used his tail as a sort of spring as well to get airborne (the base of thier tail is THICK) and snagged the pinkie dangling from my fingers like some sort of circus seal or dolphin goin after a dangled fish. I'm talking a good 16" for a lizard that sometimes has problems ambling his lazy looking but up onto the roof of his hide (shoebox height).

Never seen him do that before - jawdroppingly awesome.

Now if I can get him to pedal that tiny little tricycle around . . .

Quote:

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Now if I can get him to pedal that tiny little tricycle around . . .

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LOL ... what's the herp equivalent of a flea circus?

What species of plated is that?

Thats awesome! And cute!

That one is gerrhosaurus major - the Sudanese Plated - dubbed Reptar by our son.

Validus is the largest, right? Mine would be a nigrolineatus, I'm pretty sure. I love it to death, I should go one up and get the validus. Are these cheap and readily available?

Not sure on the Validus - I have been looking for another Major since our first and have yet to find one (with the exception of a couple deliverables).

For one adult lizard, a two foot by three foot enclosure seems to be a minimum. A 20 gal is too small, even a 20 long is not wide enough.