I can't unfortunately, answer the question about the gas heaters, but I can recommend a lizard. My first lizard was a beardie, but my second is a Leopard Gecko. He was a little tempermental as a baby and would scream and nip at me. This behavior was all show and his nips didn't hurt AT ALL. I don't know if it was just him or if they are all like that but I wanted to warn you. At first I thought I would never let the kids hold him with all the theatrics. With regular handling he's gotten to be fat & lazy and he loves to sit on my shoulder just hanging out. The kids hold him with no problem, but I do always supervise because the lizard seems more fragile than my bearded dragon. I don't want him to lose his tail if they dropped him. There are some other lizards I could recomend but the only one I think might be relatively inexpensive is the leo gecko. I think since you seem to be doing the research you need to know the animal you shouldn't worry too much about losing your pet. Leos are not too hard to take care of and there is a great forum on Kingsnake if you need more information. You can get a leopard at most petstores (be sure you know enough to pick a healthy animal if you get it at a store) and you can also check the classifieds here as well. Good luck!
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
0.1 Amel - Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Standard Black - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

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