Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well we have finally swayed my mom to allow a large lizard in our house ! My dad and i are torn between a tegu or some sort of monitor. I personally am interested in getting a black throat and he wants an argentine red tegu. We would love your commentary on these guys because we appreciate both, but are looking for the easiest of the 2.

Also could you provide a little bit of care information on the species you listed? Thanks in advance!
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eric

I have had no experince with monitors but i would guess a tegu would be much more "tame". I would go with the tegu forsure.
Good luck.

I can't give you a definitive answer, I really like the relative ease of husbandry of my Savannah. But on the "tameness" issue, I would be very reluctant to say that a Tegu was friendly(er). I've known 3 Tegus, including two reds, and all of 'em were unpredictable or vicious. Good luck, hope yo get some better info.

Tegu... By far much more tame, though monitors are more entertaining in their mischief.

I have both monitors and tegus (mine are paraguayan black and whites .. whilst my male teg is like a puppy dog, the female is fiesty and will only just let me lift her out of the viv, the male is happy enough to follow me round, wander the house, sit etc.

They are incredibly intelligent lizards and absolutely fascinating. The thing with reds is that they do have a fairly strict dietry requirement for much fruit and veg, B&W's eat mainly rats, mice, chicken etc, with occassional offerings of fruit.

Black throats are very nice lizards also, and most that I have interacted with have been 'quite' tame. They are also intelligent, however, in my experience are not as such, or as interactive as tegs.

I keep various varanids and all have their own temperament .. my argus is a hissing headcase, my ornate nile is like a puppy ....

If it were me and I were after my first 'big' lizard I have to say that I would go with either a savanna monitor or a B&W tegu.

I don't think that you would go wrong with either.

hope this helps

Carl