Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i want some sort of lizard. one that won't grow much past 24". one that i can take out, handle and such, watch tv with, take out on a harness. one that is friendly and hardy.
any sugestions

i've narrowed it down to bearded dragon, uromastyx or dwarf tegus.

but suggestions are good.

I do not like this anthropomorphistic view of herping. Lizards, and I mean any type of lizard, are not able to bond to people.
(with the partial exception of very few specimens of very few species).
Thats just not part of their behavioural spectrum and one should not ignore that.
If a lizard tolerates alot and even jumps onto you, if you approach it, ist does notmean, it loves you. In its best, it means that the lizard associates you with food, in its worst it measn that the lizard has learned that it can´t avoid you.
Also lizards are poikilotherimc animals which not only do spend a lot of their time in thermoregulation, but are also adapted to a relatively small window of climatic conditions. Moreover almost all species are territorial and only feel safe and secure within their personal territory.
Taken all this and a lot more of lizard knowledge into account, the conclusion is simple:
Lizard keeping means to provide appropriately furnished tanks with a close imitation of the home area climate inside. Apt food and space.
Any handling of any lizard should only ooccur if absolutely inavoidable.
Petting a lizard and cyrrying it around in any case means unnecessary stress, risk of infection and exposure to inappropriate temperatures and relaive humidities.
Its of no benefit for the lizard and only fulfills selfish wishes od the owner.
Some lizards are hardier than others and some can tolwerate more and get used to very unnatural conditions.
But they still suffer.
So if you are not content with watching a fascinatinc creature inside its well designed tank, please forget about lizard keeping at all-seriously.
That there are so many "herpers" out there, who do regularily handle and pet their lizard does not mean that this is the way to go.
If you want a pet for personal interaction, go for one of the furry warm blooded creatures called mammals and select a socail species.
But forget about herps. Really!
If you insist and only collect answers of people, who tell you, what you want to hear, go for a bearded dragon.
These will survive petting and carrying around for some years and are produced in masses, so you won´t affect natural populations.
Please do not take this as a personal offend, but understand that I am trying to explain you the esserntials of herping and the nature of lizards.
Sometimes my languange may be quite straigtforward, but thats just to show you, how seruious the topic is-and also due to the fact that I am not a native english speaker.
So take it serious-Really!

Ci@o

Ingo

I would recommend a beardie, or maybe a uro. If you are looking for a hardy, friendly lizard that you can handle, it's hard to beat a bearded dragon. You could try a uro too but they are a bit more demanding than bearded dragons. I have no experience with dwarf tegus but I seriously doubt they would make as good of a beginner lizard as a beardie.

As for lizards bonding with humans... this is a controversial subject. Many, many people (myself included) feel that there is a common bond between us and our beardies or iguanas. Now it is obvious that friendly lizards don't love their owners. They could probably care less if we died, as long as they were still fed. But I think that some lizards, especially beardies, enjoy human interaction to a limited degree.

That being said... bearded dragons are usually very tolerant of handling, but they are not something that you can walk on a harness or carry around for hours at a time. But they are docile, beatiful, interesting animal that you can definately interact with on a daily basis. And that's really what you're looking for, right?