Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My girlfriend, although she has overcome her fear of reptiles, and is well on her way to being "comfortable" with them, has voiced her concern about the space that I am going to be taking up. So, we talked it out, and came up with this, in addition to the pets we already have, and the snakes she's going to get... I have enough room to set up a decent sized enclosure for a savannah monitor, or enclosures for more snakes, the ones I had in mind are a russian rat, a taiwan beauty, and a bull snake.
I don't want it to be a simple decision of "hey, I can have THREE snakes or ONE lizzard" I love snakes, and I love lizzards. I know that noone can decide for me, and I'm not asking anyone to. I'm asking for insight and advice so I can make the best decision for me and the animals. So what would you do? Savannah monitor or bull, taiwan beauty, and russian rat?

Whatever you do, your main concern should be whether or not the animal(s) in question will be comfortable. If you can house all of them comfortably, then I say get 'em all! It's in my experience that snakes require a little less room and their cages can be stacked, so I might go for the snakes, but that's just my biased opinion!
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Randy

Why don't you get two ratsnakes and an ackie? I can tell you like larger animals, but if you compromise with that you probably can get more individual animals. At least until your girlfriend starts bugging you for more. It'll happen.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

she's already bugging me for more, LOL, that's one reason that the space is going to be limited, so she can get the snakes that she wants, LOL.

Personally I'm with the snake crowd on this. A large monitor can be a bear to keep clean and requires more upkeep in general than a snake. They are right in that you can stack snake cages and thus keep more snakes. As to type, the best choices are what you really want...So what do you like best? That will be the right choice.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

thanks everybody. I am going to stick with the snakes. My girlfriend actually helped with the decision. She's fine with my leopard gecko, but...the idea of having an adult monitor scares the bujeezus out of her. She said if I stick with snakes she'll buy me a Taiwan Beauty!!!!
not a tough call anymore is it, hehe

NP
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

In my 50 plus years i've seen it happen ! LOL !

Chambo

Honestly... big lizards kind of make me nervous too. My little 22 inch Timor monitor can do more damage in a singe bite than any of my adult snakes can by hanging on and chewing. He's only bitten me once, but it felt like having my thumb slammed in a door and I ended up with a hole through my fingernail. So anyway... lizards have 6 pointy ends, snakes have one.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch