Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've seen them around occasionally but the one person that I know that had them for a while said that they have a very bad temperment. I've had g. major and had success with them but the way this guy talked about them it gave me second thoughts. If anyone has experience with them let me know what you think.Thanks

Hello! I take it you mean G. validus, the true Giant Plated Lizard? Your G. major is often wrongly called this in the pet trade, when the latter is really the Greater Plated Lizard.

I have two G. validus, a male and a female. Wonderful lizards. Like G. major, they can be skittish, and unless you handle them a lot and are patient over a fairly long period of time, they will not relish being caught/picked up. They may skirm and even do the 'alligator' roll, thrashing around to get free if held only from the rear quarters. But mine, at last, have never shown ANY kind of aggression, nor has either animal attempted to bite.

My male is quite large, the female, who is younger and still growing, considerably smaller. They are incredibly easy to careful and problem free (up to this point, knock on wood). I have them in a 4 ft. by 30 in. enclosure, with several inches of aspen shavings, hides, large, flat, elevated basking rock, and used to have a stout branch, but as neither ever climbed it I removed it. Standard basking lamp and a separate 10.0 UVB fluorescent. Heating pads with safe air space under the tank for night-time warmth. I feed them every other day on either ground up and moistened Zoo Med juvenile iguana food (the pellets) or Innova canned senior dog food (a very high-grade dog food with natural ingredients and low protein/low fat). They are nice and fat and healthy.

Good luck if you decided to get some, but remember they are large as adults, need a LOT of space, and can be long-lived.

Dan

I would add that these animals are always wild-caught imports, like your G. major. So unless you know for a fact that the person you buy them from has quarantined them and treated them for internal parasites, and made sure they do not exhibit signs of external parasites (a guy sold me a G. major once that was covered with ticks - lots of fun getting those things out from between the scale rows of a plated!), assume that you will have to keep the animal quarantined and treat it yourself. Heaven forbid it will have mites, which can be a significant problem. Ticks can be removed with tweezers and by applying an innocuous oil like olive oil to the effected parts of the lizard's body, which suffocates the parasites. Fenbendazole (usually called Panacure) can be gotten from feed stores or pet supply companies as a non-prescription wormer and you should use this two to three times, with the appropriate intervals, although not too soon after you get the animal, as it adds stress to an already stressed animal's system.

That's about all I can think of for now...

Dan