Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I used to have a bearded dragon. Will my blue spiny lizard ever be as tame as a bearded? right now he is skiddish and uncooperative. Also, do they eat any type of vegetation or will a diet of crickets work? Is there an easy way to sex them? He/She is in a 20 gallon long aquarium, can i put anything else in there?

P.S. i was thinking a young garter snake for a tankmate.

I would not put a garter snake in with the blue spiny. They have different habitat needs and would only stress one another out.

Blue spinys tend to be high strung / skittish. Assuming yours is an adult, it probably will never get as tame as a bearded. Blue spinys can also get over 14 inches in length. If possible, I'd recommend upgrading to at least a 40 gallon, with 60 gallons being much better. They are primarily insect eaters, but I imagine that they are like most spinys and will also occaisionally take some veggies.

If you want to add tank mates, you need a bigger tank. I'd look into other desert lizards like collards and leopards.

Sexing scelops / spinys is easy. Flip you lizard over. Males of all ages will have a pair of enlarged scales just past the vent. Mature males will also have an enlarged row of femoral pores along the rear underside of their thighs.

Here is a picture of a male sagebrush lizard showing the enlarged scales I talked about and the pores.

Here is a female, as you can see she's lacking the enlarged scales and her pores are much less developed.

-Alice

here is a picture, are you sure that this type of lizard will outgrow a 20gallon? hell if i knew it was gonna get that big i just would have gotten a bearded dragon!!
Link

I think that at 14" a 20 would be a little confining. I've never personally worked with the species, and the individual you have looks to be a little guy. For some reason, I thought you had an adult. I'd say at the size he's at now, a 20 is fine an maybe since he will have grown up in it he'll be content. But, if he does get as large as they're supposed to get, you might want to consider an upgrade especially if you want to add tankmates.

-Alice