6 Important Things You Need to Consider Before You Adopt a Lizard

Having a lizard is nothing like having cats and dogs. It’s an entirely different experience. Their living conditions are different, and so are their food habits. And if you want to have a pet but don’t want to deal with fur, then lizards are the perfect scaly companion for you.

Before you adopt a lizard, there are six extremely important things that you need to consider about adopting them as a pet, including what breed to get and how to handle them. We have discussed these factors in the following sections.

6 Important Things You Need to Consider Before You Adopt a Lizard

1.Feeding Habits

Lizards have a wider range of food habits compared to other domestic animals. They can be herbivorous, carnivorous, or omnivorous, so their feeding habits will differ widely.

For feeding your lizard, you’ll need to stock up on insects like crickets and grasshoppers, worms rich in fat, nutrition, and protein such as superworms, mealworms, and butterworms, or rodents like mice, rats, and hamsters.

If you’re uncomfortable with handling insects and rodents, getting a herbivorous lizard is a better idea.

2.Accommodations

As a beginner, you should look for lizards that are not very high maintenance and are relatively calm, and consider their size so that it’s convenient for you to accommodate.

Here are a few crucial things that you need to consider:

Habitat

When you’re planning to adopt a lizard, do thorough research on its breed and check out its natural habitat. Lizards usually like living in both land and water, although a few other things play a role, like temperature.

Try to mimic their natural habit in their tank as much as possible. If your lizard loves water, make sure you keep an aquarium. If it loves climbing, include something it can climb. Or you can make a ramp similar to a dog ramp so it can climb down the tank.

Make sure that you build a terrarium with plants and substrates that are suitable for your lizard.

Temperature and Humidity

Since lizards are cold-blooded animals, they rely on heat and need an adequately warm environment. Ensure that your lizard’s tank is temperature-regulated, or place it in a warm spot. If the tank has an aquarium, make sure that the water is constantly at a warm temperature.

Make sure you keep your lizard in a humidity-regulated environment so that it can molt properly and stay healthy. Without enough humidity, your lizard will dehydrate and die. If it’s too humid, it may contract skin infections.

Lighting

You must keep your reptile in a well-lit environment with both natural sources and UV lamps. Your reptile pet needs a lot of UV rays to synthesize vitamins A and D and absorb calcium and other minerals.

Lizards need vitamin A to grow constantly, stay active, and maintain a good appetite. Vitamin D is important to keep your lizard’s bones strong and its skin healthy. Without either of these, it will become brittle and have irregular growths on its body.

Size of the Tank

The size of the tank is important for your lizard to adapt well to your home. Larger lizards need big tanks with both dry as well as wet sections. See if your house has enough room for it. If not, then you need to settle for a smaller lizard.

Make sure the tank size is big enough for your lizard to roam around comfortably. Preparing a tank for your lizard is nothing like building a fence for a dog, as it needs a lot of things and is more costly.

3.Handling Them with Care

Lizards may look rough and scaly, but they are sensitive animals, so you should always be careful when petting them. Never pick it up by its tail, as the tail may break or fall off. They can regenerate, but it’s a painful process.

You should make your house appropriate for your lizard to live comfortably and accommodate it in a calm space so that it doesn’t get agitated.

4.Toilet Training

Lizards don’t stay in their tanks all the time. Sometimes, you need to get them out into an open space so they can roam around freely. While doing so, they can drop feces everywhere around your house or in your backyard.

What to do about that? Toilet train them! Have a dedicated place for them to leave their droppings, be it a corner in the house or inside their terrarium.

5.How They’re Bred

If you want to start keeping lizards as pets, you need to consider which environment they were bred in. Lizards that were bred in a domestic setting are easier to maintain and pet. They also have lower risks of infection and are friendly.

Beware of keeping wild-bred lizards. Wild lizards are aggressive and carry higher risks of infection. So if anyone in your house is susceptible to infections, then you should never pet wild lizards.

6.Vet Care

Before keeping a lizard as your pet, consult a veterinarian who is an expert on reptiles. Make lists of the medications and vaccines that you need to give your new friend.

Lizards, although they have similarities, also have a lot of differences. That’s why it’s best to keep each lizard in a separate terrarium. Also, ask the vet which lizards are best for domestication, and how you should care for each of them.

Conclusion

Lizards are becoming more popular as pets but tend to be completely different compared to your furry best friends. You need to know what you should feed them, keep them away from, how you need to accommodate them, and much more.

We hope that you have a sense of all the basic things that you should consider before adopting a lizard as your pet. You should take them into account before making your decision so that you have a long, happy experience together with your new pet.

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