When thinking of pets you can keep in your terrarium, lizards are one of the first things that comes to mind.
A lizard terrarium can be fascinating. While they are mostly peaceful, lizards can also exhibit an interesting set of behaviors.
Some of the pet lizards you can keep also have unique physical features, making them interesting pets that you can proudly show off to your guests.
In this post, we’ll give you a few pointers on how to keep a pet lizard and some of the best lizards to keep as pets.
Let’s get started.
How to Keep a Pet Lizard: Your Lizard Terrarium Guide
Pet lizards are not that hard to keep, but there are certain things you need to do to provide for them.
Each species has its own requirements, so it is up to you to research the specific needs of the pets you choose; here we’ll give you some general information.
The first and foremost thing you need to consider is the size of the tank. As a general rule, at minimum, the tank should be twice as long as the pet lizard. While it is good to have a big area, you don’t need much height, unless you want to keep tree-dwelling lizards that like some vertical space.
The substrate you should use depends on which species you use. Basically, you should avoid shavings and anything that could be toxic to your pet. You can use sand (for land dwelling lizards), coarse bark or peat moss potting soil (for woodland lizards), or Sphagnum moss over bark chips (for tree dwellers).
As for what you should feed your crawlers, it depends on whether they are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores.
Carnivorous lizards like to eat live insects such as crickets, roaches, mealworms, and hornworms. Herbivores can be satisfied with collard, green beans, cactus fruit, freshly cut vegetables, and berries.
As for water, keep a shallow dish where they can take a sip without drowning themselves.
One special requirement of lizards – and all reptiles in fact – is the need for UV light exposure. They need UV-B for vitamin D synthesis and calcium metabolism. They need the exposure for 12 hours per day. So make sure you get a good UV lamp for them.
Also, being cold-blooded creatures, lizards may need your help to warm up their bodies. If your environment is always warm, it’s not always needed, but if it gets cold your pets can act sluggish.
You can use a heat lamp or a heat mat/tape. You can place it at one end of the tank so that you create a temperature gradient – your lizard can get under the lamp to bask in the heat and leave when they are warmed up. That way, you can avoid overheating your cold-blooded pet.
One more thing: as much as you’d like to, avoid handling your scaly pet-buddies as much as possible. If you must, avoid sudden movements – if spooked they could run really fast, or worse, discard their tails or shoot blood from their eyes!
Another reason you shouldn’t touch them is that they could carry bacteria such as salmonella. One not-so-fancy but necessary part of keeping lizards is the cleaning of their dropping – do it at least once a week.
FAQs About Lizard Terrariums
How to Build a Terrarium for Lizards?
You can repurpose a fish tank as a terrarium – most lizards will be fine with a glass tank. You need to make sure you install a secure lid, as lizards are notorious escape artists.
Remember to provide ventilation for your pets; it goes without saying that the gaps shouldn’t be large enough for your pets to escape (keep in mind that lizards can squeeze through even small gaps).
You can set up a small door to feed them or to access the tank for any reason. That way, you don’t have to remove the entire top and you avoid the risk of your pet escaping.
Can You Keep a Wild Lizard as a Pet?
It is possible, but not something advisable.
First off, it’s difficult enough to keep your domesticated lizards calm; you can extremely stress out wild lizards by capturing them, even to the point of them dying from stress.
Moreover, it could be illegal to catch any endangered species from the wild.
Lastly, animals from the wild are likely to carry parasites and diseases, which you could introduce to your domestic pets.
How to Keep a Lizard Tank Humid?
Woodland and rainforest lizards require a sufficient level of humidity in the tanks. Just the presence of water in the terrarium can raise the humidity.
You can also mist the tank from time to time to keep it humid. You can do it manually or have an automatic misting system.
Best Lizards To Keep As Pets
Anole Lizard
A popular pet lizard, anole’s striking feature is its dewlap under the throat, which is folded skin that can be extended as a flap. The dewlap is often colorful, making the anole an ideal candidate for your tank.
Anoles are diurnal, which means they are active during the day. Your anole lizard terrarium should be at least 10 gallons and 18 inches tall.
Anole is actually a large family of lizards, with countless species, so expect to see a great variety with them.
Frilled Lizard
A frilled lizard pet is a prized possession – they are one of the most interesting-looking lizards you can get.
They are famous for – and get their name from – the frills around their neck, which they display when threatened or when competing with other frilled lizards.
They are diurnal and arboreal – meaning they spend their time in the trees. One of their interesting behaviors is the ability to run bipedally.
Frilled lizards like to eat ants, termites, and centipedes, which you can easily get from around your house.
Horned Lizard
How would you like to keep a miniature dragon as a pet? The horned lizard isn’t exactly a dragon, but they look very close to one.
As you probably guessed, their most noticeable feature is the horns on their heads; they also have spikes all over their body, giving them the dragon-like look.
Horned lizards have an effective camouflage; they are docile and move very sluggishly.
While this dragon doesn’t breathe fire, they can squirt blood from their eyes! It is a defense mechanism to deter predators with the foul taste of their blood. So avoid spooking your pet horned lizard unless you want to become a bloody mess.
Conclusion
I hope that by now you have a better idea on how to keep a pet lizard. Lizards are interesting and exotic, even while they seem lethargic most of the time. We have given you some fascinating options to get you started.
Your lizard terrarium should have heating, UV lamp, and sufficient levels of humidity, among other things.
Good luck on your journey towards exotic and interesting pet lizards.
Thanks for reading.
Sources
https://petadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Lizard-Care-Sheet.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anolis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_lizard
https://www.zillarules.com/articles/how-to-set-up-a-reptile-tank
