Friendly lizards

[douff]

Hi,

Every now and then I take my coastal into school and the kids absolutely love him. Because of this I'm planning on getting a lizard or two to keep in the class.

I intend having the school get a license so I figure this stops any hassles of having a reptile off of my property.

My main question is however - what to get?

I'd like something that wasn't too flighty and will interact with the students when handled. I've got room for 4' * 1' tank. I'd also rather have more than one in the tank. Though this isn't absoloutely necessary.

Any thoughts?

regards,

Daniel

 

[Pinkie]

In my opinion, the best handling lizards are the good old Blue Tongues.
They are really docile and should be fine if small kids are handling them, they rarely bite or snap. With periodic handling they should get used to the kids holding them.

I got 3 blue tongues last year and even when I first got them they were the most docile things in the world. They are also really slow moving so its less chance of an escapee in class!

 

[Magpie]

Beardies would be my tip but others might say blueys. Both pretty easy to maintain, friendly, happy to be handled etc. Do need UV though.

 

[africancichlidau]

If the tank is going to be 4' by 1' then I would say that is too small for either beardies or blueys. Maybe not at first but when they grow they will need far more room than 4 square feet. Just my opinion of course but it is right

 

[diamondslady]

i say go the beardies they r the best!!! i take my beardies into s :roll: chool with me well actually i take everything in and the kids just love it ,of course you have to tell them to be careful and whatever else,but the beardies love the attention too..fiona.

 

[olivaceus71]

go the beardie

I would say go for a vitticep beardie or maybe henrylawsonii.
I have gold/yellow phase, but regardless of colour they all seem people friendly.Eastern beardies(barbata) are a bit more skitish, though they do have the best beard displays IMHO

My beardies are around 3 years of age and even if I only handle them once a month they are placid as anything and real characters. Open a cricket or roach container in hearing distance and watch out and they would sell their soul for a pinkie mouse. If they are in a classroom, once adult they are pretty low maintainence as all of my adults feed mainly on veges, though they can cause quite a pong if not cleaned immediately after their morning constitutional.

I keep mountain dragons which tame up really well and do not need much space but are hard to raise from new born/hatched and basically turn their nose up at most veges (have become an expert cricket/roach breeder) so are higher maintainence. Bluies are cool but harder to sex and if you end up with 2 adult males when they mature, their could be a bit of drama with them fighting.
hope I was of some help
cheers

 

[Hawkeye]

Suggest talking to Alexhander as he has lizards at his school and he could probably tell you what set up they have there and the licence requirements etc etc.

Maybe if you ask super nicely some members may even get you some cheap excess stock to help educate your class mates!

Cheers Hawkeye :lol:

 

[roadkill5000]

id say bluies along with everyone else but you could also get shinglebacks

 

[popp]

Hi douff,just wondered what state you live in aswell what age are your students?The tank size is that all the space you would be allowed or is there a chance of a bigger enclosure.Im sure that someone would donate some lizards to your school :wink: .Beardies n blueys as allready suggested would be my choices to start with.

 

[Alexahnder]

good on you for starting up a herp club at school. i've also done that at my school and we got some bluies. just out of interest what school r u at.

 

[douff]

Thanks to everybody for your information.

My grade is in Brighton Victoria and my students are in Gade 4, so you are looking at around 9-10 years of age.

I guess to start off with I will look at bluey's and bearded dragons. It seems to be the general concensus.

I could go to a larger cage for them. (from the sounds of things I will have to)

At the moment it is more of a space issue. I could go to around two foot wide (3 at the most), length and height should not be a problem. Both types of lizard seem to be social (so I'd rather keep more than one) and I don't want to cause them any stress. So what sort of size should I be looking at?

The reading that I've looked at on the net is pretty varied on sizes. One place suggesting 4*2*2 for 3 adults, another looking at the width of the tank being 2* the length of the dragon and length of the tank being 4* the length of the dragon. That's a big tank.

 

[africancichlidau]

I successfully kept a breeding trio of Vitties in a 6x2x2 and they seemed very happy. I wouldn't reccommend any smaller for adult beardies.