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Hi, my name is Tim Cole and we're the Austin Reptile Service. I've been keeping reptiles
and amphibians for over forty years and we're here to talk about general lizard care. It's
a pretty broad subject but I'll give you a brief outline. Let's start with how much space
you have because that's going to be a good indicator on what animal you're going to keep.
Some lizards don't take up a lot of space or rather small like a leopard gecko or a
green anole and you could go all the way up to large lizards which would be a water monitor
or a green iguana. Some of these animals make good pets, some of them don't. As a general
rule, iguanas do not make good pets. They get very large, they need a lot of space.
Most of them do not tolerate being handled. Some of your monitor lizards would be the
same way. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of nice tame water monitors, savannah monitors.
Nile monitors generally do not make good pets and they are also fairly large but bearded
dragons are one of the better pets that a lot of people like to keep. They don't get
too large, average about fifteen, sixteen inches and most of them are very docile, don't
even try and run away. They don't whip their tail, they don't bite, they don't scratch.
All the things that an iguana does, the bearded dragons don't. So for that reason they make
pretty good pets. You need to keep in mind that a lot of these animals get big. If you
buy a baby iguana or a baby monitor lizard you have to be prepared to make a large cage
for it. It is not a mystery when this animal gets three to four feet long. You have to
be prepared for that because most people are not going to want these animals if you try
and give them away when they're adults. So please be responsible on the animals you're
going to keep.