So, I've had a reptile interest ever since I was in my teens. But, I knew I had to do my research on them and boy did I do my research. Turtles and Tortoises were ruled out because a) I wasn't ready to maintain an aquatic or semi-aquatic habitat and b) I would have to write a will if I got a tortoise, because they live for so long. Snakes eventually got ruled out because of the diet. I just don't think I could handle feeding rodents. So then, I knew I wanted a lizard. But what kind of lizard? These are the questions I asked myself:
- How big is the lizard? Any bigger than like an iguana and I was like "No way, I'll probably never have a lizard that big.
- Does it need an outdoor enclosure? This ruled out iguanas, as adult iguanas do best in an outdoor enclosure and it simply gets too cold for iguanas here in Ohio
- Can it seriously hurt me? Like, I can handle a little bite that draws blood, but a big bruise from a tail whip(further ruling out iguanas) or a strong bite that could rip off part of my finger and bring me to the hospital for stitches(ruling out larger monitors than Ackies) would probably not be worth it
- Is it easy to tame or ideally already tame?
- Is it a display animal? This ruled out a lot of anoles and tiny geckos due to size, giant day geckos due to delicate skin, and chameleons due to moodiness as I wanted a lizard I could actually handle
This then brought me down to the final 6, which were:
- Larger anole species like maybe a Cuban False Chameleon
- Leopard Gecko
- Crested Gecko
- Bearded Dragon
- Blue Tongued Skink
- Ackie Monitor
Anoles were already at the bottom as they do better cohabbed and I was like "1 lizard is enough for now, I don't need 3". There were 3 main things that I looked at to determine which one to get, those being diet, activity level, and humidity. As for diet, I preferred omnivores over strict insectivores/carnivores, which favored Bearded Dragon and Blue Tongued Skink. As for activity level, I wanted an active lizard, one that might even want to play. This favored Bearded Dragon and Ackie Monitor. And as for humidity, I figured a humid habitat might be harder to maintain than an arid habitat. Especially the case for hot and humid vs hot and arid. This also favored Bearded Dragon and Ackie Monitor.
It took a while to decide between these 2. I like taking on a challenge, so the Ackie was appealing. But probably not very available where I live in Ohio. I knew my dad could build a big enough enclosure for an Ackie monitor. A Bearded Dragon would be easier to get, less expensive, and also would need a big enclosure that my dad could build. Plus, they take less taming effort than any monitor lizard. Ultimately, the Bearded Dragon won out and I have the lighting for it(except the tube UVB, I could only find the coil UVB where I found the basking bulb, so I'll get a T5 tube UVB off of Amazon I think once the enclosure is finished. I know a good height to put the basking bulb at so that it doesn't get too hot at the basking spot. I've been patiently waiting for over 3 years now, hopefully I get my bearded dragon soon.
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