Care for Lizards

Series Summary

Frogs and reptiles make unique pets for kids and give owners a chance to decorate elaborate terrariums to house their favorite tree frog, gecko, monitor lizard or snake. Frogs especially come in wondrous variety, ranging in size from a few ounces to 15 pounds. More than 88 percent of amphibian species in the world are frogs, and they populate areas from arid to subarctic climates, though most species live exclusively in tropical rain forests. Frogs are known for their interesting life cycle, a developmental progression that sees each frog begin as a swimming tadpole before growing hind limbs and taking to the land to live. In this free video series on frog and reptile care, professional herpetologist Tim Cole gives tips for having healthy pet frogs and reptiles. Cole discusses ways to identify a frog, explains what different types of food frogs will eat, and how to raise tree frogs, wood frogs and black clawed frogs. Cole also offers tips for owning iguanas, including how to cage them, how to feed them, and how to keep them socially and emotionally healthy. He also teaches about gecko care.

Video Transcript

"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."