Whats next?

[asphyxia]

I will be setting up my new herp room soon and my wife said I can get another pet Yahoo! but what to get? I do know that I want to breed somthing in the future, more on that later.

I am happy with the snake situation for now, and when I decide to breed a snake it will be with one of the snakes I have...corn, ball or the boa.

As for the lizards I have 3 leopard geckos and a veiled chameleon.

So, I would like some opinions on what to get next, unfortunally I do not have a large budget and am leaning towards the bearded dragon Savanna Monitor, Water Dragons or?

What I do know is that it must friendly and on the larger size


Thanks
Brian

[Linds]

If you don't have alot of money to work with then a large monitor is probably something that should be avoided. And in my experience, you have to put a fair amount of work into getting them manageable, even from hatchlings. The initial purchase may not be expensive, but the upkeep can be quite costly. Water dragons can be good, provided they are provided with spacious enclosures. Beardies would fit your requirments nicely.

[dvs]

I would say Beardies too........ maybe German Giant.

[asphyxia]

Hey dvs I am umfamaliar with a German Giant do they have any other names

[Clownfishie]

German Giant is simply another form of a bearded dragon -- along the lines of a morph I guess. Be very careful when buying one, if that's what you decide to do -- many places simply label a beardie as a german giant, even when it isn't one. If you go with a reputable breeder though, you should be fine.

Personally, I would definitely go with a beardie :) They have personality plus, are easily handled, and don't get terribly big, even though they do get to a good size. Plus there's lots of beautiful morphs out there now :) I particularly like the Salmon phase, and the Sandfire Reds... Donald's Dragons in Kitchener is an excellent source for beardies...

Water Dragons are quite nice as well -- I really like the Australian Water Dragons, the males are just gorgeous...

Best of luck! Be sure to take pics of whatever your new addition ends up being :)

Jen

[Lisa]

You could always adopt an iguana, i wouldn't suggest breeding them but they do get to a good size.

[Shadrach]

Hey what let's not forget one of the best lizard's out there today! The Blue Tongue Skink! These are great lizard's to work with and as far as husbandry they are some of the easiest one's to keep. They stay sizeable, eat almost anything, and are very docile. Also if gotton as a baby it is a lizard that grow's very quickly. Oh yeah and one more thing they are a fairly long lived lizard in excess of 25 years! Here's a pic for ya to get an Idea of them. This guy was 8 weeks at the time and ate canned cat food and cricket's. In a month he doubled his size!
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/3029/1012bt.jpg

[andrea88]

Seriously if you are on a budget, do not get a water dragon. We spent about $1500 on the initial set up(and we got all the lumber for free), and hes costing us about $900 a year to maintain. (This would be a lot more if we didnt have our own insect and mice colonies.)
I am not trying to discourage you from getting a water dragon if thats what you have your heart set on, but they are a lot of work to care for properly. We spend 1 hour a day handling, feeding and spot cleaning and aprox. 3 hours a week cleaning the water system.
As for room you need at least 6'(feet) tall 4' wide and 2.5' deep for 1 dragon.
Any lizard you pick will only be friendly if you handle it on a regular basis as well.
I would personally go with a bearded dragon or a skink. They are both a little less high maintainance, and beardies are AWESOME once they calm down and grow up a little.
Good luck in whatever you choose!

[asphyxia]

Note to self...Water dragon out

Bearded Dragon in1st so far,( I wish they got bigger) however a friend is still pushing me for Savanna Monitor

Shadrach: very nice how big does it get and how much work are they?

Lisa: I love iguanas, and had 2 however I lost them through a divorce 6 years ago and want to try somthing else + my wife likes them so that will be an easy sell when the time comes

NEW what about a Mali Uromastyx

...and thanks to all for the info so far

[Linds]

Uromastyx are AWESOME! I'm not a huge lizard fan, but these guys are hilarious! They are super easy to care for - as a bonus they are veggies so you don't have the hassle of crickets :D, and they are extremely tolerant of handling. They usually just hang out on you much like beardies. Chuckwallas are great too, very easy to care for, are also veggies, and super docile. They are similar in apearance to uros except that they don't have the thick spikey tail, instead they have a smooth, tapered tail.
Blue Tongues can make good pets. They are easy to care for and females can reach around 18". Like Shadrach mentioned, they are easy to care for. They are virtually garbage cans. They eat a little bit of everything from canned dog food, to fruit, to crickets, to mice. They are typically quite docile, though I've encountered a few very aggressive juvies and subadults before. Hope this helped ;)

[eyespy]

My vote is for either a beardie or a chuck! Both are fun, relatively easy husbandry once you get your salad recipes down, and just gorgeous to boot.

And you've got to get another ig at some point. S/he'd help you use up all your greens before they wilt. ;)

[dvs]

True german giants get bigger than regular beardies...... Even a cross of the two get bigger then normal beardies, got allot of cool colors. Not exactly sure how much bigger they get in length but they are very noticably bigger all around..... my male measures out to exactly 24" and is finishing up on his growing in the next couple of months so Im sure a full blooded healthy raised giant my hit the 30" mark.... don't take my word on that (im about to go search now) that's just my opionion from one's I've seen.

[dvs]

Ok, that was weird.... I just posted and it dissapered.

Anyways, like I was trying to say........ What are those skinks like and how big do they get???? inteligent? they look interesting.

[asphyxia]

Was just doing some research and the Ionides monitor seems better than the savanna any opinions?

Are German Giant availabe and does anyone have a pic

thanks
B

[dvs]

LoL...... I just did a search on "German Giant" and got a $hit load of porn........ Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info on them though, but there basically the same just a little bigger.

[eyespy]

All German Giant beardies have a common ancestress, named Lucy who was bigger, hardier and more prolific than any other beardie known to man. She was bred by a German breeder, hence the name. So it's really just selective breeding of larger dragons with lots of linebreeding to Lucy's bloodline over the past 20 years. You need to be sure you are getting a GG from a reputable breeder because they can be very inbred when you go with folks who are just out to breed big dragons. GG's from reputable breeders tend to be great animals, much more disease resistant than other beardies.

They look like normal phase dragons unless crossed with a more colorful phase, but often get 22 to 24 inches where a "regular" beardie seldom gets above 21 unless powerfed, which brings about liver disease.