General Discussion

I'd love to add to this form ! I have a Cali King Snake, a turtle, and two lovely Leopard Geckos that I would die for tbh

[quote name="MissPatchy" date="2018-03-17 22:05:43" ] I don't own any, but i'm doing a companion animal handling course and just finished the unit on reptiles, and I think i'm going to own one in the future. Handling and learning how to take care of them has really ignited a big interest in them that I didn't have before. What prompted you guys to get your first reptile? [/quote] @MissPatchy ohh what kind are you thinking of getting? and to answer your question, one day years and years ago, i just sort of decided i wanted a bearded dragon. i did a bunch of research on how to take care of them, how to set up a proper terrarium, what is and isn't healthy for a reptile. but considering how expensive beardies are, and that at the time i was just a kid with no job, the goal kind of fell by the wayside for a while. flash forward to my...junior year of high school i do believe. i had to go take some state tests. i was homeschooled, so in order to take those tests, i had to go to the school's like...i forget what they called it but it was a little hub building in my state's capitol where students could come and study. anyway, they had a class pet there. it was a leopard gecko. i was still very quiet and shy at the time so all i did between tests was hang out by that lizard. eventually one of the teachers asked me if i wanted to hold him, and i just fell in love with the little dude. went home, re-did a bunch of research. already knew most of the fundamentals. found out leopard geckos are a lot easier and cheaper to care for than beardies. and they need a lot less space! eventually bought a terrarium. furnished it. found a good, reliable breeder. bought the gecko. she arrived at my doorstep on my 18th birthday. now i have two geckos, and also the beardie i never thought i would get! :D

@MissPatchy - I've been obsessed with reptiles since I was two. Started with dinosaurs and dragons, then spiraled from there. When I was five-ish I met a nice bearded dragon at the local library and decided I wanted to get one. Since they're a bit pricey for a child's first non-fish pet, at the start of first grade my parents made a deal with me and said they'd get me a beardie if I could take care of a house gecko for a year, and find someone responsible to adopt it afterwards. (We had an old leaky fish tank for the lizard to go in, and they didn't want to buy a whole new enclosure so I could keep both lizards.) I took care of the gecko, and a lady that frequented the local pet store said she'd take the gecko once I found a beardie that I liked.

At the start of second grade I was at the petstore one day and the employees asked me to keep an eye on the baby beardies so they could leave the door to their enclosure open while they fixed some food for them. While the tank was open one of the little beardies crawled onto my lap, and since he was such a friendly little thing I decided he was the one that I wanted.

So the gecko adoption was completed and we took the beardie home and I named him Cuddles. Turned out the pet store employees did not have decent advice on bearded dragon care, but a breeder we ran into buying crickets gave us a card for an excellent vet clinic in the area that treats exotics (where he took his lizards.) So Cuddles went to the vet, and they gave us much better advice (what we found online before getting Cuddles was contradictory and a lot of it wasn't accurate) and diagnosed him with a severe case of giardia. So Cuddles grew up getting frequent bubble baths and my germphobia wound up being very useful.

He made a full recovery and grew into a healthy larger than average beardie (he turned out to have some German giant blood) and was very friendly his whole life. He passed away four years ago from stomach cancer when he was six years old. I got my second beardie Luna right before I started high school.

And that is the history of my lizard ownership! ^_^

@CelestialOrca have you seen this?

@MissPatchy ohh i see. bearded dragon is definitely the best bet then! there's a lot of information out there on how to take care of em, and it's really not that difficult. the hardest part (in my experience anyway) is making sure they get a proper diet. my two geckos that i owned beforehand are strict insectivores so suddenly having to deal with fruits, veggies, and greens was a bit startling lol.

but they're definitely not a bad beginner reptile as long as you're willing to put in the work to research! they're pretty hardy and forgiving to mistakes, plus like you said they've got lots of personality! they're rly alert and inquisitive and they tolerate handling real well.

good luck with the dragon and your future knobtail!! i love knobtails too.

@azlynn he's a sideneck turtle !