Leopard geckos are a great choice for a first reptile and here’s why!
-Ease of care: they aren’t very demanding in terms of husbandry. You can just set a thermostat and thats pretty much it.
-Forgiving of husbandry errors: some reptiles will die VERY quickly with minor husbandry errors. Not leopard geckos. So long as you check up regularly and correct errors in a timely manner, they’ll keep surviving.
-Ease of acquiring their diet: plenty of pet stores sell crickets/mealworms.
-Ease of handling: look, I know not everyone wants to handle their reptiles. Some folks are completely fine with a hands-off, display-only pet. And that’s cool. But a lot of people want to hold their pets (also fine) and leopard geckos tend to be very docile and don’t stress out over handling. They’re a very curious species and frequently like to watch what I’m doing. I think they’re personable little lizards.
-Size: they’re small, so you don’t need a huge habitat for them.
-Ease of information: there are tons of care sheets out there, unlike some rarer species. Since they’re a commonly kept species, you have literally thousands of other keepers to talk to.
Other great lizard species for beginners: crested gecko, gargoyle gecko, fat-tailed gecko… i like geckos a lot, ok.
Bearded dragons and blue tongue skinks are also frequently listed as Best First Pet Lizards, but I disagree since they aren’t as forgiving of husbandry errors. If you want to get a beardie or a BTS, you gotta make sure your husbandry is on point. If you do your research and triple check everything, they’re fine. With a BTS, you’d also want to make sure you’re getting a Northern Blue Tongue Skink and not an Indonesian sub-species— they’re probably the most expensive animal I’ve mentioned so far. Still, I thought I should mention them because they’re great species.
Snake-wise uhh… corn snakes are probably the Quintessential Snake and they’re perfect. King snakes are another great choice, as are milk snakes. Ball pythons are generally listed as Beginner Snakes, but they’re more sensitive to husbandry errors than corns or kings. Rosy and kenyan sand boas are HUGELY underrated as snakes and I highly recommend them. You’ll also usually find western hognose snakes listed as beginner species, but they’re known for being finicky (especially males) and that can startle a new keeper. They’re also BIG on bluffing (making a lot of hissing and fake striking at ‘threats’), which is again kinda scary for someone unfamiliar with it.
I think the most underrated ‘beginner’ snake is probably the gopher snake. These guys have been bred in a STARTLINGLY BEAUTIFUL array of morphs— I also love their behavior. They’re one of my favorite species to encounter in the wild (and captivity!).
I am HUGELY biased in this and think lizards are better. Fight me, snake nerds. I just find lizards more interesting to observe than snakes, but that’s just kinda me. Both are pretty great.
so, when I consider what makes a good ‘beginner’ reptile species, I focus on a few key aspects:
Availability: is this species easy to acquire? Are most specimens captive-bred? What’s the impact on the environment?
Food availability: is the animal’s food easy to get?
Handling: some keepers don’t care if they can’t ever handle their reptile, and that’s fine. But I find most beginning keepers really want to hold their reptile, so I tend to lean towards species that tolerate it well.
Forgiving of mistakes: a beginning keeper is going to make mistakes. So a good ‘beginner’ species needs to be able to tolerate and bounce back. So I also don’t generally recommend species that bite a lot.
Upkeep: how difficult is it to set up their habitat and keep it running?
I bring up these things because, no doubt, someone is going to make noise about “BUT ACTUALLY ANY SPECIES CAN BE A BEGINNER SPECIES IF YOU DO ENOUGH RESEARCH”. Which, while a technically true statement, is also pretty useless for our purposes.
With these qualities in mind, here are my top picks for beginner species of lizards and snakes:
Easy Keeper Lizards:
Leopard geckos: widely available, almost always captive-bred, and come in lots of pretty colors! Leopard geckos are extremely hardy and can bounce back from pretty much anything a beginner can toss at them. I also think they’re the cutest. These guys need to eat LIVE insects. Many keepers will breed bugs for them.
African fat tailed geckos: another excellent choice! These guys are so lazy. They’re a little less tolerant of mistakes, but honestly still pretty durable. Their care is pretty similar to leopard geckos, but with a higher humidity.
Crested gecko: ok, I love these guys too. They’re VERY VERY CUTE and the dumbest animals I’ve ever been lucky enough to interact with. Their favorite hobbies include jumping, climbing, and sticking to things. They’re probably the easiest species to keep since they don’t even have really strict heating requirements: room temperature (75F to 80F) is the perfect range for them. They don’t even need to eat live insects and can thrive entirely off of a pre-made food called “crested gecko diet”. It’s a powder mixed with water into a slurry.
Gargoyle gecko: see: crested gecko, but with more brains. They DO require bugs in their diet, preferably live.
Fire skinks: These guys are BEAUTIFUL. Just stunning! They’re the most persnickety animals I’ve included on this list because they’re prone to just flat-out not eating if they don’t feel safe, and they have some exacting humidity requirements. It’s hard to find these animals captive-bred, but definitely worth the effort. They require an extremely dense enclosure—-they need a LOT of clutter to feel safe. But, when those needs are met, they’re quite inquisitive and curious little lizards. They aren’t a hands-on species.
Easy Keeper Snakes:
Corn and king snakes: although these are separate species, I’ve lumped them together because they share a lot of characteristics. These guys are probably the most commonly kept snakes, and for good reasons! They’re very adaptable, easy to breed, are available in a wide variety of morphs, and aren’t picky eaters. They’re very interactive snakes and tend to want to explore their environments a lot, so they require very large enclosures.
Rosy and sand boa: again, I’ve lumped two similar species together. These guys are fairly small snakes, making them good choices if you only have access to small enclosures or have housemates who are afraid of larger snakes.
African house snake: WONDERFUL. INCANDESCENT. JUST BEAUTIFUL. I don’t see enough praise for these wonderful snakes and THAT MUST CHANGE NOW. They’re very easy keepers and are generally fairly mild-tempered.
Today’s post is brought to you by our friend Kanani Akina, who is passionate about wildlife, especially Hawaiian wildlife! She’s here today to tell you all about her newest pets. You might remember her beautiful gecko terrarium that she showed you earlier this month….
There are several species of hermit crabs that live on the beaches of Hawaii. They hang out in tide pools to look for things to eat, such as algae or tiny shrimp. Hermit crabs are well-known for using scavenged shells as an improvised exoskeleton, since their soft abdomens are exposed and vulnerable. They are very picky about their choice in shells; it has to be a perfect fit.
“Hermit” isn’t the best name for them, because they are very social creatures and live in colonies with many members. They even communicate with each other by chirping. Kanani has five crabs in her tank so they don’t get lonely, but in the wild they live in groups of 100 or more!
Hermit crabs love to climb, swim, and burrow, so Kanani has set up a log and shells to climb on, sand to hide in, and a scallop shell wading pool.
If you’re lucky enough to see some hermit crabs in the wild, it’s best to leave them where they are and not disturb them or take them home. But if you choose to adopt from a reputable source, then you should have a suitable habitat made for them. It’s easy to do with a few simple, recycled materials.
(Of course, this is not representative of an actual hermit crab habitat. Real crabs need carefully controlled conditions to survive and be healthy. You should always do thorough research before adopting any pet, and children should not care for delicate or exotic animals unsupervised.)
Anonymous said: 😥 How do you think one should handle a vet who treats your pet
as a waste of time? I get this a lot when I bring a sick or injured
chicken in (after confirming the vet sees chickens) where they treat my
pet like an object or waste of time. I never really know what to do
afterwards other than feel angry. I’m asking you because it’d be nice to
hear from the other side of the table, so to speak.
If you have the option to see a different vet or practice, do so.
I might chalk this apparent attitude up to a bad day or extreme circumstances once, but if it’s happening every time and you’re clearly not happy at all, there’s no reason to stay if you have other options.
It is perfectly possible, even common, to develop a strong human-animal bond with pet chickens, as much so as it is with dogs and cats. But chicken medicine is different to dog or cat medicine in that a lot of chicken medicine is flock medicine, where the individual doesn’t matter so much as the hundred or thousand other birds.
Flock medicine doesn’t focus on the individual, and uses post-mortem exams as a common diagnostic method, which is just not viable for one pet chicken. If a vet is used to seeing chickens as a flock and not an individual, that’s not aligning with your philosophy and you’re probably not going to develop a rapport.
The vet’s attitude may not change. You can bring it up with them, via email is ok if you’re concerned about being confrontational or not having an option for future veterinary care. If you don’t have another option for care, either because you’re isolated or no other clinic is willing to see chickens, perhaps it is something you will have to continue being justifiably angry about.
Because seeing a patient should never be a waste of time, not unless they’re ignoring veterinary advice or declining all treatments and then complaining when the problem isn’t fixed.
Yeah honestly thermostats seem obvious to me because even if the heat mat itself didn’t get too hot, heat mats don’t come with any temperature regulation outside of plugging and unplugging it and that temperature may not be the right one for your animal, plus you can’t always be there to monitor it for the animal anyway.
I think honestly I’m probably going to have to say that the heat mat gets too hot once I get everything actually set up (it probably does anyway). He said that if it wasn’t the right temperature we could get a thermostat when we go to get the actual leopard gecko itself, so there is that.
Also there’s only two actual hides, because that’s what Brilliant Store Guy recommended, and I personally don’t know that staying in a humid hide all the time would be healthy for the animal anyway, even if they do move to cool down.
Staying in a humid hide for too long or having a humid hide/substrate that’s too wet can cause scale rot. Some species are more prone than others, so it’s good to offer a warmer dry spot in addition to that humid hide for sure. Just make sure the humid hide substrate is not too wet for the geck!
We have that with our Ball Python, except he doesn’t get a damp humid hide due to a high risk of scale and mouth rot. He just gets a dark, cool cave instead on one side and a warm one on the other with an ambient humidity.
Leopard geckos usually don’t need much humidity unless they’re in shed as far as I know. I owned one a very long time ago – Not sure the percentage, but I’m definitely sure it’s not the 55-70% that my snake requires lol
Since you said you’re getting a leopard gecko – some things about their care:
Leopard geckos need their insects dusted with vitamins along with proper UVB + UVA lighting because they are prone to Metabolic Bone Disease.
Mealworms are a good treat – but they are high in fat and not much else, and can be harder to digest; so don’t feed those too often! I made that mistake myself – Crickets, Dubias, and Discoids are good to feed the lil bub
Yeah, the humid one is on the colder side, but I only have that one and the other one. And that also makes me uncomfortable because I’ve always seen three online (cool, warm, humid), but I feel like that is a smaller issue than the gecko itself overheating. I am aware of scale rot, along with upper respiratory issues, and that’s why it staying in the current cool/humid hide in the event of the hot side being too hot concerns me.
I’ve heard conflicting things in terms of if leopard geckos require UV lighting, so I don’t currently have that. I’m actually just really confused on that. It’s D3/UV that synthesizes the calcium, right? So I thought they got that from the supplements. But again, I’m really confused on that. Not just whether or not they need it, but whether it’s good or bad for them.
I think I’ll probably feed crickets, dubias, and the various -worms occasionally. With supplements obviously.
I did a lot of research on leopard geckos, but I’m still really worried that I’m missing something or that I’m going to mess something up that’ll seriously harm the gecko.
You know who I admire a ton? Pet owners who understand what is best for their chosen animal and create an awesome space for them to live, enriched and happy
Yeah honestly thermostats seem obvious to me because even if the heat mat itself didn’t get too hot, heat mats don’t come with any temperature regulation outside of plugging and unplugging it and that temperature may not be the right one for your animal, plus you can’t always be there to monitor it for the animal anyway.
I think honestly I’m probably going to have to say that the heat mat gets too hot once I get everything actually set up (it probably does anyway). He said that if it wasn’t the right temperature we could get a thermostat when we go to get the actual leopard gecko itself, so there is that.
Also there’s only two actual hides, because that’s what Brilliant Store Guy recommended, and I personally don’t know that staying in a humid hide all the time would be healthy for the animal anyway, even if they do move to cool down.
How do I convince my dad we need a thermostat for the heat mat since the pet store guy said we didn’t need one
And even if we didn’t /need/ one, I still personally /want/ one for the convenience?
Help
Let him know these reasons and hopefully they’ll help.
Reasons for a thermostat:
An unregulated heat mat can:
1) Cause burns to the reptile as it can get well over 100°F and reptiles don’t always move off of something that is too hot. Even though you may have substrate between the hot glass and the reptile – some tend to move aside substrate when settling in and can end up resting directly on that hot glass.
2) Cause a fire, as it can melt and warp especially depending on the brand heat mat you own (some are made cheaper than others and are more prone to warping and melting)
3) Cause you to replace your heat mat more often due to, the above reason, it becoming warped and unsafe to use.
4) Cause your enclosure to crack or melt due to extreme and constant heat, depending on whether you use tubs or tanks.
remember to get your cat dewormed, even though they’re indoors. signs for worms in cats can be e.g constant hunger, weight loss, rough fur, but sometimes there are no signs, so remember regular deworming
remember to spay/neuter your cat
remember to give your cat attention, affection and playtime daily
remember to clean and replenish your cat’s water bowl daily, making sure the water isn’t contaminated and dirty so your kitty doesn’t get dehydrated
remember to take your elderly cat for a vet checkup annually
remember that cats tend to hide pain/discomfort, so pay extra attention to their body language and behaviour
ifesbob 