If your lizard is diurnal, it is awake during the day. He will need at least 10 to 12 hours of full spectrum lighting a day. This will help him to absorb plenty of calcium and vitamin D, a necessity for their health.

The bottom of the enclosure should be absorbent like bark or rabbit pellets. You can also purchase a reptile carpet at your local pet store. Gravel and dirt are hard to clean and are not your best choice. If your lizard burrows, provide it with a plastic container of sand. Your lizard will love places to hide, such as limbs, bark or ceramic logs. There are attractive objects you can purchase that will not only beautify your housing, but please your lizard as well.

The temperature of your habitat is extremely important. Your enclosure should remain between 75 to 85 degrees (NOTE! Different lizards may require different temperatures. Be sure to research the temperature requirements for the particular lizard you are purchasing). There should be a basking area on the side heated to 90 to 95 degrees. Purchase two high range thermometers, placing one near the basking area and one at the opposite side.

Calcium is very important to the lizard diet. Again, be sure to fully research the requirements of your specific lizard. You can purchase calcium supplements, including a calcium powder that you can shake your crickets in before you place them in the tank. If your lizard has a thin to normal body weight but his legs begin to look chubby, take him to the vet immediately. This is a symptom of calcium deficiency, which can eventually kill your lizard.

Small lizards live three to five years, while larger lizards can live up to twenty years. Be sure to keep this in mind when selecting your pet.

Lizards have two lungs, and can breathe through their skin as well as their lungs. They are “sun seekers,” meaning they seek out warmth for hunting and digesting their food, while they look for cooler temperatures when they begin to overheat. Your healthy lizard will molt, or shed his skin.

Choosing Your Lizard

You might consider a skink as well. The Blue Tongue Skink grows up to 30 inches long, and require a large terrarium. The Berber/Schneider skink grows up to 18 inches long, and may be suitable as a first time lizard.

Be sure to read about Lizard Diets and Lizard Housing before you decide to purchase a lizard.

Lizards take a great amount of care, require fairly large habitats, and can be a lifelong responsibility. Research and read everything you can before purchasing a lizard!

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Cleaning

Food

Use a premium cricket gutload to feed your crickets. If you use fresh vegetables as well, do not use leftover food from your other animals. Again, this can spread bacteria. Use freshly washed, high quality vegetables and take them out after 2 hours with the crickets to prevent spoilage.

At least 24 hours before you are going to feed the animals crickets, be sure your sponges are moist and supply a good amount of gutload. The moist sponges help to hydrate your crickets, which will in turn hydrate your animals.

Avoid using gel bites or water gels. These can both dry out and harbor harmful bacteria. Additionally, the gel can stick to a cricket’s leg, be carried to your animal and expand inside your animal.

When choosing a skink, look for one that appears healthy and has a good store of fat in the tail. It is difficult to tell the males from the females. But if you are trying to guess, the male skink has a straighter line and wider head, while the female tends to have a more rounded body and smaller head.

An adult skink should be housed in a tank size of at least 55 gallons, with 75 gallons being your best choice. The blue-tongued skink does not dwell in trees, and therefore requires more horizontal space than vertical space. Your substrate should be bark chips, or bed-a-beast. Never use sand, which they may ingest, or pine and cedar chips. Spray the tank every two to three days to keep the environment moist. The temperature of your tank should range from 85 to 90 degrees during the day. Never keep the environment colder than 70 degrees during the night.

This little lizard has small feet and does not climb high. He would much rather explore the insides of bark tunnels and other objects made for lizards. Use flat rocks and keep moist sphagnum moss in a corner to help him shed. Place a reptile heating pad under one area of the tank, enabling him to find warmth when needed, but also allowing him to cool off in other areas.

UVB lighting must be used in your skink’s habitat. The light should be full spectrum and needs to be kept on for about eight to twelve hours a day.

Your blue-tongued skink should have clean water at all times in a shallow dish. At least one meal a week should be dusted with extra calcium. Slugs, snails, pinkies (baby mice), earthworms, crickets and mealworms are simply delectable to your lizard. You can also chop up greens for him, while also offering fruit such as kiwi, berries and cantaloupe. Do not give your skink iceburg lettuce – stick to dandelion greens, spinach, collard greens and broccoli. To encourage your skink to eat at least 60% veggies, mix them with a high quality beef dog food. You can also give your skink the occasional piece of steamed and cooled chicken or beef.