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Iguana Info wanted!

I will definitely be running any idea past my principal before any purchases are made, but he is very understanding and supportive.

The parents in my district are very supportive as well. As long as I can show that the animal is secure, they won't have a problem. This is a very small district in a small town (a village, actually) and I have EVERY seventh grader there is (only 136). The school I went to had a graduating class of 500+ and there were four high schools in the district (whereas this district only has one graduating class of 140 in one high school).

This is one reason why any animal I have will be for display purposes only. Frankly, if parents are going to get upset about a lizard or snake, they should get upset about the hamsters and gerbils, too. Another teacher's gerbil bit a girl on the nose last year..the "cute and furries" tend to get handled by students a lot more than the "scaly."
 
While Beardies are a GREAT classroom pet (many of our stores customers are teachers), an open air enclosure might not be best for them. For one, their poop stinks pretty bad, especially after veggies. Two, if the mesh is too big, you don't want to feed the animal crickets in there or you'll have a cricket problem in the classroom, and three, you'd have to have a pretty strong heat source, especially in such a big enclosure. The basking spot for a Bearded Dragon should be 100-110 degrees.

If the mesh isn't too big, A Chinese Water Dragon would probably be great in there. They also eat bugs, they are more arboreal than Beardies, they don't need as high temps, and they don't have as stinky of poop. They are very docile and don't get too big (around 3 feet with tail.) You would have to spray their cage a couple of times a day though and I'd highly recommend regularly clipping the nails. I recently had an incident with a Water Dragon whose nails were a bit long, and they cut me up pretty good when he tried to grip my hands.
 
Plated lizards are decent sizes, cheap, and like to climb, and i've heard there very easily handleable but the problem with them is there almost always wild caught because they're nearly impossible to breed in captivity. I've heard nothing but good things about these guys oh and there omnivorous
 
I'm going to do some research as well as look around at the pet stores tomorrow. I have to pick up some fish food, so I'll take a peek in some cages just to see what types of reptiles are readily available.

Thanks all!
 
I dunno....if it's 5 feet tall and mesh, that screams out chameleon to me. Certainly, a beardie would be a more "personable" and easier to handle animal than a veiled, for example, but yeah, the heat source and fecal smell would be a huge issue with a beardie in that kind of enclosure.

Maybe a "colony" of cresties? Decent size, primarily nectar/baby food eaters, no hyper-specific heating or lighting requirements, good variation in color/pattern morphs, somewhat "handle-able" for classroom kids.....the only issue as I see it would be rampant breeding once they're adults. :)


regards,
jazz
 
Don't even get me started on cute little cresties! I'd be that crazy lady in the cage with geckos in her hair. :crazy02:


Hmm, seems to me I ned to just get many more cages (and dinero) and just get a little bit of everything. *Don't we all wish!*
 
cornspot said:
I LOVE my beardie! They do climb a little bit in the wild (Australians will often find them on top their fences), so It would probably do OK in your cage.

They are coll to look at & very handleable. You may even be able to find a rescue (I know Baltimore's MARS often has them)
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I keep my Beardie in a 4 x 3 x 3 cage and he loves it. Its his home. The larger the better for these guys. That size cage could contain a few with no problem.
The iguana is a bad idea. They take lots of time and work. I owned 2 in the last 15 years and they require a lot of time and care. Go with the beardies or blue tongue skinks.
 
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