My little brother got a bearded dragon at age 10. One day he runs to my mom saying he lost Shrimpie (he named him Shrimp) and can't find him. When my brother turned around, my mom found Shrimp, he was on my brother's back. Just hanging out there lol. Just a funny little story.

i wanna stress that gargs and cresties are my go to recommendation for first timers but there are quite a few alternatives, including leopard geckos, that i love a ton. I've kept beardies and they make amazing pets, they can just be a lot to handle when properly cared for. gah bless and happy poopin'

We found a Beardy in the wilds of Florida when I was 13, abandoned by an owner most likely, and took him in. Absolutely the sweetest baby.. calm, easy to handle, loved to just be on you and watch the tv. Bit me only once trying to get a carrot slice off my finger- let go before he even hurt me. Idk who left the little guy out there, but they abandoned an absolute sweetheart.

leopard geckos are also great beginner lizards! my dad bought me one for my tenth birthday because my mom wouldn’t let me get a mammal haha & i had her over 21 years! so gentle & sweet, cheap to feed, interactive while also being ok alone & minimal upkeep! i was even homeless in my early twenties & i took her everywhere, when i had enough money i’d get a motel room & put her in an empty dresser drawer & hunt crickets for her! love/loved her so much ❤️❤️ rip ferocio

GARGOYLE!!! They make me **so** happy! 😁 A gargoyle is what I have planned to get when the time is right. 🥰

You set that gecko down on the paper and I instantly fell in love. Not a single thought behind those eyes, bless him. Tell him I love him please. 💕

I had a bearded dragon as a pet until it awakened its inner spider-man and just started chilling in the ceiling

Gargoyle gecko, crested geckos, or leopard geckos are great beginner species. In my experience, crested geckos are a lot more jumpy, but they are so fun.

I agree as a kid I got a beardie and my parents were always annoyed at how much space it would take and the need to take me to the pet store to get crickets and meal worms constantly. A crested gecko would've been so much more simple and easy.

Speaking from experience it’s also not an Iguana lol. I can’t believe my parents let their 10 year old try to keep an iguana in Michigan. RIP Spike I’m sorry you didn’t have a very comfortable life :(

I will always lean towards beardies personally cause that’s the only lizard I’ve had cuddle with me before 😂 I love a good scaly pupper

My dad had a female iguana when I was little, and she had a bad habit of laying unfertilized eggs all over her enclosure then going on an Easter egg hunt and eating them.

Also to anyone getting a beardie (or any lizard) from a petshop, do NOT take their advice for care. It's 99% wrong and you'll make them sick. Take the time to research their care, find support sites and just... pet shop owners are not very well informed to the right care of 'izzards.

Had a blue tongue skink, he was a sweethearth and so easy to handle he lived for 26 year had him since I was born. Very calm most of the time

My first and only lizard was a Beardie named Lizzie. I miss that old girl… didn’t take the best care of her, but I was young and hadn’t done my research, so now I’m taking better care of my two chinchillas, even made sure to think about it for a while and do plenty of research.

I got my first pet reptile about 2 months ago, it was a gargoyle gecko and I love them. So cool looking and don't seem to mind handling

I completely agree with this! Crested geckos and gargoyle geckos are the best beginner reptile. I think they are way easier than leopard geckos because leopard geckos need live feeder insects, heat, more space, more humidity, and they tend to be picky eaters. Whereas crested geckos usually do well in the average household temperature, they eat a dried nectar you just mix with water. And they don’t need as much space.

I got a beardie as my first lizard and yeah, its super annoying. Not the requirements or anything, but the way he looks at me like I owe him rent for living in my own room

Not my family having a bearded dragon as a beginner pet lizard😭😭

Like created I always recommend crested geckos as first reptiles

Gargs are awesome, and can regrow a tail unlike Cresties. I have an enclosure that's begging for a Garg lol. I also recommend Leopard Gecko's or African Fat Tails if you are a little more experienced and don't mind insectivores (Dubia roaches are easiest to keep alive for food lol)

My body is a machine that turns ice cream into diarrhea.

My beardie recently passed in his sleep, been binge watching reptile content to make me feel better

i completely agree. I work at a petstore, and i love being able to introduce new people into reptiles using New Caledonian geckos. it sparks their interest and reptiles, and if it’s not for them, then they don’t have something huge and hard to take care of.

My first lizard I got was a bearded dragon I named sol and he’s the sweetest thing ever and it’s quite easy to take care of him

Leapord geckos are super chill. They never run and you can pet em like cats

Blue tongue skinks gotta my number one pick for best beginner pet reptiles hands down

My parents used to own an iguana before I was born! He had a whole bedroom and acted like the king of the castle.

Bearded dragons actually are good first pets if you do your research and buy the proper setup, the only issue is that it's difficult to get small quantities of greens that won't go bad before they can eat them. My grocery store only sells huge ass bundles of collards so I have to find different ways to preserve it for as long as possible. Otherwise they're extremely rewarding little babies

My first pet lizard experience was a 5 ft green iguana. Space is definitely the hardest part about keeping them. I take care of beardies now too. Beardies are easier to keep but you need to not listen to petco/pet smart for advice on keeping them because they will give you a ton of bad information. Also they keep their beardies in terrible conditions.

Leopard geckos are pretty good lizards as a first pet! Pretty cheap to maintain and their great to get the feel for the hobby

The way the crusted geckos standed i cant XD

In my personal opinion leopard geckos are easier to take care of then the New Caledonia geckos because they are less flighty and you don’t have to worry about humidity but yes the New Caledonia geckos make great beginner pets

Leopard geckos are great too, they really just eat meal warms and you can feed then other stuff too, and if your cleaning out their tank and your cat jumps in they can hiss

Man I already have Iguanas and Teijú's on my backyard.

Leopard geckos are the best beginners I’d say. They’re much calmer

When I was 12 I did 7 months worth of straight saving and research to get my first reptile, whom I still have today, shes the sweetest bearded dragon that I've never had any issues with and shes truly a gift from God 💕

I have 3 cresties! They are awesome! I'd love to gargs in the future! I'd also love i keep eurydactylodes! New caladonian geckos are amazing!

I feel like owning a bearded dragon preps you for bigger reptiles. Yea the daily tasks can be tedious, but it’s well worth it in the end

Deadass thought you were in fishnet stockings for a split second in the beginning 😂

I've had two beardies pass away from improper care from when they were little and rescued them a bit too late. I did the best I could but it was also my first time and there's so much wild misinformation... Thankfully my third beardie I got from a breeder and I know a lot more now. Aside from being a picky little booger that refuses vegetables (but will eat anything that's remotely shiny...) they're growing up strong!

Can confirm. Roommate has a beardie We don’t have a living room, it’s the dragon’s bedroom lol

So cute!! Sadly we can’t get them or most reptiles in Australia but I love to see all different kinds of cool and interesting gecko species that you can get around the world!😊 thanks!😊

It seems like a bearded dragon would be much easier to find, though. I’ve never heard of the gecko type you mentioned

The easiest for me personally are leopard geckos because they don’t have such a strict humidity requirement and can go longer between feedings being desert animals. They tend to get obese easily tho and can have shedding issues so you’d have to examine them every now and then but I do that with any pet. Never had luck with cresties unfortunately :( it is really nice that the crestie food is pre-mixed though with the vitamin dosings and all that afaik.

My first lizard ever was a bearded dragon. I got him when I was eight and I still have him. He’s awesome.

That's the very first lizard I got! I got two, very red gargoyles, with tank, both lights, and a tank FULL of stuff (a nice ZooMed with the flip front doors) for only $50 (they were surrenders, I don't know why). Still have them to this day! The most beautiful creatures I've ever seen.

their diet isn't annoying at all its just salad and bugs 😂

Blue tongue skinks are also really good if you want something bigger

"Diet is super annoying..." YES 😂😂😂😂

THANK YOU! My first reptile was a bearded dragon and as an 11 year old I was not prepared for the amount of cage cleaning and taking care of crickets that came with having a bearded dragon.

Yeah bearded dragons are only for level 50 pros so any thing else wold be a good weapo-I mean starter lizard

Chinese water dragon takes a lot to care for them but it’s so worth it because they are the most friendliest, kindest, chillest lizards you can get. The only reason they nip at your finger is because they think it’s a pinky.

I had a couple of leopard geckos when I was a kid, but the constant upkeep of crickets made it so that once the geckos passed we didn't replace them. They were a lot of fun, tho

I know beardies aren’t the easiest of pets but my heart was set for a long time. My beardie is my best friend and I love her.

My first reptile was a fancy leopard gecko, which I got when I was around 10-11 years old. He’s still with me today and lives a happy life with me and my roommate :)

Gargoyle and crested geckos are so adorable

“They’re having a poop making contest with themselves and they’re always winning”

Me in Australia knowing I’m able to keep chameleon geckos (which are also from New Caledonia) but unaware if I’m able to keep this beauty:

I got my first lizard! A leopard gecko I named Bumblebee. He's just a baby, but already he's getting used to me and ate a cricket from my fingers just yesterday! He's so sweet, I love him dearly.

My first was a Leopard gecko named Spike, named after the Gremlin. Had him for 12 years, loved him everyday.

i’ve had a bearded dragon years like 6 years, i got him when i was 10. he makes a great pet.

i have had a northern blue tongue skink for 4-5 months now and "she" is the chillest thing alive! lol

You know, those igs looked almost like water dragons, it's the face

You can litter box train an iguana fairly easily, I figured out how to do it when I was 12. My iguana had free run of my bedroom once she consistently pooped in the box. Saved a lot of money and space on not having to buy a huge cage. I think she missed having a cage though. She constantly climbed into my birds cage to sleep (no, she never showed any interest in eating the bird)... I miss that weirdo.

I grew up with a Leopard Gecko. I love those little guys

What's the best beginner pet lizard. Me who started with a random lizards in my back yard: Interesting...

For me, one of the easiest lizards to take care of was a Savannah Monitor. They aren't picky, have iron stomachs and for the most part, very docile. Mine was Bubba, he was about 6-7 when I had to give him to my friend when I moved out of state. Had him a few months after he hatched. When he was young, it was just a diet of insects. Grasshoppers, crickets, roaches, etc. Then when he got bigger, it was usually pinky mice(then full grown mice) and scraps of meat I had leftover while cooking. After the first 2 years, I just let him out in my backyard. He made his home in a den in my garden and was smart enough to not go to the bathroom on the patio and only went in the grass, even though I never potty trained him. He was so sweet and gentle, even with the next door neighbor's 6y/o and all of my friends, even him growing to +6ft long. Under my friend's care, he lived to be 11 years old. Definitely recommend Savs for all reptile enthusiasts. I don't recommend Nile Monitors tho. Those fuckers are mean lol.

Leopard Geckos are pretty fun too.

"They're chill- except Toes."

My crestie is my first lizard and I love him dearly, they're easy to care for for the most part especially in a bioactive tank. Their tanks are also tall rather than longer, so they're more space efficient. I love my baby

SO happy you mentioned these geckos.. I am consindering my first lizard and doing my research led me to gargoyle geckos :D glad that someone reccomend them too

I want a lizard so bad, but we have two dogs and one of them is a menace that will jump onto anything and eat anything vaguely rat sized

I have two leopard geckos and they've been absolutely a joy to have, i love my lil geccs 🥰

My leopard gecko, Irving, is very social/likes to be handled. He will hang off the door when he wants to play and will always come out to greet ppl when we have guests. He's more social than our cats

I got my first reptile was when I was about to turn 14, it was a baby bearded dragon! I'm 25 now, turning 26 in a few months, and my best girl is still going strong! I personally don't find their diet to be difficult, I just pick two types of greens per week and veggies/fruits to supplement, and then some bee pollen. Lately I've been adding some baby food in the mix for my oldest since she has become so picky, but the other two girls I have (9 and 1 1/2) also love it so they get to enjoy some too. I agree with the geckos being great beginner pets also though!! Definitely smaller space requirements which is a big issue with a lot of apartments or rooms. They're so soft and squishy too, love the little buggers. I just don't find geckos to be as safe to cuddle or bring out places, which is a personal draw for me, 2 of my 3 love going outside on their harnesses to run around and explore, and I take them on nature trails with my best friend. I like to say beardies are my heart animal, I'd love to someday own a couple different kinds but I'll always have a beardie or three!

I had a common green anole lizard for a couple years and while handling them my mom started talking at me for a solid twenty minutes and my lil noley decided to hide in my hair. It took a while for me to remember that noley wasn't in his terrarium. My sister helped me find him by hysterically laughing at me and picking him up off the top of my head where be was acting like remy.

leopard gecko is the best starter lizard! easy to care for, loving, easy for pet sitters to handle. and the little attack tail wiggle

My first lizard was a brown anole I wound up with because he hitched a ride in a shipment of plants my hardware store got from Florida. He was great, and I miss him so much. We now have a fire skink and a veiled chameleon.

I’ve got a crestie as my first reptile. So easy to care for and while he wasn’t handleable at first, he has chilled out a lot in recent months and doesn’t mind being held. Love that little guy, he’s so stupid

You're right about the beardies. I love mine to death, but I am so glad he's over a year old now and not eating nearly as many bugs. If I ever got another one I'd get an adult instead of a baby.

I used to have some green anoles (one at a time), when I was a kid in the '60s and '70s. They are pretty mellow and friendly.

I one hundred percent agree, my first lizard was a bearded dragon named Darwin and he was so expensive for just a kid to handle as well as the diet being too much, now I'm older and have a very pretty dragon named queso and I'm finally able to give one the treatment they deserve

My first lizard was a wild texas spiny lizard that I originally was just rehabilitating after one of the neighborhood cats bit through its leg but she ended up not wanting to leave the cage when I went to release her even left the cage outside in the shade for an hour with the lid off and when I came back she was still chillin in her cork hide.. super easy lizard to take care of fed her dubias, hornworms, meal worms, crickets and very rarely she would eat greens but it wasn't a recommended part of her diet considering she was a species of lizard specialized to live in the desert. The only main requirement I had to go out of my way for regularly was her ultraviolet lamp bulbs but she was worth every penny I ever spent on her. Miss that lizard like there's no tomorrow, got her so used to me in the few years i had her she would eat from my hand 😢❤

my first lizard was a bearded dragon and honestly he’s pretty good!! i’ve had him for about a year now since april 17 2023 and he’s been a happy boy! i got his cage and all the stuff including him for free from my friend because she couldn’t take care of him due to extracurriculars but now he’s happy with me and i love him❤️his name is craig

I had a crested gecko for about 13 years. He was absolutely the most mellow man in existence and could be fed with crickets and crested gecko food powder stuff. Just don’t forget to keep an eye out for calcium deficiencies and dust the crickets with a supplement occasionally. Most intensive thing is watering them 3-5 times a day but can be automatically drip. 10/10 would recommend. Rest easy speedy

My very first 🦎 pet was a beardy, and I took care of her very easy full time job school kids. I don't think her ever turned black. She was a happy girl. Just died a few years back from old age. But there's nothing hard about dragens they can get tail infections and eat pebbles and silly shxt like that. Just use ur head and ul be fine.

That gecko has no thoughts in his head

My first lizard is a bearded dragon, and you are absolutely correct, ESPECIALLY about the pooping part, mf fills half his tank every time.

Cresties are super easy to take care of. I've got one that's a crackhead that won't let anyone touch him and my other is a super chill dude that will just vibe with you

My family had a beardie a long time ago. We got from a friend because they moved and orchie was the chillest she would follow us outside kinda like a dog lol

Get a blue tongue, chillest lizards on earth

Thank you on the bearded dragon! I knew a terrible pet owner who got them for her kids that were too young for them and when they got old enough lost interest. It was a bad time all around.

Eeeeyyy! I just got my first gargoyle gecko in 2020. He's so easy to care for and he's doing great. I absolutely adore him

Me, not even considering ever getting a pet reptile: *ah yes interesting*

Bearded lizards smaller ones (wild btw caught by my cat)are great fashion statements/broaches .. the well just sit on your shoulder as you go shopping... You end up meeting so many people who want to know if they are real or not... Always so funny watching them freak out when you pick them up and they move 😂😨 So much fun when i was a kid😅

I remember my first lizard was a bearded dragon when I was a little kid. The bearded dragon did good for awhile but one week the petsmart near my house was out of crickets (or something) because my mom got live mealworms instead (the container did say they were fine for bearded dragons). This turned out to be lethal for my small buddy because he wasn't big enough or strong enough to fully kill them before eating them, so they proceeded to literally eat their way out of the bearded dragon. It was not a fun sight as a kid. We eventually got another bearded dragon that was loose in a friend's neighborhood, and she lived for quite a few years and was always the most chill reptile my family ever had.

Leopard geckos are also decent beginners... I just got mine and besides not eating yet (I've only had her a day) she is generally low maintenance and I've been obsessed with making sure she isn't overwhelmed or stressed and making sure if she is ready to eat or not

I would go with a crested gecko. I work at a zoo in my spare time and we have them there. They’re super fun and sweet creatures. 10/10 recommend.

mr. bug my bearded dragon is currently laying on my chest half covered with a blanket just being all warm & comfy and snuggling. he’s the best 🥰 🦎♥️ we do this almost everyday he loves it!! he’s my baby!