http://i.imgur.com/jFez1.jpeg
I have decided to buy a batch of these guys (not the exact ones in the pic, but same family). My house has a failed attempt at an indoor pool in the basemant (the humidity caused the wood to warp, according to the previous owners, so it was emptied) that I plan to convert into a habitat for them. Does have any tips for caring for them? I've always wanted lizard pets, and now that I have a job (officially as a chem. tech at a pesticide factory, but also does some biotech work as I have a diploma in both) I can finally afford them. I wonder if they can handle other lizards in the habitat?

Semi-joking side note: I wonder if I can breed them to be big enough to ride around...

How big do they get? I'm imagining that an indoor pool was pretty big.

they can grow to about half a foot and live for close to ten years. The pool itsself was about 10 by 20 feet, but the room was closer to 20 by 30 feet. They live in packs or groups of like 30 in the wild, so I'll probably get that amny to make them feel at home

They'll probably eat other lizards, also, is your basemant well insulated? You'll need to keep it warm and get UV lights as well as supplement their diet with calcium.

May you be touched by his noodly appendage, brother.

Will they get enough sunlight? I presume a creature from a desert type environment woud require plenty of sunlight to properly metabolize calcium in the blood.

Do you have experience with things like this? I imagine taking care of 30 will be a ton of work and money invested into it.

I would suggest getting a couple of bearded dragons first, due to their ease of care (if you know what you're doing that it.)

If you do know what you're doing then I'd say build up to 30 if you are going to get that many.

I used to work at a reptile farm where we had a small species of gecko, just make sure 1.the environment is right. 2. Supplement their diet correctly. 3. Keep their water fresh and clean (had one customer who was really bad at this and kept complaining about sickly animals)

A constantly but slow moving supply of water will do wonders if you can manage to get it going properly.

Make sure they don't escape if it isn't their native habitat outside. Danger for them and the native inhabitants.

Thanks for the suggestion. Ya, I probably will build up to 30. And I have never had lizards before, but my buddy has had a few gecko's (?). He's willing to give a hand. As for the work and money? Well, a misting systems isn't too hard to setup, and I'm hoping with the large encloser that if I introduce the right insect species, nature will take care of the fecies. (but most animals tend to use one place for their excriment, so if need be i'll just go in and scoop it out).


What with it being an old pool, getting a water flow going wont be hard at all, great suggestion. The issue I see is the climate control, but it shouldn't take too long to calibrate properly.

Thanks for the advice guys! This is something I've wanted since I was like 7 (Am now 25). Im actually going to see about getting a profesional to help-out for the first bit.

And I need to find a way to genetically modify them to be large enough to ride. Joking (ish)

Also with a large group like that, be wary of mating, you might end up with a lot more lizards than you were hoping for, unless you get all one six.

Since it is your first time it seems like you may be somewhat over ambitious. As a long term goal sure that is a nice thing to have.

You may want to think of it as a collection and get several types of things, then your Armadillo Lizards can be your pride and joy as you build it up over time.

Like I pointed out bearded dragons are a good one to start with, and so are Leopard geckos. And if you want to mess with snakes corn snakes and ball pythons are good to start with. (snakes however can be costly, but that would help you towards maintaining a 20x30 room for something.

Ya, I'll have to deal with that somehow. I want some mating to keep population up, but a population explosion wouldn't be too good. Perhaps introduce a hormone that counters their six drive into the water or air or something. Anyways, I do eventually plan to use them for scientific purposes (not going to get into it...avoiding contraversy/violating forum rules and all that).

Agreed, I will build up to it. And several types are a must. I have personally never taken care of these types of animals, but I have worked around them before (for my biotech. program, I was placed in a lab were they tested on lizards, mice, etc. for cancer treatments)

EDIT: thinking back to it now, I'm not 100% sure why they were testing on lizards...it was a few years ago and I was only helping the scientists.

I used to really want bearded dragons, but now that I'm off to college soon I don't see it happening. I use to do a ton of research on caring for them though.

I have also wanted a couple of snakes, they seem to be really cool to have as long as you get friendly ones.

Python, got it