# Best type of lizard on a basic license



## socktan (Jul 27, 2015)

Hi everyone, I have owned a few marbled geckos for a while now.

I am wondering what is the best type of lizard for me that is on the basic license for victoria.

My tank is 2 foot by 1 foot and I would much rather a lizard that will be active during the day.

Cheers everyone


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## leigh83 (Jul 27, 2015)

G'day socktan, your best bet would be a bearded dragon. They can have a lot of character and tolerate handling once developed trust with you. And they come in a Huge range of colours and morphs. Blues are great too. They have a great range of colours too.


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## socktan (Jul 28, 2015)

leigh83 said:


> G'day socktan, your best bet would be a bearded dragon. They can have a lot of character and tolerate handling once developed trust with you. And they come in a Huge range of colours and morphs. Blues are great too. They have a great range of colours too.



Don't have the space for a blue tongue or a bearded as my tank is 2 foot long and 1 foot wide


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## Lewi_11 (Jul 28, 2015)

With that sort of size enclosure, you don't really have room for much at all but geckos.


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## socktan (Jul 28, 2015)

2 foot in length, 1 foot in height and width


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## BredliFreak (Jul 28, 2015)

I wouldn't know about VIC licensing but perhaps a knobby or thick-tailed gecko?


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## socktan (Jul 28, 2015)

BredliFreak said:


> I wouldn't know about VIC licensing but perhaps a knobby or thick-tailed gecko?


 They look nice are they active during to the day? or are they nocturnal


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## PhilZ (Jul 28, 2015)

You could try skinks; they are active during the day and you should be able to fit 1-2 of the smaller skink species in your enclosure. They are harder to find than a bearded dragon or blue tongue but there are some breeders out there. Unfortunately the "for sale (lizards and monitors)" forum seems to have reset and its hard to find a breeder but some pet stores sell them. I believe Amazing Amazon sell some Eastern Water skins.

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Also you can build a new enclosure with relative ease and a low price. I built mine for ~140$ that is 4ft x 2ft x 2ft. It will cost more for lighting, heating and props but better than spending 500$ on a 3ft enclosure xD.


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## BredliFreak (Jul 28, 2015)

socktan said:


> They look nice are they active during to the day? or are they nocturnal



Well from what I have heard they are nocturnal. If you're looking for a handling gecko perhaps (from what I've read, I've never kept geckos) an underwoodisaurus milii might be what you are looking for. 

Maybe be buy a basic lizard first with a new tank and buy a dwarf beardie perhaps?
or house a bug or something in there perhaps a giant burrowing cockroach.

Bredli


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## socktan (Jul 29, 2015)

BredliFreak said:


> Well from what I have heard they are nocturnal. If you're looking for a handling gecko perhaps (from what I've read, I've never kept geckos) an underwoodisaurus milii might be what you are looking for.
> 
> Maybe be buy a basic lizard first with a new tank and buy a dwarf beardie perhaps?
> or house a bug or something in there perhaps a giant burrowing cockroach.
> ...


 I would rather not a cockroach haha, what about jacky dragons are they big i've read a bit about them

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BredliFreak said:


> Well from what I have heard they are nocturnal. If you're looking for a handling gecko perhaps (from what I've read, I've never kept geckos) an underwoodisaurus milii might be what you are looking for.
> 
> Maybe be buy a basic lizard first with a new tank and buy a dwarf beardie perhaps?
> or house a bug or something in there perhaps a giant burrowing cockroach.
> ...


 I would rather not a cockroach haha, what about jacky dragons are they big i've read a bit about them


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## baker (Jul 29, 2015)

All depends, do you want a lizard to handle or do you just want a cool lizard to watch and keep? Unfortuently for you majority of all the lizards you can keep in a 2ft enclosure are not very good for handling. So if you want something to handle you are best off looking at getting a larger enclosure.
If you don't want to handle though you have quite a nice selection of geckos and small skinks that will happily live their entire life in that size enclosure. I would highly recommend that you look into the different small skink species that are available in the hobby. They are all diurnal and very active during the day so they make excellent display animals. They can be quite flighty at first but they do eventually become rather bold and happy for you to watch them. There are quite a few skink keepers that have a large variety of species available to keep, you just have to track them down and have a chat which is not to difficult. If you are interested in keeping some of these species I would highly recommend that you purchase or borrow a copy of "A guide to Australian skinks in captivity" by Dr Danny Brown. It is an excellent book that details the care of all the different Australian species available.
Geckos are another good choice for that size tank. Unlike skinks though geckos are primarily all nocturnal so they are not great for daily viewing. They are rather simple to keep though and there is lots of online care sheets and books that detail the care of all the different species. 
Hopefully this is some what of a help in your choice of a new lizard. Have any question feel free to ask.

Cheers, Cameron.


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## socktan (Jul 29, 2015)

baker said:


> All depends, do you want a lizard to handle or do you just want a cool lizard to watch and keep? Unfortuently for you majority of all the lizards you can keep in a 2ft enclosure are not very good for handling. So if you want something to handle you are best off looking at getting a larger enclosure.
> If you don't want to handle though you have quite a nice selection of geckos and small skinks that will happily live their entire life in that size enclosure. I would highly recommend that you look into the different small skink species that are available in the hobby. They are all diurnal and very active during the day so they make excellent display animals. They can be quite flighty at first but they do eventually become rather bold and happy for you to watch them. There are quite a few skink keepers that have a large variety of species available to keep, you just have to track them down and have a chat which is not to difficult. If you are interested in keeping some of these species I would highly recommend that you purchase or borrow a copy of "A guide to Australian skinks in captivity" by Dr Danny Brown. It is an excellent book that details the care of all the different Australian species available.
> Geckos are another good choice for that size tank. Unlike skinks though geckos are primarily all nocturnal so they are not great for daily viewing. They are rather simple to keep though and there is lots of online care sheets and books that detail the care of all the different species.
> Hopefully this is some what of a help in your choice of a new lizard. Have any question feel free to ask.
> ...



I've had a look at some of the skinks, can you give me some names of the most popular skinks as i'll be able to find more information on them. I also like the look of the gidgee skink


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## kingofnobbys (Jul 29, 2015)

leigh83 said:


> G'day socktan, your best bet would be a bearded dragon. They can have a lot of character and tolerate handling once developed trust with you. And they come in a Huge range of colours and morphs. Blues are great too. They have a great range of colours too.



Tank is way too small for a beardie bigger than a hatchie. Similar with bluetongues.

A eastern water skink is a great pet and one will be fine in his tank. They can become ubertame and very affectionate (my girl is, she's wonderful to handle and interact with, she's also very smart and curious .)

Maybe a jacky dragon or a rankins dragon.


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## BigWillieStyles (Aug 2, 2015)

Dwarf bearded dragon will fit in enclosure that size with lots of branches to climb. I also keep Gillens Monitors in enclosure that size but they aren't cheap or easy to find.


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## Andiroo (Aug 6, 2015)

A single Gidgee or Hosmer's skink might be OK in that size enclosure. Best to do the right thing by your lizzy and get an enclosure with a slighly bigger footprint.


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