Lizards for Kids

~ BackwaterReptiles

Lizards can make very rewarding pets for children, even though they might not be what most parents would consider a “traditional” pet. They actually require far less maintenance than a cat or dog and most can be trained to be extremely social and friendly.

So, if you’re considering purchasing a pet lizard for your child or even as a classroom pet, check out our list below to see our top four lizards for kids.

The best lizards for children

1. Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps)

Bearded dragons top our list of the best pet lizards for kids because they’re very gentle, docile, and extremely easy to care for in captivity. They enjoy being out of their enclosure and receiving attention from their owners and are probably one of the more interactive lizard species that we have ever kept.

Beardies, as they are more commonly known, begin life fairly small. If you purchase a hatchling, your little lizard should be around four or five inches in length. Beardies are piggy lizards and will pretty much never refuse food, so be prepared for your beardie to grow…and grow fast!

Even though you can keep a hatchling comfortably in a ten gallon tank for a few months, it will quickly grow into needing an enclosure that is at least 75 gallons as a full-grown bearded dragon can be about two feet in length.

 

lizards for kids
This beardie is what we call “normal” in the reptile world. This just means that it has not been bred to be any special color or have any unique markings. They make wonderful pet lizards for kids of all ages.

Bearded dragons are omnivorous, but hatchlings will be more inclined to eat insects over vegetable matter. Their favorite tends to be crickets, mealworms, and waxworms. We recommend placing fresh greens such as mustard greens and collards in their enclosure daily and feeding invertebrates daily as well.

If you’re interested in a healthy, amusing pet bearded dragon, Backwater Reptiles has many different morphs to choose from, and they’re all captive bred and thriving.

2. Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius)

If you’re in the market for a cute lizard with extraordinarily simple care requirements, then a leopard gecko just might be a good choice for your child.

Leopard geckos stay relatively small. A full-grown, large leopard gecko will reach ten inches long, but most will average around eight inches in length. They are available in many interesting color morphs and patterns, so this makes them very attractive to many hobbyists.

pet super snow leopard gecko
This leopard gecko morph is called a Super Snow. They’re black and white and do very well in captivity.

You’ll be hard-pressed to make a leopard gecko bite. They’re extremely good-natured little lizards. In fact, we love recommending them to children or first-time lizard owners because they always appear to be smiling.

Your leopard gecko will eat insects such as crickets, mealworms, and reptiworms. We like to give ours wax worms as treats, but only occasionally.

Check out our extensive selection of leopard geckos for sale ranging from hatchlings to mature adults. They’re perhaps the most popular pet lizard in the world.

3. Blue Tongue Skink (Tiliqua sp.)

We wouldn’t necessarily recommend a blue tongue skink for a young child such as a toddler, but a blue tongue would be a perfect pet lizard for a teenager or even pre-teen.

Blue tongues require a slightly more varied diet and a small percentage of specimens can be nippy if they’re not properly trained, so we think that unless you’re willing to invest the time to train and feed the lizard yourself, you may want to steer clear of choosing a blue tongue for your very young child. We’ve never had one attempt to bite us–ever–but if it did happen it’d be a little more painful than a bite from a small lizard.

Due to their giant blue-colored tongues, blue tongue skinks are commonly referred to as “Blueys” amongst reptile enthusiasts. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch glimpses of your bluey’s tongue when it eats veggies like kale, spinach, and collards combined with proteins such as mealworms, canned meat, or boiled chicken.

We know we already mentioned it, but blue tongues do have more complex dietary requirements than the other lizards on our list. Feeding them is not as simple as dropping a few insects in their cage or placing “skink pellets” into a dish.

blue tongue skink hatchling
This is a hatchling bluey. Many lizard lovers like blueys because of their short legs and big heads.

Blueys will not need a lot of accessories in their enclosure. They have short, stubby, little legs, which means they’re not climbers. All they really need is a water dish, clean substrate that allows for burrowing, and some hiding places.

If you’re ready to take on a pet blue tongue skink, we have healthy babies and adults available. They’re one of the world’s most popular lizards.

4. Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) or Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei)

Anoles have always been great starter lizards for kids. In fact, many of us experienced herp hobbyists started out keeping pet anoles when we were a child, so we recommend them from first-hand experience.

 

Green anole
Green anoles are compact little lizards that are very inexpensive pets for kids.

Both green and brown anoles have very similar care requirements and eat the same types of food. In fact, in the wild, they share habitat and compete for space and food. We’d recommend either color – we say let your kid(s) pick which species they want.

Anoles are very small pet lizards which means that the space they require for a habitat is smaller than any of the other pet lizards on our list. However, anoles are prone to flightiness and don’t really enjoy being handled. So, if your child wants a lizard that they can hold and pet, we recommend going with a hardier lizard from this list.

brown anole
Brown anoles have essentially the same care requirements as green anoles.

Green and brown anoles are both extremely affordable pet lizards, so if you’re on a budget, an anole just might be the best bet for you and your family.

Backwater Reptiles sells both species of anole, plus a few other species too!

Lizards for Kids – Conclusion

There are tons of great lizards available in pet stores and from breeders that make excellent pets. However, we highly recommend any of the four lizards listed above if you are specifically in the market for your child’s first pet lizard.

Snakes for Kids

~ BackwaterReptiles

Are you thinking of getting your child a pet snake? Are you unsure which species would do well with children? Well, look no further – this article was created specifically to list the top four species of pet snakes for kids.

1. Ball Python (Python regius)

Ball pythons are at the top of our list for a few reasons, but mainly because they have been captive bred for many generations and are essentially the most popular pet snakes on the market. Captive breeding produces snakes that are not only healthier and more beautiful, but far more docile as well. In fact, captive bred ball pythons rarely bite or strike.

Pet snake for kids
Ball pythons are readily available pet snakes with a long history of healthy captive breeding. We highly recommend them for kids.

Hatchling ball pythons are about 10 inches long and will mature into snakes that can be up to five feet long, although most will average three feet long. If properly cared for, your ball python can live up to 30 years.

In general, ball pythons are somewhat thick snakes with hefty bodies, despite their relatively small size. We think this is great for kids because children can  move quickly around them and the snake will not get upset. In fact, unless they are preparing to strike at feeding time, your  ball python’s movements should be slow and calculated.

2. Corn Snake (Elaphe g. guttata)

Like ball pythons, corn snakes are readily available at pet stores and through breeders. They have been bred long enough in captivity to be extremely healthy and hardy snakes that are born to be many different colors or morphs. If your child wants a purple, red, or even black and white snake, there’s a morph out there that will make him or her happy.

albino corn snake hatchling
This is an albino corn snake hatchling. This snake can grow to be five to six feet long if properly cared for.

Corn snakes are medium-sized snakes and will require a medium-sized enclosure once they are grown. They are small enough as hatchlings to be kept in a home as small as a shoe box, but once they do grow up, they are still a size that a child could handle them without being intimidated.

If you want to educate your child about reptile breeding, corn snakes can give great lessons on genealogy as well as reproductive habits of reptiles. They procreate easily in captivity and also make excellent classroom pets.

3. King Snake (Lampropeltis g. californiae)

King snakes are very common throughout the U.S. in the wild. However, because these snakes have been bred successfully in captivity for so long, we recommend purchasing one through a breeder since it will be healthier and friendlier.

Like corn snakes and ball pythons, king snakes are available in a seemingly endless number of morphs or color variations. Their patterns will vary greatly and you can obtain a snake with patterns and colors as common or rare as you’d like.

Normal CA king snake
This is a “normal” morph California king snake. It has not been bred to express any special coloring or patterns.

King snakes can grow rather large, although it will take many years for them to reach their full potential. Hatchlings will be eight to twelve inches long and adults can reach more than six feet in length, although three to four feet is a far more common size. A king snake’s lifespan can surpass twenty years!

Mature king snakes should be kept in a 20 gallon enclosure (at the least), but babies are perfectly content in a shoe box. Whatever type of home you provide your king snake, we highly recommend that it has a secure lid since king snakes can be escape artists.

4. Kenyan Sand Boa (Eryx c. loveridgei)

Kenyan San Boas are also known as East African Sand Boas, but both names refer to the same animal. These snakes are very round with heavy bodies and relatively small heads. They have extremely smooth scales and are slow-moving, which we think makes them wonderful snakes for children to handle.

In addition to being available in many morphs like all the other snakes on our list, Kenyan sand boas are small snakes with simple care requirements. Even the largest sand boa will not usually surpass two feet in length and their cage need not be larger than a ten gallon tank.

Kenyan sand boa
Kenyan sand boas are small snakes with simple care requirements.

You can also keep Kenyan sand boas communally, so long as two males are not housed in the same enclosure. In other words, two female boas cohabitating is fine, and a male and female boa will also do fine together.

5. Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis)

Garter snakes are great for kids because they’re harmless, a very manageable size, slow, and easy to keep and feed. Growing up a child in the Midwest, I used to catch “Garters” in the woods and on prairies with my good friend. The best place to find them was under a rotting log, tire, or plywood.

They usually only reach 24″-36″ or thereabouts, although once in a while they’re a little bigger. Garter snakes probably have the largest distribution of any snake in the United States, and are found in every single state except Alaska and Hawaii.

garter snake for kids
Garter snakes are a perennial favorite snake for children.

This species can comfortably be kept in a 10 or 20-gallon tank with a water dish, hide spot, and heat pad (although some believe heat is optional). They can have long lifespans.

These snakes are carnivores but can be fed crickets, nightcrawlers, slugs, amphibians, minnows, and baby mice (called “pinkies”).

One piece of trivia is that many people think these snakes are called “Gardner” snakes, but that’s incorrect. The correct word is “Garter.”

Snakes for kids – Conclusion

Each of the snakes on this list has very simple care requirements. All you really need to keep any of these species happy is a modest-sized enclosure, a simple heat source, and a water dish. Other cage accessories are optional.

We also feel that each of these snake species has a good history of captive breeding which makes them all healthy, tamer snake species overall. Over many years, we’ve also found that the above listed species are very hesitant to strike (if ever), which is another reason we consider them the absolute best pet snakes for kids.

If you’re interested in purchasing a snake for a child, we’ve got all of the above species listed on our snakes landing page.

Gooty Sapphire Tarantula Care Sheet (Poecilotheria metallica)

~ BackwaterReptiles

We wrote the below Gooty Sapphire tarantula care sheet to help arachnid hobbyists understand more about this visually stunning spider, which also commonly goes by its scientific name: Poecilotheria metallica.

Even people who don’t “get” why anyone would want to keep a tarantula as a pet have to admit that the Gooty is a really beautiful spider. Although it begins life as a fairly ordinary brown color, after a series of molts, it will transform into a vivid, metallic blue color with accents of yellow or white in fractal patterns on its abdomen. The end result is a highly sought after species of spider that any hobbyist would be proud to own.

gooty sapphire tarantula care sheet
This is a Gooty Sapphire Tarantula spiderling. They start out a dull brown color but will mature into a bold blue. Read our care sheet to learn how to raise them to stunningly beautiful adults.

Not only is this tarantula lightning fast as both a baby, juvenile, and adult spider, but it’s also armed with a potent venom–more potent than New World tarantulas. Bite victims will experience increased heart rate followed by sweating, head ache, stinging, cramping, and of course, pain and swelling at the site of the bite.

Symptoms can persist for a week! Ultimately, what this means is that you should not handle your Gooty without protection, if ever. When kept as pets, these tarantulas are definitely made to be seen and not touched.

Although the Gooty Sapphires sold by Backwater Reptiles are captive bred spiders, this species is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. This puts an extra degree of responsibility upon anyone who wants to own one as a pet.

Gooties are not common spiders, and therefore not common pets, so we highly recommend doing your research and being positive you can handle such a rare spider before you purchase.

As far as care is concerned, Gooty Sapphire Tarantulas are arboreal spiders, so their habitat needs to replicate a tree-dwelling spider’s habitat. Small spiderlings don’t require much room to thrive, but they do need items to crawl on and hide inside of.

We recommend our arboreal tarantula terrarium kit for the sake of convenience and visibility, although you can just as easily house a spiderling in a plastic shoe box with a very secure lid. Again, just make sure to provide a few hiding places.

gooty sapphire tarantula terrarium
This is our arboreal tarantula terrarium. It’s perfect for arboreal spiderlings.

Adult Gooties will require a bit more room than a spiderling, obviously. Due to their arboreal nature, we recommend an enclosure that has a bit of height to accommodate a tree branch or two for your spider to climb on.

No matter the age of your Gooty, it might be sensitive to light, so we recommend storing your spider’s home somewhere fairly dark and out of reach of direct sunlight.

Room temperature is generally acceptable for a Gooty, but make sure that it stays within the range of high 70s during the day and low 70s during the evening. If your home does not naturally stay at this temperature, invest in a heat pad and thermometer.

Poecilotheria metallica
Once your Gooty has gone through several molts, it will become a stunning blue color with white or yellow fractal shape markings.

Peat moss and coconut fibers are the recommended substrates. Both will retain moisture but not become overly soaked. We don’t recommend misting your Gooty’s enclosure, but rather moistening the substrate once per month. Keeping a water dish in the enclosure will also help keep the moisture level at an acceptable range, even if your Gooty doesn’t actually drink the water.

Feeding your Gooty Sapphire is relatively simple. Spiderlings will eat pinhead crickets and fruit flies, while adults will happily consume crickets, wax worms, reptiworms, and even roaches. Due to their photosensitivity, it’s usually best to feed your Gooty around dusk.

We’ve heard success stories that involved simply dropping an insect or two in the cage at night before bed.  The spider will eat it during the night. But always make sure the insect is no larger than the tarantula’s abdomen.

If you purchase a spiderling, you can expect for it to take approximately a year for your spider to undergo enough molts to finally start sporting the blue color these spiders are named and known for. Don’t be surprised if your Gooty refuses food prior to molting either as this is very common.

gooty sapphire spiderling
Gooty Sapphire spiderlings are about an inch to an inch and a half long.

Conclusion

Gooty Sapphire Tarantulas just might be the spider to cure your arachnophobia. They’re strikingly colorful tarantulas and can make extremely rewarding pets.

If you’ve done your research and are prepared keep your own Gooty Sapphire tarantula, Backwater Reptiles has some captive bred spiderlings for sale.

 

Best Pet Frogs for Beginners

~ BackwaterReptiles

Frogs are fun, entertaining, cute, and overall extremely rewarding amphibians that make great pets. However, if you’re new to the reptile and amphibian hobbyist world, we recommend starting out with a species that is easy to care for, at least until you get used to your pet frog and fully understand meeting its needs.

Below you will find our list of the four best pet frogs for beginners. We chose these species for a variety of reasons, but mainly for their great track record as pets in captivity.

Budgetts Frog AKA Freddy Krueger Frog (Lepidobatrachus laevis)

Budgetts frogs are also commonly known by the nickname “Freddy Krueger frog” because they have unusually long fingers and can emit what is best described as a scream when stressed or provoked. However, we want you to know that this nickname shouldn’t intimidate you. Budgetts frogs are overall very calm, lazy, squishy frogs and they’d much rather be left to their own devices than scream at you.

Lepidobatrachus laevis
Although its legs make it appear stumpy, the Budgetts Frog is actually a really good swimmer.

Due to their highly aquatic nature, keeping a Budgetts frog is a lot like keeping a fish. This frog species will rarely emerge from water and is overall fairly secretive. We’d say that Budgetts are great pets for people who enjoy watching their pet frog and don’t plan on handling it or taking it out to play with. Budgetts are solidly built, but very awkward and blob-like on solid ground, so we recommend removing them from their enclosure only when necessary.

If you think a jelly-like Budgetts frog is for you, Backwater Reptiles has them for sale.

White’s Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)

White’s Tree Frogs, which are also commonly referred to as “Dumpy Frogs” due to their pudgy, wrinkled, and somewhat sleepy appearance, are very docile pet frogs.

Originating from Australia, Dumpies can be green or blueish in color. Some also have white spots. But all of them tend to be calm frogs that don’t mind being handled.

Dumpy frog
White’s tree frogs make amusing pet frogs.

Your dumpy frog shouldn’t grow larger than five inches long and can live anywhere from seven to twenty years! Frogs of a similar size can also be housed together as dumpy frogs are generally friendly toward one another.

A large part of the reason we’ve included White’s tree frog on our list is because they are very forgiving when it comes to their conditions in captivity. They don’t require much in terms of cage decor, but keep in mind that they are tree frogs, so be sure to provide them something to climb on and cling to. They also thrive in temperatures around 80 degrees, which means all they need in terms of heat is a small light or heat pad. They’re also not known to be picky eaters, so feeding time should never be a hassle as they’ll consume everything from crickets to roaches.

Interested in a pet Dumpy frog? We have blue-phase White’s tree frogs and normal White’s tree frogs for sale on our website.

Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)

We recommend bullfrogs as pets if you want to keep your frogs outdoors in a pond-like environment. Not only are bullfrogs very common North American frogs, but they are extremely adaptable and can thrive in an outdoor set up with little to no management.

Bullfrogs will do equally well indoors too, provided you give them a large enough enclosure. Most people tend to keep multiple frogs, so if this is the case, we recommend at least a 55 gallon tank. However, for a single frog, a 20 gallon will do just fine. Your bullfrog’s home will need to be set up for both aquatic and terrestrial living, which means a pond or swimming area coupled with a dry land area where the frog can emerge if it so chooses.

bullfrog
Bullfrogs are “classic” looking frogs – green with long jumping legs and round eyes.

Bullfrogs also have hearty appetites and will grow quite large if you let them. We feed ours a staple diet of crickets and mealworms, but they’re also fond of night crawlers, roaches, and reptiworms.

If you’re ready to start your own backyard frog pond, head to our website to purchase some healthy bullfrogs of your own.

Pixie Frog (Pyxicephalus adspersus)

The Pixie frog or Giant African Bullfrog tops our list of best pet frogs for beginners because it is one hefty beast of a frog. These gigantic frogs might start out tiny (think around the size of a quarter), but they are ravenous eaters and can attain weights of up to two pounds!

Pixie frog 2 weeks old
This baby Pixie frog is approximately two weeks old. It will grow rapidly and double its size in about two weeks!

Pixies tend to adapt to human interaction and handling relatively well. We’ve even heard that you can teach your Pixie to eat from your hand, although we recommend proceeding with caution if you attempt this feat because pixies can pack a punch when it comes to eating.

Of all the frog species on this list, Pixies are probably the most entertaining. Meal time for a pet Pixie is just fascinating and watching these piggy little frogs eat never gets old. Pixies will virtually never refuse food, so be prepared to watch your Pixie’s diet as they can and will get fat if you let them.

Want your own beastie Pixie frog? Backwater Reptiles sells captive bred babies ranging in size from two inches up.

Conclusion

We think that frogs make awesome pets and if you’re just venturing into the world of herpetoculture, we recommend starting with one of the frogs on this list.

Are you more of an experienced herper? Backwater Reptiles has all sorts of pet frogs for sale on our website.

Blood Python Species and Differences

~ BackwaterReptiles

Are you familiar with the three types of Blood Python – the Red Blood, the Black Blood, and the Borneo Blood? What about short-tailed pythons? Did you know that in fact, these species of snakes are one and the same?

If you’re at all confused about the differences and similarities amongst these three species of pythons, read on to get some clarification.

Red Blood Python (Python brongersmai)

The Red Blood Python, also known as the Brongersmai short-tailed python and the red short-tailed python, is a species of python found in Malaysia and Sumatra. They get their common names from their reddish coloration. This main red can range from a rich, bold red to a dusky, orange-red, although they sometimes exhibit rusty brown colors too. They have yellow and/or tan blotches and stripes that run the length of their body with some tan and black spots towards their rear.

red blood python species
This red blood python is an orange/brown/red in color.

Red Bloods used to have a reputation for being ornery amongst reptile hobbyists, but this type of aggressive behavior is slowly disappearing due to captive breeding efforts. The breeding efforts have not only produced more colorful animals, but also more docile and mild-mannered snakes.

The Red Blood is the only species amongst the three types of short-tailed pythons that can have a red color phase. It’s also good info to know that some Red Bloods can start out very dull red as hatchlings and mature into a more brilliant and noticeable red.

Black Blood Python (Python curtus)

Nomenclature can be confusing and this is true in the case of the Black Blood Python. In fact, a more accurate common name for this snake is the Sumatran Short-Tailed Python because it can be found in the southern and western parts of Sumatra. We highly agree and so from here on out, we will refer to this snake as the Sumatran Short-Tailed Python and avoid the confusing “Black Blood” label altogether. But just be aware that amongst hobbyists, this misnomer is more common.

Sumatran short-tail python
Notice how dark this Sumatran short-tail’s colors are.

The Sumatran short-tail ranges in color from dusky brown to a deep, jet black. They commonly have black, grey, or silver heads, but some do have orange or yellow heads, which can sometimes cause them to be confused with the Borneo short-tailed python.

Borneo Blood Python (Python breitensteini)

A more accurate name for the Borneo Blood Python would simply be the Borneo Python or even the Borneo Short-Tailed Python. These short-tailed pythons are the only species to be found on the island of Borneo, hence their common name. We’re assuming that the nomenclature of “Blood” in the common name of this snake stems from the fact that they are so closely related to the Red Blood and Black Blood pythons.

borneo short-tail python
All of the short-tailed pythons have rather stout bodies with thin, short tails.

Borneo short-tails will vary in color from dark, coffee-colored brown to a pale, brown-beige with black, white, and brown markings. There are several commonly known morphs including a striped python and what is known as the “Ultra-breit,” a very pale snake with patterns that are hardly discernable.

Conclusion

When it comes to short-tailed or “blood” pythons, names can be confusing. Our solution is to refer to these snakes by a name that makes more sense, in this case a geographical name, rather than a name that implies similarities or differences to other species.

Overall, these three species of short-tailed pythons are gaining in popularity due to captive breeding projects that allow them to be available in more colors. A nice, coincidental side effect of captive breeding also happens to be that they have become more docile and accustomed to human handling. In other words, it’s not necessarily true that blood pythons are nippy, aggressive, and grouchy by nature.

Although the Red Blood is considered to be the largest of the short-tailed pythons and the Sumatran is considered the smallest, these three species of pythons will all start out life between ten to seventeen inches long and will grow to be approximately five feet long on average. They are all also very stocky snakes with thick, somewhat bulbous bodies and short tails (go figure).

We think that any of these three species of snake would make a great addition to any herp hobbyist’s collection. If you’re ready to commit to one of these stunning pythons, Backwater Reptiles has all three species of blood pythons for sale.