SO YOU FANCY BUYING A LIZARD?

First of all, let me say that I think lizards are beautiful creatures. That is why you should consider carefully the following before rushing down to the pet store with your money:

Do you have any idea which lizard you would like to buy?

If the answer to the above is no, a good idea would be to get a book out of the library. When my wife first fell in love with a pair of leopard geckos, that's what I did. Apart from hooking me on lizard keeping, the books I borrowed showed what was available, and at what level of cost and difficulty. Most such books are also well endowed with pictures, and as many lizards are display animals more than companion pets, you can see what takes your fancy.

When thinking about the sort of lizard you want to purchase, you will need to consider the next lot of questions:

• Can I afford it? Captive lizards vary tremendously in price from species to species, but I have seen prices from as low as £3 (for a small lizard in a local pet shop) to $7,500 (on a Web site advertising a rare and large Indonesian monitor). More typically you will pay between £15-£30 for a commonly available gecko, £50-£200 for an iguana and upwards for a fancy skink from down under. What will probably cost you more is the initial outlay for the necessary equipment: the lizard's habitat (its tank or vivarium) plus the heating and lighting accessories, all of which are absolutely essential. You should reckon on spending up to £100 on setting up your lizard.

• Can I afford to keep it?Actually the financial maintenance of a lizard is not that great. The food your captive will eat depends on the type of lizard you have, but a tub of insects from the shop will only cost you about £2.50 or so per week, while heating and lighting costs surprisingly little in electricity. Frozen rodents are about 25-50p each, depending on the size of the item. What may cost you more, should your pet need attention at some point in its long life, are vets' bills. A visit to a vet who knows a reasonable amount about reptile care will normally cost at least £10 and normally £20-£30, depending on what care is needed. I must add, however, that I have normally paid no more than this for any of my collection, including one small gecko who has had persistent problems. If you anticipate getting large veterinary bills, the sensible course is to take out veterinary insurance on your pets. To put it into context, I know a family who spent about £1,000 on medical care for their sick dog.

• Can I make the time for it?Lizards do not depend on a lot of human interaction, nor do most of them in fact welcome it. Most are quite content to be undisturbed in their homes. Nevertheless they do need to be fed at certain times during the week, and do need their cages or vivaria cleaning when dirty. They also benefit from regular observation to make sure there are no health problems. Some lizards are far more time-consuming than others, a factor that must be taken into account.

• Can I practically keep it?There are other prime considerations when looking for a lizard: space and the reaction of "significant others". In other words, do you have the room for it, and will parents, partners or future landlords be happy with it? This may not be as difficult as it sounds. Most people who find snakes repulsive are more ambivalent about lizards, and the smaller types can be kept in fish-tank sized units (just like a goldfish) on the top of other furniture, etc. Nevertheless space and acceptance by other people become a real issue when considering a large lizard like an iguana, a chameleon or a monitor.

And, most importantly..

• Do I have the commitment to it?In comparison with similar-sized mammalian pets (rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, etc), pet lizards normally have long lives. The shortest life span is three years, but normally a lizard will live for at least ten years and often twenty or more. Many leopard geckos are still alive in captivity after twenty years, while a slow-worm (legless lizard) was once recorded as being over fifty years old. While people's circumstances do inevitably change, be aware that the commitment you are making to a pet lizard is the same as if you were buying a puppy. Furthermore, while you might be able to sell small lizards to another owner, be aware that today there are too many iguanas, whose owners couldn't or wouldn't keep them, languishing in animal sanctuaries both here and abroad.

If the answer to all of the above is yes, then it is still a good idea to trot down to the library and do a bit of research. Alternatively there are often books available from pet shops on the lizard you are interested in. Having listed all the potential pitfalls, I should also list the advantages of lizards over some over pets:

• They don't take up a lot of room, in most cases
• They don't normally scratch or gnaw the furniture
• They don't smell
• They don't eat a vast amount of food
• They don't frighten people into thinking they're going to be bitten to death or eaten
• They don't need to be taken for a walk each day
• They can be left for weekends
• They don't make a lot of noise or disturb the neighbours

In the following section I would like to consider some lizards that are commonly seen for sale, and give my opinion on the level of difficulty of keeping them. Those which I have direct experience of will be marked. All the others I have either read up on to a good degree or spoken to some of their owners.

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