Top 5 UNCOMMON Reptiles For Beginners

Bearded dragons, ball pythons, leopard geckos, corn snakes, and crested geckos all make great pets! They are great options for beginner reptile keepers. But what else is out there? Are there some rare pet reptiles that are a good choice for beginners too? Are some of these rare pet reptiles even BETTER that the Top 5 Reptiles for Beginners? Yes indeed!

#bestpetreptile #beginnerreptile #uncommonreptiles

====

====

Clint is a professional biologist and educator, but above all, Clint LOVES reptiles and he loves to share that love with everyone he meets. Whether you're lover or a hater of reptiles, you can't help but get excited with Clint!
We post a new video every Saturday morning! So stay tuned!

====

====

====

====

You guys are so RAD!

====

Fan mail? Yes Please!
Clint's Reptiles
770 East Main Street # 127
Lehi, UT 84043

[Skeranda]

I love how every time Clint brings up the Emerald tree skinks I can hear them sell out because everybody wants one. I also love the implication that they are now more readily available bc the first video made them popular. Clint single handedly controls the Emerald Tree Skink economy.

[sampagano]

"imagine if a reticulated python and a carpet python had a baby and it grew up to be the size of a garter snake" is the best description of antaresia snakes I've ever heard. I've called them "what would happen if you took all the best parts of a ball python and combined them with the best parts of a corn snake" but yours is better.

[tazzyhyena]

The Emerald Tree Skink jumping on you was PRECIOUS!

[amywithsnakes]

I'm mad I didn't get into green tree skinks until this past year. They are such a blast! I keep their 3ft tall enclosure in the living room and they love watching us. When they turn their heads and eyes to look at you it melts my heart. My male has trained me when he wants out, and he'll jump right on my hand and climb up to my shoulder! Also big pro: they eat mealworm beetles!!!

[jaymeiliff]

Your comment about dumerils boas being great at helping people overcome their fear of snakes and it is honestly SO true. My dumerils boa, Salazar, is everyone's favorite snake and everyone that has met and handled him has loved him. My boyfriend wants to hold him every time he comes over. And I know many people have said they want to meet him sometime even though they're "kinda scared of snakes." A lot of people are intimidated by his size at first, and want to see my corn snake, until they see how flighty she is when being handled compared to the big slow boy lmao. I've had him for almost 5 years now and I'm so happy to see dumerils boas becoming more popular recently bc they truly are incredible.

[chrysokami]

You saved my lizard dream!! I fell in love with madagascar day geckos but they are not great pets and now I FOUND THE EMERALD TREE THANK YOUU 💚

[cory]

My daughter has been BEGGING for a green/emerald tree skink ever since your first video of them.

[MrActionproductions]

When Clint mentioned tap training for children's pythons I imagine myself trying to ward off the tiny snake feeding response with a miniature chair and whip

[edrozenrozen]

Warning: collared lizards eat anything that moves and will fit in their mouth!...
Choose it's tank mates wisely.

[NicholasMati]

I would submit red ackies as an alternative to emerald tree skinks:
+ They grow a bit larger (but not too much larger) and are more robust.
+ They can't drop their tail.
+ They're smart and capable of limited training. My adult male, for example, comes on command and tripods on command.
+ They need higher temperatures (right around your body temperature), so are quite happy to sleep, e.g., under a hoodie.
+ They can have similar personalities and will climb up on you to explore or, in the case of my adult male, get petted/rubbed.
+ They're not as prone to jumping.
- They get board of you eventually and start trying to explore the rest of the room.

The point about personalities is probably the only thing that needs a big asterisk. I currently have 8 ackies: an adult male (Theta) and female (Iota) from separate lineages, 2 juveniles from a third lineage, and 4 babies that I produced with the two adults (two of which I'm currently trying to sell). From this collection, I've seen some radically different behavior. I got my female, Iota, when she was about 3 months old and it took several month of consistent work to tame her down (and to this day, she remains somewhat aloof when I let her out). I got my male, Theta, when he was about 1 month old and he tamed down within a couple days. Indeed, within a week, he was easier to handle than Iota whom I had been working with for about 2 months at that point.

I was so impressed by Theta that I got the pair of juveniles around May of this year. However, they are only now taming down after literally hundreds of hours of unforced interaction on my desk and consistent handling. In contrast, I had a clutch from Iota hatch out in the middle of August. Within two days of hatching, one of the ackies decided that instead of eating its third cricket, it would instead like to climb up on my hand and explore. This became a running pattern for 3 of the babies where they would often prefer to climb up onto me instead of eating. The forth baby has been terrified of me since hatching. Indeed, I'm pretty sure I saw a partial hemipene eversion from him while removing him from the incubation box and he's only now showing some hints of calming down.

Based on this, I kind of suspect there are some genetics going on. With the "friendliness gene, " the ackie's personality is on par or better than an emerald tree skink. Without the gene, it takes a fair bit of work to tame the ackie down. However, I haven't really seen this mentioned in forums, so if anyone has links, do reply. Additionally, I still haven't completely ruled out environment, so observations from other ackie breeders would be appreciated.

[plushistoriae]

Honestly I highly recommend you check out Schneider’s skinks. They are the best pet lizard for me, and I think for a lot of other people as well. You haven’t done a video on them, but I recommend you do, as they are such beautiful skinks (perhaps not as much so as a emerald tree skink, but they have a similar personality (running around all over you p, and not wanting to be restrained, but they also are more tolerant to handling. They are also a burrowing species of skink, if that is of interest to you.

[meowcula]

The interaction with the skinks is amazing. They are obviously curious and very willing to interact. Amazing.

[ryantwilliams]

Finally some collared lizard coverage! They're super underrated. I ended up rehoming my pair locally after a couple years because I got tired of keeping a constant supply of live insects and they insisted on brumating for like 3 months in the winter, which bummed me out. But in a lot of ways they're perfect pet lizards ❤️

[GreenRoomPythons]

Great list Clint! I love that the superdwarf made the cut... and you might have sold me on an emerald tree skink. I love how they were jumping from person to person. So cool!

[HoboBrute]

My long term herping goal is to make a massive 500 gallon+ paludarium built around a colony of Emerald tree skinks. Make it fully bioactive, full clean up crew, some fish, maybe some compatible frogs, and have a slice of the tropics in my house

[patrickbourne]

How dare you not make a video on Collared lizards until now! They are so cool! I've never seen them before. The only way I can think of you rectifying this is by making a dedicated video on them 😔

[AllCanadianReptileGirl]

Love this list. I can't wait to get some emerald tree skinks one day! Those collared lizards are pretty darn cute too.

[BrochJam]

9:04 You can see the emerald tree skink do the same pre-pounce butt wiggle that cats do 😆

[zacg_]

Cool idea. Another interesting one would be "Best Dream Reptile" where budget and space are no constraints.

Also, I'd love a video on BCCs. We all know you adore BCIs but it would be interesting to get your thoughts on the BCCs and the pros and cons of them vs BCIs.

[wrightwreptiles]

I'm so happy a retic species made the list. I got a mainland as my first snake, and I absolutely LOVE him. I'm not saying mainlands are good beginner reptiles, but man a super dwarf sure would be!