Care guides are an important method of passing knowledge from one caretaker to another. Ideally, they enable both the seasoned breeder and first-time owner alike to recreate and build upon the success of the author in keeping their lizards happy and healthy. Often, guides also include information on reproducing a species in the home terrarium. These virtues make care guides invaluable to herpetoculture. However, one should keep in mind that care guides are not impeccable sources of information.

Intrinsically, care guides involve a substantial amount of opinion, often misunderstood as fact by author and reader alike. Often, guides may present fact and belief blended in a manner which makes it difficult to differentiate between the two. Because care guides are built upon the understanding of the author at a particular moment in time, they should never be considered the “final word” on husbandry.

Opinions are important, especially when drawn from experience. However, they must be continually scrutinized, tested, and reassessed in order to bring out as much truth as possible. 

Within the context of care guides, there are very few statements which should be taken as a “law” without any room for deviation. Do not be one of those people who insist that there is only one correct way to care for a lizard. Lizards have definite needs that must be met, but there is almost always more than one way to meet each of those needs.

Our care guides share our experiences and what we have done to successfully keep and breed our lizards. We share why we think our methods have worked well for our lizards so that you may, with careful thought, be able to modify and optimize our methods for your lizards in your particular situation.

Although we share what has worked well for us and our lizards, we avoid declaring imaginary and absolute rules about husbandry. That being said, we absolutely do encourage you to consider your lizards with compassion and to provide the best care you can for them. 

We judge husbandry success using measurable data collected from the lizards themselves, such as growth rate, longevity, appetite, thermoregulatory behavior, social behavior, coloration, body condition, posture, reproductive behavior and success, egg shells health, and hatchling vigor.

If you keep these things in mind, you will be on a never-ending path of learning directly from your lizards, improving their husbandry, and discovering ways to best meet their needs within your particular situation. This never-ending curiosity and process of discovering, testing, and evaluating ideas makes herpetoculture incredibly interesting and rewarding over a lifetime.

Because we continually explore and trial ideas about husbandry, we update our guides from time to time to reflect our current methods and thinking.

If you have any questions about our care guides, we encourage you to reach out to us via social media or email so that we can assist you and your lizards and improve our guides for other readers.

We wish you and your lizards all the best.