Hi there! I am here today with a creature who is not the subject of this video, but this is a blue-tongued skink. And blue-tongued skinks, honestly, might be the best reasonable pet lizard you could possibly get. They are so spectacular.
But, they are pretty expensive. Which for some people can be a total deal breaker. There does exist, however, a lizard which I have long considered to be a potential alternative to the blue-tongued skink.
These guys are the giant plated lizards. And they are amazing. They are interesting.
I mean, they're covered in a suit of armor. They've still got a very skink-like body shape, despite not being skinks. They are way less expensive than our blue-tongued skinks. And they're also maybe more unusual because everybody's seen blue-tongued skinks by now because they are great, great pets. But not everybody's had a chance to hang out with a giant plated lizard.
Oh my gosh, I mean look at these guys. They've got serious, serious armor scales and bands across their body. It starts right up at their nose and it goes all the way to the tip of their tail.
They've got these cool legs. Their belly scales... Are overlapping in a way that, I mean, the scales on top of them are a lot like alligator or crocodile scales.
The belly scales are actually kind of a bit like snake scales in the way that they overlap, except for the fact that... They're not the long bands and they're they're very alert and attentive. You know, they don't actually tend to have very bright colors. But other than that, I mean, these guys are just incredible lizards. Incredible lizards.
This particular giant plated lizard comes to us from Animal Ark in Orem, Utah, which is one of those great pet stores that you should totally support. But there is a big question. A lizard can be really, really cool and still not be a very good pet.
And even if it is a good pet, it might not be the right pet for you. And that is why we need to figure out if the giant plated lizard is a good pet and is it the right pet for you. And to help you figure this out, this out.
We have broken this down into our five categories, which are handleability, care, hardiness, availability, and upfront costs. Before we get to handleability, I wanted to pause for a moment just to say thank you to our patrons at Patreon. And I wanted to tell you about something cool that we've just recently started doing with Patreon, which is we've allowed our patrons to submit videos of themselves.
explaining why they decided to support Clint's Reptiles on Patreon. And we are including those segments of those videos on our videos. So expect to see those quite a bit here in the near future. We're excited to see you, those of you that are on Patreon.
We thank you so much for all that you do for this channel. You make videos like this possible. Now let's get to handleability, shall we? When it comes to handleability, we give...
The giant plated lizard, a score of 4 out of 5. Honestly, the only real issue with them is they can be shy at first, which means you need to spend some time building trust with your plated lizard before you can expect to handle them a lot. They're also that perfect size, I think, for a lizard to handle. They're big enough that they're robust and you're not going to hurt them on accident. At the same time, they're small enough that they're not gonna tear you up even though their claws are sharp.
And, I mean, the potential is there for a bite, though extremely, extremely unlikely. But even if it happened, it's not like it's gonna send you to the emergency room. the perfect size. This is actually true with a lot of lizards.
These guys are fairly likely to come to you as adults that have been wild caught, in which case, you know, this is essentially a wild lizard that's been on a long journey and it's going to be understandably afraid of you. If you can get one that's captive bred, which would be amazing, then, you know, they might be a little bit nervous still because when you're a baby lizard, the world is a scary place, even though you've got... legs.
It's still pretty scary for a baby lizard, and so they might be a little nervous about you, but you can work with lizards really well. Build trust, especially associating handling and feeding together, making it a great experience every time, not overdoing it. And then you have a lizard that is really as good to handle as our blue-tongued skinks, and blue-tongued skinks are amazing to handle.
They're like potatoes. One thing about these guys, even out... just fresh caught out of the wild is they're notorious for not really trying to bite. And that can be really important to a lot of people when it comes to handling.
They can lose this tail. They can drop that. But it seems to be very, very unlikely.
Again, kind of like a blue-tongued skink. They're capable of it, but they don't tend to do it. These guys, this is a little bit different than a blue-tongued. They're a little bit faster should they elect to scamper off.
And so that's one thing to keep an eye on. Especially when they're nervous and flighty, you know, if you're forcing handling on them, they can dart a little bit. But generally speaking, they're going to hang out with you just like this.
They've got these little nails, which are kind of sharp. I mean, they're for climbing, but their feet are small. They're just not going to tear you up.
Handling these guys is really magnificent. They're a great lizard for handling once they're used to you. When it comes to care, we give the giant-bladed lizard a score of 4 out of 5. One thing that's really neat about these guys is that they're omnivorous, which means they're going to be eating both live prey, mostly insects that are calcium and vitamin dusted, but also a lot of fruits and vegetables as well.
And most of them are going to eat those pretty readily. I really like an omnivorous lizard because it gives you a lot of options as to what you should feed them. And really the key is just a wide variety.
In addition to insects, they will... eat small vertebrate prey like pinky mice, but those are pretty fatty and I would definitely keep those as a special treat and not something to be feeding them on a regular basis. When it comes to the enclosure for these guys, again, similar to a blue tongue, they need a large enclosure, but not ridiculous. It's not like you're going to have to build it.
They sell enclosures this size and that's really, really nice. And it's big, but it won't take up your whole house. So you can have a big lizard and still have a room.
They are going to need quite a bit of heat and UVB, which means you're going to need some expensive light bulbs that need to be replaced on a fairly regular basis. And you're going to need the lamps for that. Make sure that you keep your hot spot off to one side so they can get out of the heat. That's something that's extremely important.
You don't want to cook a reptile. When it comes to a substrate, I'd recommend stuff like bark, eco-earth, mixed with sand, something that will hold some moisture. Not a ton, but some moisture, and also can hold a burrow that they can burrow into.
They're gonna need a shallow water bowl and they very well may drink from that, but it seems like misting them occasionally can also be really beneficial. These guys are probably drinking a lot of morning dew on plants in the wild and to simulate that in captivity is really excellent to make sure they stay hydrated. Also, just make sure that they've got a lot of hides both in cool areas and warm areas of the enclosure.
and also stones and things upon which they can climb and bask. I can also tell you, these nails get pretty sharp, and if they're climbing across some stones, especially to get up and bask, they're going to keep those nails a little bit, a little bit less sharp, and that's quite wonderful when it comes to handling. When it comes to hardiness, we give the giant-plated lizard a score of 3 out of 5. The big problem with these guys is that they're almost, without exception, imports.
And we have a whole video. about the issue with imports versus captive bred, and they've got a lot of those import problems. These guys come from a fairly inhospitable region, and so they tend to be pretty tough as imports go, but they've been through a lousy journey. They're going to come to you dehydrated and emaciated and starved and full of parasites, and you could very easily lose them in the first few months.
However, once one is... been established in captivity for several months, especially if you treated it for parasites at the vet, or if you get one that's captive bred, which is absolutely the way to go, they should do really, really well for you. They should be great, just as solid as a lizard can be. When it comes to availability, we give the giant plated lizard a score of three out of five.
The truth is they're out there, but almost all of them that you're going to find are going to be wild caught. Uh, there's been very limited success breeding these guys in captivity, and for this reason, I'm gonna tell you just right here, don't get one at this time. Uh, don't get one now.
This is a lot like what we told you with the Peter's Banded Skink. They're awesome, amazing, super lizards. They make great pets. but it's not a responsible thing to get one just yet unless you're an experienced breeder of similar lizards in which case please get them please please get a few get a breeding colony going start supplying captive bred giant plated lizards for this hobby because these guys are amazing and I really want one but I'm not gonna get one wild caught get a blue tongue or a pink tongue if you want a similar lizard right now and we have videos on both of those those two skinks are both Excellent pets that are really similar and that are widely available captive bred right now. Like I said though, you can find them wild caught.
They're gonna be available online, they're gonna be available at expos, occasionally at pet shops. They're out there, I just wouldn't recommend getting one. It just might not be sustainable for their wild populations, and there's too high of a chance that all you're gonna do is watch it die.
You don't want that. When it comes to upfront costs, we give the giant plated lizard a score of 4 out of 5. The lizard, like many imports, is actually very inexpensive. This is the thing that makes them more tempting than blue-tongued skinks or pink-tongued skinks.
They're way cheaper to buy in most places than are those lizards because they're wild caught instead of captive bred. They seem to have pretty low fecundity, which means they don't produce very many babies at a time, and they seem so far to be fairly difficult for us to breed in captivity. This probably means that the price of them... if they were all captive bred would be pretty high. As it stands though, the captive breeders are having to compete with the wild-caught imports, and so the prices, should you be able to find a captive bred baby, are probably still not that high.
Like we mentioned before, the enclosure that you need for them is large, but totally purchasable. One that would work great would be the Zen Habitats enclosure that we reviewed earlier on this channel. Other comparably sized enclosures would also work really well, as long as...
They have a lid that allows you to put the required heat lamps on top. That's really important. And that's something else you'll need to buy, which are going to be the UVA and UVB bulbs and lamps. Those are extremely important for the success of your giant plated lizard. You're also going to need a substrate, like we mentioned before, that holds its form and holds a little bit of moisture, a water bowl, rocks and hides, and also the calcium and vitamin supplements.
And we have links to all these things down in the description. And that is why overall the giant plated lizard gets a score of 3.6 out of 5. Which is, I mean it's a really high score because this is a really great lizard. I am still asking you, don't get one. Don't get one now. This isn't the right time but I think in a few years especially if there's enough demand for them out there you're gonna see people breeding these with regularity and when they're available captive bred just Pay what it costs, right?
Reward the people who are working with them for their hard work because this is an animal that should be sustainably available in the pet trade. They're amazing. Until then, you'll only get them if you're an experienced breeder.
But when they're available, just pay what it costs. Get one. I love them. These are incredible lizards.
I am so in love. I'm sad that I'm not going to have one anytime soon. But... The time will come and then I will be full of amazing joy.
As always, like and subscribe and we hope to see you real soon! For those of you who saw our live stream question and answer, we got this awesome package. And I couldn't remember Maddie's name, but these come to us from Maddie Radcliffe. And I knew the rad part because this says, too rad to be sad.
It makes my day. Anyway, thank you again, Maddie. These really do make my day. Tell Will to pipe down! No, I'm just teasing.
No, she's wonderful. Those are the cutest little noises ever. But if Will's making them, not as cute.
Creepy. She's so happy. He's being a good dad up there, I think.
These scales are totally right off of a crocodile. Oh my gosh. Okay, back to this. Oh, you're right. Macro it is.
I almost poo-pooed this. Look at that shot. It was an idiotic thing for me to suggest. Because that's amazing. I love this lens.
I think you should start a reptile ASMR channel. Of you lightly scratching his...