CB Malagasy iguanids? (Also CB Malagasy plated lizards?)
 

I currently have no reptiles (unless you count my parrots) but I've been thinking about it and researching for years. First I was waiting until I got a house (from what I gather, lizards somehow make it harder to find a rental than parrots), and now, with everything I've been doing around the house, I don't really feel up to breeding even roaches yet, nor do I feel up to running to the pet store multiple times a week, so I've been debating between getting a couple lizards from groups that interest me which don't need live bugs every couple days.

OTOH, there's two groups of lizards, which (as I understand it, care information is sparse on both groups) do need bugs every meal, but which I'd really like to have eventually: the Malagasy iguanids (Oplurus and Chalarodon) and the Malagasy plated lizards (Zonosaurus and Tracheloptychus). In the years I've been considering getting reptiles, I've watched as these went from common as imports and ridiculously cheap, to impossible to find, and then for the iguanids at least, back to ridiculously cheap imports everywhere again.

The owner of the Texas Reptile Zoo—who breeds Malagasy iguanids but doesn't sell them—told me they're easy to breed, yet he's the only person he knows of even breeding them. He also told me that imports disappeared because Madagascar banned the export of non-CITES species (yes, I know that sounds backwards, but apparently the rationale was that they had no quotas to base export numbers on), a ban which I'm guessing has been at least temporarily repealed again.

I really want these lizards eventually, almost certainly within the next year if I can find them captive bred, but I don't feel ready to breed even roaches yet, much less lizards. I'd prefer to get a few captive-bred animals as pets, when I have all the new homeowner stuff taken care of and finally feel up to breeding my own roaches, and ideally mealworms and banded crickets as well.

However I'm also terrified that the Malagasy iguanid imports will disappear again with nobody breeding them this time either, so my gut is screaming to buy a half dozen of each species that becomes available and set them up as a breeding colony (this is how the owner of the TRZ breeds them, says they're fairly social as lizards go, no idea about the plated lizards) before they're gone forever. This even though I have no experience owning reptiles, much less breeding them, and otherwise have no particular desire to breed reptiles anytime soon!

So I'm wondering: does anyone know of anyone breeding and selling (or breeding and willing to sell) Malagasy iguanids and/or Malagasy plated lizards in the United States? I might try to do wanted ads for these two groups in the classifieds if nobody here really knows, but I'm not really feeling ready to have insectivorous species yet, so I'd rather find a breeder and wait about 6-9 months than get one right now.

Sorry to disappoint, but the answer appears to be no. We never see cb ads for these, maybe a very rare captive hatched.

If you really want these, go get some young imports. The iguanids are fairly social, not sure about multiple male zonosaurs. The Bronx Zoo keeps two species of iguanid with Zonosaurus in their Madagascar House.

And do not overcomplicate the insects. Buy in bulk at a herp show, house and feed the insects in bins until ready to use. We all do it.

Addendum: Zonosaurs do not "need bugs every meal." Their diets should be varied with some fruits and prepared foods (e.g., canned skink or box turtle food).