Reptile Considerations...

Charlie's obsession with all critters scaly has gotten to the point where we are actually considering getting him a reptile of some sort. The reasoning is something like, maybe if he has a pet reptile he will not spend all his time in the bushes looking for reptiles or on YouTube looking at people looking for reptiles...

So I have narrowed down the field of contenders to three reptile choices after doing some research on the Internet and talking to the guy at the pet store. Here they are for your review and vote. As you will see, they all have their pros and cons...

Corn Snake:
Pros - They're the cheapest.
They are docile
They don't get very big.
They're fairly low maintenance.
You only need to feed them once a week.
Cons - They eat mice. Frozen mice, that you have to dethaw and then fluff up with a hair dryer to make them look more... alive.
Their tanks need to be scrubbed thoroughly once a week to prevent salmonella.
They're escape artists.
Did I mention they eat mice?
They live for far too long, 20 or 30 years.

Bearded Dragon:
Pros -
They like being handled and are very docile.
They're hardy and pretty low maintenance.
They live about 7 years, a much more reasonable amount of time.
They don't get too big.
Cons - They need to be fed live crickets about every other day. Crickets, as in chirp... Chirp... Crickets.
Iguana:
Pros - They are vegetarians, eating fruit and veggies and - hallelujah - iguana chow.
It is apparently pretty easy to accidentally kill them as babies. Something tells me I am supposed to put this under the cons, but I can't quite bring myself to.
Cons - They get freaking HUGE, eventually requiring a LARGE terrarium.

So go ahead and submit your vote! And before you ask, Charlie is thoroughly uninterested in box turtles (sigh.)