The northern caiman lizard is built similarly to its cousin the tegu, with a large heavy set body and short but powerful limbs.

Their jaws are heavily muscular to help aid in eating its normal prey of snails, crawfish and fresh water clams.

In the last five years, farmed baby northern caiman lizards from South America have made their way into the pet trade around the world.

Even so, many owners find it highly useful to have a local source of escargot or even a variety of snails, with some reporting to have luck at Asian supermarkets.

The caiman lizard is not a reptile which, by any means, is easy to keep or raise in captivity; despite any docility, they still have strong jaws that are capable of delivering painful bites.

Since many reptiles are prone to metabolic bone disease (MBD), proper calcium in their diets is essential along with the UVB exposure.

The best setup for the caiman lizard is something akin to a large paludarium or riparium enclosure, with adequate land and water space.

Beyond the fact that these lizards can grow to be fairly large—up to 4 feet in length—a large enclosure is mandatory to successfully keep them alive.

That being said, some owners claim there is a reward to keeping them; caiman lizards are intelligent, as can be observed in the way in which they approach a snail clinging to rocks, for example.

They can solve problems which many other lizards apparently fail to, and can generally recognize their owners, given they have been socialised for the right amount of time and are cared for under excellent conditions.