whats the best intermediate reptile pet?

Ball pythons are cool, but they can be finicky eaters if they get stressed. And its not uncommon for a BP to do that. Iguanas are cool but they do get big and require a lot of maintenance. Heating a big lizard is expensive too. If your into snakes I would recommend a nice hardy corn snake. You mentioned you don't care for bearded dragons but I think they are great starter lizards. They get about 2 feet long and are awesome. You can always buy a little anole!

I don't know how much experience you Have but if you have some experience caring for snakes and you're looking for something a little more challenging then a Brazilian rainbow boa is a fantastic choice! they're probably the most beautiful snake in the world IMO. They have an iridescence when u look at them in the right light and you can literally see all the colors of the rainbow sparkling on their scales!

The reason they're not beginner snakes and are classes as more intermediate snakes is two-fold. First, they do require taming and can be quote nippy as babies. People often get spoiled keeping ball pythons and regular boas and forget that most snakes need taming. Baby snakes in the wild are food for bigger predators so when you reach in the enclosure to grab your baby rainbow boa, it's going to assume it's getting eaten and it will strike out of defensiveness. You can tame them by always using a snake hook to gently pull them out and then Sliding your hand underneath their body to hold them. I hold my baby BRB everyday for 30 minutes - except when shes about to shed, in shed or finishing a shed. And 48 hrs after feeding. She's tamed to the point now where I just tap her lightly with the hook and then scoop her up and she's calm ad could be.

Second challenge with them is their high humidity. They require around 75-85% humidiy - I keep mine at a consistent 80%. I use a rickysreptileenclosure.com juvenile enclosure and I keep a large water bowl in there, on the cool side, a regular hide on the cool side and an exo terrasnake cave with spagnham moss inside on the warm side (she spends tons of time in her cave). I mist 1 maybe 2 times a week depending on whether the humidity drops or not and that's it. With the correct enclosure, humidity is easy as could be. But to be honest, an aquarium/fish tank type of Viv will prove to be a challenge with these Guys / not to say it can't be done, it can. Just a little more work. Anywas this is my suggestion but in the end it comes down to what interests you the most. Google google google and check out caresheets and maybe reptile forums an youll find the right pet for you!!

Good luck ;-)

Snakes

snakes are coll and not hard to look after they are exciting to play with and watch there are a lot to choose from but its good to start with a childrens python inland carpet or ball python

A yellow or red ackie monitor lizard.

http://zoocrewkids.blogspot.com/

get a ball python. they only get about five feet long, are very social-able with their human, and are not too easily stressed. they are a very good beginner snake/reptile.

turtles are very easy and durable

iguana but will grow to 4-6 ft