RE: The most sociable reptile pets beside bearded dragon
I have never been really interested in having a reptile as a pet, but I did have a chameleon when I was a child, and it was pretty friendly. Not like a puppy or a kitten where you could actually say they were glad to see you, but it was gentle enough when I held it.
Back in the fifties, every Dime Store sold little painted turtles, and the little turtle bowls to keep them in, so , of course, I had a turtle for a while too. The pet turtles were actually painted when they were shipped to the stores, and they were all about the same size and looked exactly alike; so people picked out their pet turtle by the picture that was painted on their back.
I think that probably that was not healthy for the turtle; but it did wear off pretty fast, and then he was just a plain old painted turtle , called that because of their colorful under-shell.
One of the most agressive reptiles that I have encountered (besides venomous snakes) was also a turtle, and that was the snapping turtle. They are the ugliest turtles in the whole world ! They look prehistoric, like they belong in a Jurassic Park movie, with the spikes along their back.
These turtles will actually come right after you to attack and snap you. They not only crawl along like most other turtles do, but when they are after you, they stand straight up on their legs, and the body is several inches off of the ground.
As they attack, they are hissing at you, and will snap anything that gets close enough for them to snap at.
We had some in our catfish pond when I lived in Missouri, and one day, we caught a snapper when we were out fishing. That turtle was outrageously angry by the time we had reeled him in, so he was even more agressive than usual.
There was no easy way to even get the hook back out of his mouth, but we used a long stick and finally got it out. Then I moved that turtle down to the nearby creek and let him live there, so no one would catch him when we were out fishing.