Bearded Dragons are Awesome Pets

 I used to raise Australian Bearded Dragons, a readily available lizard found in many pet stores. They are quite docile and easy to keep, undemanding, easy to feed and care for. They have a fairly long lifespan if cared for properly. Captive beardeds are mostly herbivorous but will eat just about anything making them essentially an omnivore. Crickets and mealworms are favorites for juvenile bearded dragons, or beardies as they are affectionately called. Here is a funny YouTube video of a feeding session for juvenile beardies, set to music.

What Do Bearded Dragons Eat?

A captive bearded can eat a variety of plant matter that includes mustard greens, dandelion leaves, parsley, carrot tops (a favorite), kale and turnip greens. The adult bearded’s diet should consist of approximately 80% vegetative material to 20% protein, such as from crickets, roaches, locusts, etc. The insects fed to beardies should be ‘gut loaded’ first. That is to say, the insects should be allowed to gorge themselves upon the same ‘salad’ as you would feed the beardie as part of it’s daily plant intake. This is two-fold benefit in that not only will the insects be more nutritious for consumption, but they probably taste like the vegetables too, which will induce the bearded to eat his salad. You do want to encourage a pet beardie to eat healthy amounts of vegetable green and fruits.

 An adult Pogona Vitticeps, the most common variety of Bearded Dragon in Pet Shops, can attain a length of 15-24 inches approximately. About half of this length is tail. This is still far more convenient than that of the common green iguana which can reach an adult length of 5-feet or a bit longer! I had one of those, too!

Care and Caging Requirements

Beardies require a minimum tank size of 20-gallons, preferable larger. A UV-light source is required, and this light must not be ‘filtered’ through glass or plastic (such as a shield on the top of the aquarium) as this has been shown to filter some of the required wavelength of UV light that they require. A heavy course-screen lid  would be best as this keep the lizard from escaping, keep the light from possibly falling into the cage and causing injury to the lizard(s), and if the mesh is small enough, will prevent the cricket feeder bugs from escaping too.

 A nice rock and climbing/basking branch is required too, as is a overhead heat source. Usually, a ceramic UV-heater is the best choice. A light bulb will work too, but the light itself can cause the beardie some long term frustration as they do require a period of ‘nighttime’. A light that is on all the time will eventually upset the beardie unless they have a good place to hide, like a ‘cave’ or under a bunch of branches or overhanging rock.

 A good substrate would be one that they cannot or would not ingest. Sand is best avoided, but I have used sterilized sand before with no problems. You would just have to make sure to feed the dragon in an enclosure that is sand-free, lest their food becomes contaminated with sand and accidentally ingested. This can lead to compaction, a serious ailment that probably would require the assistance of a veterinarian familiar with reptiles.

Warnings and Precautions

Overfeeding of some insects can cause problems though. Too many mealworms can cause intestinal impaction due to the ‘chitin’ of the mealworm, the hard indigestible outer ‘shell’. And over feeding of waxworms (available in pet stores where beardies are sold, and some fishing supply stores have them for anglers too) can cause a problem as the waxworm is high in fat and said to be ‘addictive’ to some beardies. But there is benefit in waxworms; they can help rebuild a famished or weak beardie quickly. After egg laying or an illness, a beardie may have lost weight and would require a ‘fatty’ head start to rebuild lost body mass. Wax worms can provide this and can induce a finicky eater to consume some food.

Fireflies are lethal and toxic to beardies, -ingesting just one firefly can be enough poison to kill it. So avoid those at all costs. Avocado and rhubarb are also toxic plants to bearded dragons, so never offer these. I always avoided feeding lettuce; the water ratio is too high. There is hardly any nutrition in lettuce so this is just empty calories. I very seldom offered spinach due to the oxalate it contains. Oxalates in spinach can bind with calcium in the gut forming a water-insoluble compounds and this effectively sweeps calcium from the body in normal excretia. Calcium is important to captive reptiles especially. Maintaining a healthy 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of Calcium to Phosphorus is vital for the health of captive bearded dragons. Kale and cabbage also have oxalates, but the calcium ratio is better and outweighs the deleterious effect of some oxalate, so these can be offered occasionally also. Beardies excrete their waste ‘bird style’, -in the form of urates (in short, urine & feces are combined, the way a chicken excretes is a good example.)

Beardies Are Trusting Pets

They actually seem to enjoy human contact but in actuality, they are probably just indifferent. Their calm and peaceable nature makes them a favorite with children. An adult beardie actually seems curious, and will approach you or whatever it wishes to investigate. They are very content creatures and I would often take a few of them with me when I traveled to show and tell. They would sit calmly upon my knee and just admire the vantage point, their heads peering around taking in the surroundings.

I Loved my Bearded Dragons

They were the most awesome pets! For about 10 years I kept and raised Bearded Dragons, raising several successful clutches of hatchlings during this time. Beardies will easily breed in captivity and they have a proclivity towards reproduction. They can lay a clutch of 15-25 eggs, three, four or even five times a year! And they can sustain this for several years. I never forcibly encouraged clutches of eggs, but I did have more beardies than I wanted or needed and sold the overflow hatchlings to area pet stores upon occasion. A female beardie can breed with the male and retain the sperm for many months sometimes before she gestates and produces fertile eggs! I had one female beardie that only had a brief contact with a male for about a week and was then separated to a cage entirely by herself, and it was just over five months later, the created a clutch of eggs! Other times when I wanted to breed a pair, the process only took a few weeks given conditions that favored egg-laying.

Are you considering getting an easy to care for pet reptile? You should consider getting a Bearded Dragon, the most awesome lizard pet in the world! Just read up on the care and requirements before acquiring one. There is a lot of information available these days from professionals with years of experience. And there are many wonderful Forums with knowledgeable individuals whom are dedicated to the sharing of information to help you care for your amazing reptile pet.