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DISCLAIMER
We are not veterinarians or herpetological
experts. We are just hobbyists. All of the
information contained in this web site is simply our opinion,
based on our own personal experience. Do your own research
and consult an expert before incorporating any of our information
into your care program.
BEARDED DRAGONS – AN INTRODUCTION
Bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) have
become increasingly popular pets in recent years. Unlike
cats or dogs, “beardies” don’t chew up your shoes
or sofa; bark or howl when you’re not at home; sniff your
guests in embarrassing places; sneak tidbits out of the garbage
can; leave hair on the furniture; or infest your home with fleas.
They don’t wake you up to go out to the bathroom at 2:00 a.m.
or cough up fur balls and deposit them on the floor in the middle
of dinner parties. They don’t run away from home and
leave you with a paternity suit over the impregnation of your
neighbor’s pedigree French poodle. They don’t
require annual vaccinations or tags. In short, beardies are
quiet, lovable, and relatively easy pets.
If you think reptiles are cold, unemotional
pets, you’ve never spent time with a bearded dragon. As
reptiles go, beardies are very aware and personable. They display
a complex set of physical behaviors which are part of their
social vocabulary. These behaviors include blackening and
extending (or throwing) their beards; head bobbing; body
posturing (puffing up and standing tall); and arm waving. Many
owners report that they have learned to “speak beardie”
and that their animals respond to gestures made by humans.
Bearded Dragons are desert animals. Their
natural habitat is the arid regions of Australia. Keep this
in mind when setting up a habitat – the enclosure must be
dry, warm, and free of drafts. For this reason, beardies
should never be housed with other species of reptiles –
especially geckos, water dragons, or other species that require a
moist environment or excessive ventilation. Also keep in mind
that, while beardies do climb rocks and trees to bask, they are
not adept climbers. In fact, they have no business climbing
higher than about six inches, because they often forget where
they are and walk off the end of perches. For that reason,
basking perches should never be high enough that the animal may
sustain injury if it falls.
Also, although your beardies will sometimes
cling to the front of your shirt while you are holding them, they
consider it YOUR responsibility to see that they remain on your
shirt. Sometimes they will just let go, without warning.
DIET
Beardies under a year of age should be fed a
diet of 50% insects, 50% vegetables & fruits. Hatchlings
should be fed small insects -- no longer than half the length of
their heads. Insects that are longer than this can cause
bowel impaction and even death. Suitable live feeders
include small crickets, meal worms, earthworms, and wax worms.
Vegetables should be finely chopped and should include green
leafy vegetables such as romaine, mustard greens, turnip greens,
beet greens, kale, collards, bok choy, Swiss chard, parsley, or
escarole. Other vegetables to offer include sweet potatoes,
squash, peas, green beans, zucchini, yellow or red bell pepper,
broccoli, bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, corn, and carrots.
Fruit is not a beardie’s favorite food, but most beardies
will eat small pieces of apples, watermelon, blackberries,
raspberries, figs, papaya. tomatoes, peaches, kiwi, grapes, or
strawberries. Some like bananas. Most do not.
·
NOTE - The following should never be fed to a beardie. These
items can cause death: spinach, fireflies, iceberg lettuce,
and certain ornamental plants.
Adult bearded dragons should be fed a diet
of 30% insects and 70% fruits and vegetables. The same
variety of foods should be offered as was offered when the animal
was young, but the protein content should be reduced to 30% of
the total intake.
48 hours prior to feeding, live feeders
should be placed in a bucket, which contains vegetables and
fruits that are a normal part of the beardie diet. This
technique is called “gut-loading” and it insures
optimum nutrition to your beardie.
Care should also be taken to keep the insect’s
environment extremely clean. Filth or spoiled food can
cause the insects to harbor diseases-causing agents.
Sometimes beardies are a little picky about
fruits and veggies. One way to get around this is to use a
food processor to finely chop and mix food. You can further
entice your beardies to eat this mixture by offering it along
with small insects. Put the insects and mix into a bowl
that has sides high enough that the insects can’t escape.
When the insects move around, they make the dragon salad “crawl,”
which triggers the strike reflex in your beardie.
Vitamin/mineral supplements, such as RepCal
Vitamins and RepCal Calcium D, should be sprinkled on live
feeders twice per week. These products can be obtained from
a pet store or online. Do not sprinkle food more than twice
per week. Too little calcium can lead to disease, but too
much calcium can lead to kidney stones.
WATER
Beardies can be taught to drink from a bowl,
however keeping water in the cage is not a good idea. It is
likely to become contaminated and be a potential source of
disease. Instead, beardies should be sprayed with water
once per day, using a misting bottle. Let tap water sit out
for 24 hours before using it as a water source, to allow the
chlorine to break down. Direct the spray at the beardie’s
head and spritz them lightly at first. In a minute, the
animal will settle down and begin to lick the water from its nose.
If it is extremely thirsty, it will flatten out its back and
point its head down, allowing the water droplets to roll down
toward its mouth. Spray the animal until it stops lapping
up the water. It is also a good idea to mist the vegetables
you feed your beardie. Make sure you dry the cage after
watering.
HEAT AND NATURAL SUNLIGHT
The overall temperature in your beardie’s
habitat should remain around 88 degrees in the daytime and 70
degrees at night. Basking areas should reach temperatures
of up to 100 degrees, but make sure your beardie can move in and
out of this high temperature area.
Two types of lights should be present:
a full spectrum UV light (we use ReptiSol™) and a basking
light. Replace UV light bulbs every 6 months, even if they still
emit light. Over time, they lose their full-spectrum
qualities.
Ideally, beardies should be provided two
hours of natural sunlight every day, even if full spectrum lights
are in place in the habitat. Providing regular exposure to
natural sunlight will increase your beardie’s color, health,
and longevity. When outdoors, make sure your beardie is
protected from predators and overheating. Outdoor
enclosures should also have a shade box, so your beardie can
escape from the direct sunlight if need be. Never put your
beardie outdoors in an aquarium, because the lack of ventilation
can cause overheating. Besides, glass filters the UV rays, which
negates the effect of basking in natural sunlight.
HABITAT
In our opinion, the best indoor beardie
habitat starts with an aquarium. We are very annoyed with
herp sites that are pushing soft screen enclosures for beardies.
We tried one and, from our point of view, it was utterly
inappropriate for bearded dragons. Our animals kept getting
their toenails caught on the sides and panicking. They’d
thrash around and we were very lucky that none ended up breaking
a leg or worse.
The other problem was temperature control.
Ventilation is great, but drafts are another matter. We
found that the soft screen enclosures allowed way too much air
movement, which made it impossible for us to regulate
temperatures. Our final objection to soft screen enclosures is
that crickets can eat through them. Although we feed our
beardies outside the habitat in big plastic bins, owners who do
feed their animals in the habitat may find crickets roaming the
house.
Here is a list of supplies for constructing
a bearded dragon habitat:
*55 gallon aquarium
*One clip lamp (for basking – usually cheapest at Home Depot)
*A 100 watt spotlight (for the clip lamp -- also try HD)
*An aquarium light fixture (like what they use on fish tanks)
*A full spectrum UV bulb for the aquarium Light. Throw away the bulb that comes with the lamp and replace with something like a ReptiSol™ bulb. Aquarium bulbs don't give off a full spectrum and dragons NEED full spectrum or they will die.
*A small "under tank" heating pad. This sticks to the under side of the tank and provides warmth at night. Don't use heating rocks, because beardies have few pain receptors on their undersides and can be scalded.
* Substrate -- this is a hot topic of debate. The safest bet is newspaper, but if you feed your beardie outside the tank, like we do, you can use calci-sand, which is prettier and gives the animal more traction.
* A basking branch -- just get one outdoors. Don't pay for one at the store. Make sure it is pesticide free and has no sharp little twigs on it.
*A lid -- if you get an aquarium hood, there are ways to put the basking clip lamp inside the tank. This is what I do. If you plan to use a screen lid, make sure it is wire mesh or the basking lamp can melt through it.
SHEDDING
Beardies shed several times per year,
usually in sections. It is tempting to remove the dead
skin, but don’t do this, because you may remove areas of
skin that are not ready to be shed. This can cause damage
to the new skin.
HANDLING
The best way to hold your beardie is to
support it’s full weight in your hand (and even up your arm,
if the animal is large). Avoid grabbing your beardie by the
body or tail. Grabbing it by the body can cause broken ribs.
If you grab your beardie by the tail, the animal may thrash
around, which can cause spinal injuries.
Young beardies need to be restrained,
because they are apt to dash off without notice. Try to
keep your touch light with young dragons. It is best to let
them walk from hand to hand if they try to get away –
restraining them may lead to injury. As your dragon
matures, it will get use to being handled and it will stop trying
to “escape” especially if it begins to associate you
with food. Try feeding your dragon from your hand when you
have it outside the habitat, so it will learn to trust you and
enjoy your company.
We feel that commercially available leashes
can be dangerous for beardies. These are designed for
iguanas, not bearded dragons. If you must use a leash,
construct your own, as per the instructions on Bill Meers’
BoarderView Dragons web page.
SEXING
Before 5 to 6 months of age, only experts
can sex dragons and even then, there is no guarantee. I’ve
been raising bearded dragons for five years and I can not always
accurately sex sub-adults. I felt bad about this until I
discovered that my veterinarian isn’t a lot better at it
than I am. The ones that puzzle me, usually stump him too
-- until he does an internal exam (which only a veterinarian has
any business doing, in my opinion).
Here are some general clues. Gently
arch the tail over the dragon’s back and rotate it from side
to side. If you see two lumps on either side of the base of
the tail, it is male. If not, the jury is still out. Other clues
include the size and shape of the head; the size of the femoral
pores; and the size and shape of the abdomen. Males have
wider, more muscular heads. Females’ heads tend to be
smaller and more slender. The femoral pores on males tend
to be larger and more prominent. Females have them, but
they are less obvious. Males tend to have narrower abdomens.
Females tend to have rounder, heavier bodies.
Additional clues can be found in behavior,
but again, sometimes individuals will cross gender lines. Typical
male behaviors include rapid head bobbing, beard blackening and
beard “throwing.” Females tend to bob their heads
up and down very slowly and wave a front leg in a slow circle.
But the male gestures may be made by a dominant female and the
female gestures may be made by submissive males. My best
producing female is very dominant and she habitually engages in
aggressive “male” displays when in the company of other
females.
SUPPLIERS WE RECOMMEND
Millbrook Farms (live feeders) 800-654-3506
*Please tell Millbrook that we recommended
them. Their feeders are extremely clean and their prices are
extremely low.
Big Apple Herpetological (for supplements
and accessories) 1-800-92-APPLE
*Just because Big Apple sells a product,
does not mean we agree that it is suitable for beardies. But,
overall, this is a good supply source, for knowledgeable beardie
owners.
http://www.bigappleherp.com/bigappleherp.storefront/
