ORIGIN

Bearded dragons are native to central Australia.

FREE-RANGING HABITAT

They are semi-arboreal and live in a range of habitats from desert to dry forests and scrublands.

PET APPEAL

In the wild, they spend the mornings and afternoons foraging and the hottest part of the day in underground burrows. They are well adapted to cool desert nights. Bearded dragons usually thrive in captivity.

BEHAVIOR

In most cases they are calm and rarely bite, scratch or whip with their tails. They usually do not exhibit signs of stress from handling, and they may feed from the hand of their caretakers. They make good pets, even for children, due to their docile and social nature.

Children must be taught to thoroughly wash their hands following every encounter to reduce the potential for salmonellosis.

HOUSING

It is best to house only 1 male bearded dragon per enclosure, but 1 or more females may be present.

The housing environment should include thick branches and rocks for climbing.

Large rocks should be provided for a basking site for bearded dragons.

Breeders often house 2 males and 3 or more females together for the breeding season. Having more than 1 male present can stimulate male reproductive activity. Hatchlings should be maintained separately from adults. If multiple individuals are housed together, their body conditions should be monitored closely. Signs of stress include low body weight and poor condition. Dominance problems are not uncommon.

Hungry juveniles housed together can bite off the toes and tail-tips of their cage mates. An enclosure for 1-2 adult bearded dragons should be at least 2 x 4 feet (61 x 122 cm) in size, be easy to clean and have smooth sides to prevent rostral abrasions.

A 10-gallon aquarium is suitable only as short term housing for juveniles. Acceptable substrates include soil, newspaper, alfalfa pellets, cypress mulch and sand.

Cat litter, corn cob, walnut shell and wood shavings are not suitable substrates. Care should be taken to avoid placing food items directly onto substrates that can cause impactions if ingested. Care should also be taken to ensure proper hydration if a substrate is used that results in lowered cage humidity, e.g., sand or newspaper.

Burrows/hiding areas should be kept slightly more humid than the rest of the enclosure. This can be accomplished by using substrate that retains moisture, such as cypress mulch, or by using a wood shelter and periodically soaking it in water.

A shallow water bowl may be provided for drinking; however, many bearded dragons get sufficient water from their diet and do not drink from bowls. They may soak and defecate in the drinking water, creating an unhealthy environment if the bowl is not cleaned frequently. Ways to successfully keep bearded dragons from becoming dehydrated while eliminating the need for water in the enclosure include: providing a shallow pan for soaking 1-2 times weekly as needed, ensuring increased humidity in a shelter/hiding area, and rinsing dietary greens with water prior to feeding.

LIGHT AND TEMPERATURE

Unfiltered sunlight or high-output UV lighting (fluorescent bulb or mercury vapor lamp), such as ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0,TM ZooMed PowerSunTM (www.zoomed.com) or T-Rex Active IV HeatTM (www.t-rexproducts.com), should be positioned out of reach of the lizard with no glass or plastic between the bulb and the reptile.

Fluorescent UV lights should be placed within 18-20 inches (45-50 cm) and mercury vapor bulbs should be somewhat beyond that distance. Fluorescent bulbs should be changed every 6 months for juvenile lizards and yearly for adults. The mercury vapor bulbs should be changed at least yearly.

Bearded dragons thrive in a well-ventilated, low humidity environment. A daytime temperature gradient, from 80°F (27°C) on the cool side of the vivarium to 90-95°F (32-35°C) at a basking site, should be maintained.

Nighttime temperatures can drop to 70oF (21°C).

ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT

Bearded dragons are most active during the day and are adept climbers. In addition to providing the basking site and shelter/ hiding area, the housing environment should include thick branches or rocks for climbing.

Bearded dragons should not be allowed free roam of the house in order to prevent chilling, trauma, escape, ingestion of foreign materials, such as potentially toxic live plants, and the risk of spreading Salmonella.

DIET

Bearded dragons are omnivorous as juveniles; adults are predominantly herbivorous with occasional insects in their diet. As they mature, the intake of greens increases as does the size of insect prey.

Hatchlings

Hatchlings should be fed daily with small insects, such as crickets, phoenix worms, mealworms or other nontoxic collected grasshoppers, grubs, flies and moths. Greens and some vegetables should be provided daily. Insects cultivated for feeding (e.g., crickets and mealworms) are deficient in nutrients and need daily dusting with mineral and calcium supplements.

Vitamin supplementation is needed only weekly.

Adults

Suitable vegetables include romaine, dandelion, turnip greens, mustard greens, beet greens, kale, collard greens, bok choy, Swiss chard, escarole, spinach and cilantro. Other vegetables can provide nutritional variety but should be limited, as should occasional flower blossoms and leaves from nontoxic plants.

Insects fed to adults may include crickets, superworms (Zophobas), mealworms, wax worms, locusts, grass- hoppers and roaches. Lightning bugs may be toxic to bearded dragons and should not be offered.

Pinkie mice may be fed in small amounts to breeding females. Insects, dusted with a mineral supplement containing calcium, are limited to twice weekly feeding for adults.

Calcium and vitamin/mineral supplements should be applied to the diet only every 1-2 weeks. Home-raised insects should be fed a “gut-loading” diet of fresh greens for several days before feeding out to bearded dragons. A wet sponge is the best water source for insects.

SEXING AND REPRODUCTION

Juvenile bearded dragons are difficult to sex. Anatomical differences become more apparent as they mature: males are usually larger and have a broader head, thicker tail with hemipenile bulges and enlarged femoral pores along the inner thighs. During the breeding season dominant males develop a large black “beard.” Females also have femoral pores and their beard can turn black when stressed, making them difficult at these times to differentiate from males.

Reproduction usually occurs following a winter cool-down period of 2-3 months, known as brumation. Although most bearded dragons will breed without any type of brumation period, low fertility rates have been reported in both males and females that were not allowed to cool. Brumation can be accomplished by cooling temperatures to 75-80°F (24-27°C) and decreasing daytime light cycles to approximately 10 hours. Successfully bred gravid females will often develop a distended coelomic cavity and lose some body mass over the back, pelvis and tail. Eggs can be palpated during coelomic palpation of most gravid females. An appropriate nest site of deep, moist soil is necessary for the female to lay the eggs. Dystocia can occur due to improper nutrition and husbandry or other health-related issues.

RESTRAINT

When holding or carrying a bearded dragon, the body should be fully supported in the palm of the hand with fingers gently curled over the back. Dragons should not be caught or lifted by the tail. Most bearded dragons are more tolerant of being restrained from the ventral rather than the dorsal aspect of their body.