First of all, welcome to the Australian Bearded Dragon Guide and thank you for visiting. This article is the result of 5 years experience in keeping Bearded Dragons on the part of the researcher. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.

Introduction:

Pogona vitticeps a.k.a The Australian Bearded Dragon, is perhaps the best lizard to keep in captivity. Their friendly nature and eagerness to communicate make them ideally suited for first time lizard owners and their comical antics provide hours of amusement.

All dragons are individuals, with their own personalities and idiosyncrasies and, like humans, dragons come in many shapes, sizes and colours from champagne to vivid orange depending on their parentage. A typical dragon is beige and tan and can live up to seven years. Taking on a dragon is not a short-term thing, like other pets they require lots of time, love and effort. If you can provide that and are looking to move into reptile keeping, a Bearded Dragon might just be the answer you seek. This guide is aimed at first time and prospective dragon owners.

Bearded Dragon Requirements:

Dragons require a number of things to thrive: Heat, light, food, a house and plenty of TLC. Let's go through these in order:

Heat:

Dragons are native to Australia and as is well known Australia is considerably warmer than the UK, so your dragon will need a heat lamp. Tank temperature should be approximately 30°C with a gradual drop to 25°C during the night. Use lamps rather than heat rocks as lizards do not have particularly quick pain response times and burn very easily. Heat lamps can usually be acquired from lighting shops or pet shops where reptiles are sold. Suspend the bulb beneath a reflector well out of your dragon's reach and monitor the temperature with a thermometer, using a thermostat to regulate the tank temperature. This applies to all reptiles.

UVB Light:

Lizards cannot produce their own reserves of vitamin D or metabolise calcium, which is essential for growth and correct development. They require a special UVB light source to help them metabolise and absorb their vitamin intake. Specially prepared UVB lights are available from most reptile selling pet shops. The UVB light will need to be 8 - 12" away from your dragon for maximum effect and should be changed every 6 months. It is best kept on a timer to mimic the natural hours of daylight with seasonal adjustments being made accordingly in summer and winter.

Food:

To say dragons are enthusiastic about food is an understatement; they love to eat and will literally eat until they make themselves ill. Indigestion is fatal to dragons so be very careful. A classic sign that your dragon has indigestion is it lying paralysed with its back legs stuck straight out behind it. If you suspect this take your dragon to the vets immediately!

The generally accepted approach is to feed your Dragon on a daily basis throughout its first year then slowly decrease feedings to 3 - 4 per week until 18 months. The best foods to give a dragon are crickets, locusts and vegetables with the occasional bit of fruit or a few waxworms given as a treat. The best method to follow is never to give a dragon anything larger than the space between its eyes. All insects must be liberally dusted with a vitamin powder that provides calcium and vitamin D. Dragons take quite easily to hand-feeding and love to be spoiled, so beware!

Two things to note are that Spinach is very bad for dragons it causes 'impacting' in the gut, otherwise known as constipation, and they don't like radishes or other 'hot' vegetables. Anything else is pretty much fair game. Favourite things include most soft fruits & berries I.e. raspberries, peaches, green grapes and tomato. Plenty of greens are a good idea too although iceberg lettuce is not recommended due to its low nutritional content.

Insects can be brought readily from most pet shops and are easily available via online specialists and should be kept in a cool, dark environment. It is best to buy 'Bug Grub' to feed insects and make left over greens and fruit matter readily available as the vitamins in the vegetables will be transferred to your Dragon upon consumption of the insects.

Dragons do not tend to drink directly. It is best to bathe them once or twice a week in warm water and gently 'mist' them with a spray bottle. Some may learn to drink from a syringe/dropper or hamster bottle with perseverance.

The way to a dragon's heart is through its stomach. This quick salad is a good place to start, roughly chop all the ingredients and serve with a dusting of vitamin powder.

• 8oz Shredded Green Beans
• 8oz Shredded Carrot
• 8oz Various Veggies such as capsicum peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, kohlrabi, parsnip, peas, pumpkins, plain boiled potato or rice.
• 4oz Mixed Fruit such as apple, apricots, blueberries, bananas, berries, cantaloupe melon, figs, grapes, honeydew, kiwi, mangoes, papaya, peaches, pears, plums, watermelon. (Remove seeds from apples etc and skin from banana.)

Housing:

Dragons need a specialist environment; they are reptiles and therefore cannot regulate their own body temperature. A large tank or vivarium is a must and is fairly easy to create. It must allow ample space for your dragon to roam when fully grown. Note that an adult dragon can be anything from 2 - 4 feet in length. Dragons also love to climb so make sure the tank has ample height to allow for branches, rocks and so forth to be added as necessary. Ensure that any climbing apparatus is stable, your dragon may be crushed if the apparatus falls onto it or if it burrows underneath it. Good climbing apparatus include large rocks and branches, both of which should be purchased from a pet shop to avoid the danger of poisoning.

Dragons also need a nest area and some form of bedding, preferably easily digestible bedding in the event that it accidentally ingests some when feeding; rabbit pellets are a good choice. Do not use sand, straw/hay or sawdust and do not leave your dragon's tank in the sun, as with dogs dragons overheat and dehydrate easily in such conditions.

TLC:

Perhaps the easiest requirement to fulfil, Dragons are very sociable creatures. They love being the absolute centre of attention and being lavished with more fuss than you can imagine. It is perfectly permissible to handle a dragon as they are easily tamed and not in the least vicious. The best way to pick a dragon up is from the side, ensuring that the body and tail are well supported. Dragons like gentle hugs, lots of stroking and travelling around the house on a shoulder.

Communicating With Your Dragon:

Dragons communicate through body language, with patience you can learn to speak 'dragonese', or a pidgin version of it at least. Here are a few pointers:

• Hissing: Although rare, is a sign that you’ve upset or hurt your dragon. It is usually accompanied by puffing out of the ‘beard’ area under the chin which turns black, opening mouth to show teeth and generally trying to be as intimidating as is possible. Which doesn’t work because the average dragon is about as intimidating as porridge! If this happens leave your dragon alone for a few minutes to calm down and then make reparations with plenty of fuss and a few treats. However, if the dragon is injured take it to the vets immediately.
• Head Nodding: This is an attempt to assert ones authority in dragonese. You can respond by mimicking the movement with your hand/finger tips. Whilst this can be fun to watch, it is not wise to do it too often as an intimidated dragon is not a friendly one.
• Arm Waving: This is literally dragonese for ‘Hello!’ however, if arm waving is seen in response to head bobbing it means “Stop harrassing me please” Arm waving is easily imitated by gently circling the thumb.
• Posturing: If your dragon sticks its nose in the air at you it is effectively saying that it is supreme. Ignore it, it’s only boasting about how well you’re spoiling it!

General Dragon Behaviour:

Dragons are perhaps the most curious and expressive reptiles known to man. They have a wide variety of behaviours. All dragons are individuals with independent personalities and idiosyncrasies. Here is a brief run down of the most common things that dragons do to help you understand what yours is saying:

• Tail Raised: Alert
• Tail Flat: Relaxed
• Dragons have a habit of sleeping in very strange positions, do not be alarmed if yours seems to be practising yoga or attempting to turn itself into a pretzel at times.
• Dragons are very curious, they love to explore their surroundings and are frequently known to 'tap' on their tank to ask to come out. They also like watching TV and going outside to explore the garden on sunny days, never leave a dragon outside unsupervised.
• An investigating dragon will very often 'taste' things in order to discover what they are so ensure that you don’t leave any small objects around when your dragon is exploring.
• Turning black is not a good sign, if your dragon is black it is either very stressed or ill.
• 'Dragonstacks' occur when you have more than one dragon in your keeping. Dragons will literally stack up on top of each other. Thus it is best to ensure that you do not keep juveniles or young in with adult dragons. They may well be crushed or eaten!

Keeping Multiple Dragons:

Dragon relationships are tricky; never keep males together as they will fight and seriously injure each other. Females are more sociable. Male-Female relations are not always smooth, either partner can become very stressed and withdrawn - much like us humans - when things aren't going according to plan. If this occurs your dragons may need to be separated. Mating and egg laying will be covered in a later article.

Shedding:

Bearded dragons are reptiles; their skin does not grow with them but is shed sporadically to make way for new skin. A clear indicator that your dragon is shedding is, of course, skin loss. This can be preceded by the skin taking on a frosted or silvery appearance. When your dragon is shedding it may go off its food and become lethargic. Shedding usually occurs over a 10-day period, do not remove skin from your dragon by hand. It can hurt at best or damage new skin and lead to infection at worst. The best action to take to help your dragon during shedding is to bathe it in warm water and gently stroke it with an old toothbrush. Whenever you bathe your dragon make sure you dry it off. Always sterilise your dragon bath after use.

Brumation:

As with most creatures Bearded Dragons do hibernate but they do not sleep continually for elongated periods. This process is known as Brumation, your dragon will fall into a pattern of sleeping for the best part of the day and will very likely go off its food, this should last for around 4 & 6 weeks starting in August. Do not be alarmed, this is perfectly normal.

Claws:

Dragons love climbing and to facilitate their interest have very sharp claws on each of their five toes, to prevent your dragon from getting stuck in the carpet or anywhere else you may choose to let them roam it is wise to keep their claws trimmed. This can be done with a normal set of nail clippers, the best approach is to place the dragon on your lap, facing you and gently take each foot in hand and only trim the very tip of the claw off. Dragons have blood vessels in their claws so any more than the tip can result in injury. In this case clean the area gently with a damp cotton bud and a little very diluted TCP or other similar medical disinfectant and put a sliver of plaster around the affected toe to protect it.

Dragon Toiletry:

As with all living things dragons must go to the toilet, a normal dragon doing is black and white consisting of a thick white paste and piece of black matter. As is standard with things of this nature it does not smell pleasant and the heat in your dragon's tank will only exacerbate this fact. As soon as you notice that your dragon has done the necessary remove it and dispose of it via the lavatory before thoroughly washing your hands. Your dragon will thank you profusely for this kind act and your house will not reek to the rafters. If your dragons business appears different from this description keep a close eye on it, as a trip to the vet may be necessary.

WARNINGS:

Dragon Web:

Dragon Links:

Here's a selection of useful sites for current and would-be Dragon keepers:

• Bearded Dragon Web Ring - US Based but good for tips tricks and pictures.
• Spike & Friends - UK Based, the life and times of Spike & co.
• Care & Maintenance of Bearded Dragons - Good all round site for Dragon info

Food, Supplies and Equipment:

There are a considerable number of Herpetological Suppliers online, at the time of writing the researcher recommends Live Food UK & Bugs Direct both of which can be found c/o Google

UK Reptile Vets:

• Reptile Keeper UK - A handy list of Reptile Vets by county, UK Only.