Bearded Dragons are known to be social and relatively easy to care about.
They are curious and active animals. Their truly social side you can mainly recognise if there are two or more animals together. But don’t worry, they don’t necessary need a companion to live a happy life.
If you want to tame your dragon you need to be patient. They need some time to adjust to new environment and new family. Give them some space and time to feel safe in their vivarium. At the same time during the feeding or taking care of the daily duties try to gently stroke him/her or simply keep your hand close by for a while.
The best way to gain their fondness and trust is when you feed them by hand. They love their food and like with many other animals, as they say, through stomach to the heart. Other ways to bond is to let them lick you or simply handle them as a part of the daily routine. You can of course use all at once.
Your relationship will become even better when you start to interpret and understand their behaviour and way of communication.
Bearded Dragons are very easy to care for lizards. They are only 4 main things you need to remember about daily:
- Temperature
- Food
- Water / hydration
- Keeping the Vivarium and your pet clean
Apart the above there are more things you need to do in order to raise a happy and healthy dragon.
Nail care. The best and easiest way you can keep the nails short is the natural way. For this you will need to place a rock or a paving stone in the favourite spot, such as feeding or basking area. This means, your pet will get a natural manicure just by climbing the stone.
Other method is trimming. You can trim the nails with cat claw trimmer or with a human nail clipper. But be careful to only remove the sharp tip of the nail. If you cut it to high up you may cut in the nerve with the blood vessel. If that happens the claw will start bleeding. To stop it you should apply small pressure for about two minutes. you can also apply a coagulating agent or cornflour. Should the bleeding continue you should contact a vet as it could mean an internal medical problem.
Bath. You will ask yourself why a desert animal needs a bath? Well let me tell you it is more important than you think for at least three reasons:
- The obvious, to clean your beardie from any faeces that could be on him/her.
- To help with hydration. This theory has been disputed by many bloggers but I would trust my vet, who is a reptile specialist. Bearded Dragons can absorb water through their skin and more specifically, through their cloaca (yes!).
- Stimulates bowel movements. For this do not be surprised when your beardie will leave a gift for you in the bath.
You should prepare a nice warm (not hot) bath for your lizard twice maybe even three times a week for about 10-15 minutes. The water should be at a temperature of a baby bath and shouldn’t reach higher than the armpits. The water should actually only cover the upper part of the tail.
Bearded Dragons are known as the least aggressive lizard.
They rarely bite, whip their tale, scratch or show any sign of aggression. Your beardie may at the beginning not be willing to leave his warm and comfy vivarium but once he/she is out and safe on your hand you wont notice any resistance more. This animal seem rather to enjoy the warmth of human body. Some owners noticed their lizards mostly like to sit on the chest with head on the shoulder.
Just because your beardie enjoys your company it doesn’t mean he/she will let strangers to handle her/him. Bearded Dragons get used to their carer and handling them will be easy for you, but they may not feel as relaxed with others.
Here are few tips how to correctly handle your Bearded Dragon:
- Use calm and gentle moves when lifting and carrying around.
- Don’t let strangers, especially without reptile experience, to take out your beardie from the vivarium. It will be much better if you do it yourself and then pass him/her over to the other person.
- Always make sure to support your lizard including the tail from beneath while lifting or caring.
- Never catch or lift your Bearded Dragon by the tail. As you probably know already they cannot drop their tail, so like with Ragna, once the tail is injured or it will be bitten of it will not grow back.
- Be very careful when you carry your pet around as he/she may suddenly jump of your arm and suffer an injury.
- Avoid scratches. Easier said then done. While handling your reptile you may occasionally get scratched if that happens, as a precaution, cleanse the scratches with antiseptic. If however the wound is deep and not healing consult your doctor immediately.
It is a daily task but also once a while you have to do a general(spring) cleaning. Remove all uneaten food, pieces of shedded skin or faeces. Take all the stones, branches and wash them in a soapy water. Wash the vivarium and lastly disinfect it.
We highly recommend to assemble a kit for cleaning that you keep separately from your other house cleaning items. In your kit you should have:
- Pair of rubber gloves
- Waste bag
- Scrapers
- Sweeper
- Bucket for water
- Paper towels or cloths
- Soap or other safe to use cleaner
- Disinfectant (use one that is safe for reptiles)
What will also help you to remember all is to keep the routines. Daily routine will involve remove all the uneaten food, tidy up the vivarium, change the water and prepare all dishes for the next morning. Monthly routine should be as described above more in dept cleaning. Keeping those routines will help you to manage your duties and keep your Bearded Dragon healthy and happy.
