ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Why Bearded Dragons are Ideal as Pets

Updated on August 2, 2010

Bearded Dragon (Pogona)

Bearded dragon lizards (a.k.a Pogonas) are a local of Australia. These kind of expert-climbing lizards dwell the rugged and dry parts of the country. Dragons (as the lazy tongue had made popular) have big triangular heads and flat bodies with pointed ridges along its sides. They're omnivorous, which means they could change and mix diet options of insects and vegetation.

Head banging, hand waving, and throat pouches display, are the common behaviours of this lizard. As a highly interactive pet, pogonas must be taken with great responsibility.
Head banging, hand waving, and throat pouches display, are the common behaviours of this lizard. As a highly interactive pet, pogonas must be taken with great responsibility.
Beautiful baby beardies.
Beautiful baby beardies.

Bearded dragons as pets

Because of their success in captivity, bearded dragons became popular among hobbyists and experts. What set the bearded lizards apart from other reptiles is their extremely friendly character toward people. They are calm when hitting their adult years. Younger dragons are extremely energetic but are friendly, and they make excellent pet selection for young children. Pogonas live about ten to twenty years (there has been known to live longer and join their kid captor to their adult years).

Pogonas are preferred by people having difficulties with noise, stress, and hefty maintenance (cats, dogs, donkeys, etc). Lizards poop are also easy to handle as compared with cat or dog poo. Furthermore, Pogonas don't require much attention; you can just play with them when you are in the mood, and the lizard will be in the mood. No barking or meowing intended for attention on your tired-and-i-wanna-be-alone times.

Male Pogonas possess a distinct set of pre-anal pores on the back legs and possess bulges at the vent area. Females don't have any bulge past the vent or only one, and opposite the beliefs, they do have pores but they are less apparent when compared with male bearded dragons. There are instances when a female can have a larger head and a longer tail than her male equal. Grown males turn their throat pouches black during courtship to signal dominance (and also to defend against rivals). Females have also been known to do the same.


Housing pogonas properly

Sunlight is an energy source for these lizards. Pogonas laze their time the whole day where they store as much warmth they needed to break down their food. For the lizard's home, it's essential to have at least one or two good basking areas. Rocks, being able to absorb and store heat much better, are preferable than using logs (logs could be an essential addition, for it provide stimulation to the animal; climbing and running).

To get rid of contaminants, all item used from the outside ought to be boiled or baked to make certain the dragon's physical state. As they lead to the lizards stomach burns when malfunctioned, electric or battery powered heating devices is really a huge NO. In addition, the lizard's habitat ought to also house something where they are able to hide under.

You will find specially-lizard-made fluorescent bulbs sold at pet shops. These types of bulbs will run the length of the tank, but make sure the illumination overlap the basking area. The Pogona pet should get within 6-8 inches of these lights to benefit from the UV emission (Note: the amount of UV created by these bulbs diminishes over time, and needed to be replaced as advised by the manufacturer).

Color and "beard" details on an adult dragon.
Color and "beard" details on an adult dragon.

Thinking of getting one?

Bearded dragons available in America are captive bred (Australia has strict polices against exportation of its wildlife to other territories). In their natural home, bearded dragons consumes a mixture of invertebrate and vertebrate prey (e.g. insects and little animals), and also vegetation. When in captivity, the pet owner ought to feed pogonas a combination of insects (mostly crickets, with a variety of other cultured insect prey) and vegetables.




How To Keep a Bearded Dragon As a Pet

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)