June 23, 2012

  • Bearded Dragons

    The book I read to research this post was Bearded Dragons by Lance Jepson which is an excellent book which I bought from the local petshop. These are a medium sized lizard about 2 ft long & they are found in South East Asia & Eastern Australia. There is quite a lot in the wild & Australia banned the export of these as pets in the 60's. There is a small amount sneaked out of the country illegally but most of the ones in captivity are ones that are descended from ones captured prior to this period. Bearded Dragons require quite a lot of care & if you are a beginner to the world of reptile care I would suggest you get a leopard gecko which are just as rewarding & are much easier to care for. There is an article on leopard geckos at

    http://daveroberts69.wordpress.com/

    There is also articles on blue tongued skinks & crested geckos at the above site.

    Bearded Dragons have little spines on their body which make them look attractive & also if they are frightened they puff these out although these are unlikely to injure you & merely make this lizard feel a bit uncomfortable to hold. If they are got used to handling from an early age they can become very tame. In the wild they live in quite an arid environment & as a result eat quite a variety of foods. They eat quite a lot of living things like waxworms & crickets & also plants. One problem with keeping them in captivity is they like to eat certain foods at certain times of the day. They also require your house to be kept quite hot around 30 degrees centigrade & you have to lighting which is specifically for reptiles & these bulbs have to be changed every 6 months. They also need calcium supplements. They are diurnal which means they are awake during the day & sleep at night. It's a good idea to use a timer with the lighting which must provide 12-14 hours of sunlight. If it becomes cold they will try and hibernate because after all they are cold blooded. In the deserts they live in it can drop to 5 degrees centigrade in the winter.

oldscratbag

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