Considerations Before You Buy A Bearded Dragon

Unfortunately, whilst things are changing slowly, many people still buy animals on impulse, without first fully considering the matter.

This has been a problem with, for example, turtles of a variety of species which were popular in the time of the Teenage Mutant Nunja Turtles.

The parents who let their children have a pet turtle often hadn't considered the size it would get to (12-18" carapace length), or the amount of cleaning required.

You see, as turtles feed in the water, and are mainly carnivorous, the water soon turns bad and they end up needing to be cleaned out virtually daily.

Also, the larger turtles can have a nasty bite, a few species being able to take fingers off if incorrectly handled.

The long and short of it is then, have you fully thought through buying and caring for a bearded dragon?

Luckily, there are no nasty surprises with bearded dragons.

With the right care (which, incidentally, is easy to provide, and you'll learn everything you need to know at this site) bearded dragons make ideal pets, not least because they are generally very good natured.

A properly cared for bearded dragon is very unlikely to ever bite once tame.

Are you prepared financially? Keeping reptiles of any form requires a real investment first of all to get set up - a bill of several hundred dollars is likely to get set up.

Continual costs are likely to be much lower, though you may elect to start off with a small bearded dragon cage at first, then move your beardie into a larger one as he grows, which seems sensible.

Other than that, you'll have the odd bit of equipment to changem such as the lighting tubes which should be changed every 6 months even if they haven't stopped working, because the amount of UV light they give out tends to drop after this time, even though you can't see it.

Lastly, of course there's the bills for heating and lighting the cage, though these will not amount to much, feeding and maybe a visit to the vets from time to time if necessary.

Are you willing to buy and feed live food to your bearded dragon? Can you see yourself catching, handling and feeding live crickets, locusts and mealworms to your pet?

Whilst bearded dragon lizards themselves rarely put people off, seeing one munching on a live locust sometimes does so be aware!

Do you have the time and inclination to clean out your bearded dragon cage when it is necessary - generally a partial clean-out once a week, and a proper cleaning out once a month?

By a proper cleaning out I mean remove all the substrate and cage fittings, spray it with a reptile-safe disinfectant spray to sterlize it, then wait for it to dry, put new substrate in and replace all the cage fittings. This can take an hour or more to do so make sure you're willing to do this.

To keep your beardie tame it will also be necessary to spend time with him daily, hand feeding him and so on, plus of course food and water should be kept at least once a day (I do mine twice a day!).

Lastly, bearded dragons have a reasonable lifespan - are you willing to do all this, providing the very best care available, for his whole life?

The pet world is over-run with pet reptiles like iguanas and bearded dragons which are no longer wanted because their owner hadn't thought about them properly.

Please don't add another one to the list.

So you've thought about it all now?

You're really sure you want a bearded dragon?

OK, then let's get on with the next section...