Bearded Dragon Care

Once you've got the basics sorted out, there actually isn't too much to bearded dragon care.

You've already got the bearded dragon cage sorted out, and the cage laid out with a heater, lighting setup and all the trimmings.

So long as your heater is providing a "hotspot" or basking area of around 40'C, and your lights are set on a timer to a day length of around 16 hours you're well on your way.

We're going to cover bearded dragon food later so if you've read most of the information so far you've already got most of the bases covered.

Basically, once you've got the space, temperature, lights and food sorted you're 99% of the way to success.

So what else can I tell you here about the care of bearded dragons?

How about taming your bearded dragon?

The greatest motivator here for you is that you build a real relationship with your bearded dragon and it makes life more enjoyable, cleaning much easier and regular weekly health checks a breeze.

For your pet, it makes any situation involving you or another human far less stressful, and so makes his life more enjoyable aswell.

The easiest way to get your bearded dragon tame is to hand-feed him tasty morsels.

I have found the easiest thing to hand feed in mealworms.

Mealworms are beetle grubs whicha re relished by most reptiles, beardies included.

They riggle around and attract the attention of the bearded dragon as you hold them, yet have a tough outer skin which doesn't make holding them too unpleasant.

And best of all, bearded dragons seem to go wild for them!

Regular feeding like this soon pays off, and it shouldn't be more than a month or so before your new pet lets you pick him up as he feels totally confident in your company.

Infact, if I have time when I'm feeding my reptiles, I will actually initially use the palm of my hand instead of a food bowl.

I pile on the goodies (this obviously works best with fruit and veg rather than locusts!) then put my flat hand into the reptile's cage.

With patience your lizard will start coming up to your hand and swiftly climbing on before starting to feed.

Over time, when you put even your empty hand into the cage your lizard won't be at all frightened.

Incidentally, when picking up your lizard, tiny hatchlings should be cupped between two hands to lift them.

Once you've got them out of the cage, if you like, you can transfer him into one hand with your fingers curled round, his head sticking out towards you, his tail sticking out the other end of your hand.

So long as you are firm but gentle you will not harm your bearded dragon, yet he won't make a sudden leap into pace from a height!

I suppose I should mention in our bearded dragon care section the subject of nails.

After all, if you're handling your beardie there's a chance long nails (on the lizard, not you!) will cause you harm.

Hopefully having some rocks as suggested in the bearded dragon cage will help to wear down the lizard's claws.

Howver, if you're still finding them too long - either you're getting scratching when you hold him, or the length or hsi nails are making his toes turn sideways when he stands - then he'll need his nail's clipping.

You might like to consider taking him to a reptile vet, or you might like to try doing it yourself.

Reptile claws, like bird claws, have a vein running most of their length called the "quick".

If you cut this you'll know about it because it'll hurt your lizard - who will jump - and the vein will then bleed lots.

To step the bleeding dip the claw into some fine powder like corn flour or talcum powder. This will help soak up blood and cause a scab.

If you do decide to cut the claws, you can simply use a normal human pair of nail clippers though like I say keep the corn flour handy just incase.

Even though they're from dry, arid regions, your bearded dragon should have fresh water available 24 hours a day. I check mine twice or three times a day as a nasty habit of these active lizards is to either try to dig under the the water bowl and turn it over, or to dash around by the water bowl and so fill it with substrate as they run past. Yes, it can be quite frustrating ;-)

OK, let's go onto the bearded dragon food section...