Inland Bearded Dragon

Inland Bearded Dragon ( Pogona vitticeps )

Care in Captivity by Chris Jorden

Introduction

Bearded dragons are extremely popular at the moment, and are becoming even more increasingly so all the time. They have wonderful temperaments, and some even seem to enjoy being handled, the breed fairly easily and they display interesting social behaviour like courtship, threat and recognition.

They all have their own different characters, and they are all very alert and attentive, watching you as you move around the room. A beard made of spiky scales covers a large throat pouch, and the can be extended along with the throat when the bearded dragon feels threatened. They also open their mouth when frightened, making a good threat pose. There are a variety of other poses and signals used by bearded dragons: when males are upset or frightened they blacken their throat; males will also use head bobbing and throat puffing when meeting another dragon to display dominance; tail raising is used by bearded dragons to show tension, almost to show being frightened; arm waving is also used - it is used in two ways, either to be used in recognition of other individuals or during the mating season when females use it as a sign of submitting to males for mating to avoid aggression. Arm waving is less severe, it shows less provocation than head bobbing, and sometimes juveniles use arm waving to interact with one another, not to be aggressive.

Bearded dragons grow to between 40 and 60 cm (16 - 24 inches) in length, although the males are usually bigger than females. Bearded dragons are a greyish brown in colour, although many colour types can be encountered, the prettier of these include lime phase, gold phase and sandfire red phase. Although these Australian lizards can be a great choice for beginners, their need for ultra-violet light, regular feeding and cleaning, and a very large vivarium can make them harder to keep than other smaller species such as leopard geckos and green anoles.

Selecting A Bearded Dragon

Before your decide to purchase one of these comical lizards, you must do a lot of research using books, web pages and by talking to experienced herpotologists or herpoculturists, and you must be sure you have the time and space for one of these quite demanding animals.

When you are definitely sure you want a bearded dragon you must buy the equipment needed and set it up before actually buying the lizard. Then you must decide were to get one from, choosing the best or easiest option for you as an individual. There are three main choices when deciding where to get your bearded dragons from: a pet (or specialist reptile) store that sell bearded dragons; a herp society (they have regular meetings and swap meetings) or show (herptile shows are now becoming much more common across the UK and USA); or a reptile wholesaler, like companies who advertise in herp magazines or sometimes in classified reptile advertisements on the Internet (these companies often have their own web pages, but unfortunately are far more common in America, and although they can ship, it puts extra stress on your soon-to-be 'new pet'. The disadvantages of having an animal delivered to you rather than you travelling to get it yourself are you can not see the animal before purchasing it to inspect it for good health and condition. Photographs can show you what the animal looks like in general, but they can not show you its real personality or character, and they can not display the whole of the bearded dragon's body, so the seller could be deliberately missing an abscess on its right foot, or a scar on the left hand side of its body.

Bearded dragons are usually bought at a few months of age, measuring only 15 - 20 cm (6 - 8 inches). They should be alert, but fairly tame (not too docile though, as these lizards tend to become tamer and slower with age). As juveniles or adults, they should have no sections of partially shed skin, especially round digits and eyes. The eyes should be clean - free of dust - and bright. There should be no obvious signs of injury, such as limp legs, or broken tails (some bearded dragons - but very few - are born with a kink in their tail, though, which normally causes them no problems. This may be a result of the incubation temperature or humidity being slightly high or low, or they could just be born with the slight deformality).

Setting Up A Vivarium

The very minimum cage size for an adult bearded dragon is 91 x 46 x 36 cm. For a pair an adequately sized vivarium would measure 150 x 60 x 60 cm, but would be larger if possible. A smaller tank would suit a baby (up to about 20 cm), say 90 x 30 x 50 or so. Bearded dragons are very active creatures, so larger vivariums are always better than a minimum size - as with all herptiles, apart from in the case of tiny, insecure hatchling snakes, lizards etc.

Wooden vivariums can be bought - but would be cheaper to make yourself - and large glass or plastic cages can be used too, especially for hatchlings. Bearded dragons can be tamed very well - so perhaps they could roam the house, or one particular room.

The enclosures needed to be heated to around 37 degrees centigrade (100 degrees Fahrenheit) at the hottest spot in summer (there should be a basking rock near the heat source, so the reptiles can bask to raise there body temperatures), with a drop to at least 28 degrees centigrade (82 degrees Fahrenheit) at the cool end. Temperatures should drop by a few degrees over the months until winter (then rise again) and also at night.

There should be a photoperiod (when the lights are on) of around 14 hours in summer and 8 - 10 hours in winter. Ultra-violet light is necessary for the well-being of this species, for healthy growth and development.

Many hiding places should be included, and climbing branches, and also plants can be provided. They can be alive or fake, but whichever they will provide another hiding place for your pet and make the vivarium set up more naturalistic. Also rocks can be to make a cave and basking site combined - soft, non-heavy rocks should be used so the lizards cannot harm themselves. A large water bowl should be provided at all times so the bearded dragon can drink and bathe in the water, sometimes to aid shedding.

Substrate should be wood chips, aspen (or pine) shavings or reptile astroturf for juveniles, and sand is another option for adults (sand cannot be used with young bearded dragons as it can cause impaction in the gut - which can ultimately lead to death). Tanks could have one desert area, with basking rocks and climbing rocks which would by dry, and a more humid woodland area, with a wet-box, plants, climbing branches, wood hides and the water bowl.

The vivarium should be thoroughly cleaned out every few months - water bowls, rocks, plastic plants, branches etc. should be disinfected and the properly rinsed and left to dry then replaced, the old substrate should be removed and new substrate added (if your bearded dragon is housed on paper the substrate should be changed every few days, or if it gets wet - which encourages the growth of mould), and the tank should be gently wiped with a damp cloth). While cleaning is taking place the bearded dragon should be placed in a large enclosure, or held by someone else.

Feeding

Hatchling bearded dragons should be fed at least twice a day - just about as much as they will eat, as they are growing rapidly at this stage. They will eat small crickets (2nd or 3rd instar), waxworms, spiders (make sure they are caught from non-polluted areas where pesticide is not used), and other little insects. Around 20% of their diet should be vegetables (and fruit, but that has high sugar content so vegetable are better) which should be provided two or three times a week in a bowl (or hand fed if your bearded dragons is particularly tame). Some young bearded dragons do not eat vegetables so readily as live food, so these could be fed first to encourage consumption.

Bearded dragons of a few months old can be fed slightly larger foods, for example large crickets and other insects - foodstuffs no longer than the distance between the lizard's eyes should be fed, as a general rule - small mealworms, preferably just molted can now be offered too, as well as waxworms and tebos (small caterpillars that are sometimes in reptile stores). They should be offered vegetables too - 25 to 35% of their diet.

Adults and sub-adults will eat pinkie and sometimes fluffy mice, but these are quite fattening, larger crickets, mealworms, giant (or super/king) mealworms, locusts, waxworms, tebos and field-caught bugs. Approximately one third to half of an adult bearded dragon's diet should be fruit and vegetables, foods which are good for them include squash, raspberries (on occasion), parsley, romaine lettuce, mustard and collard greens, dandelion leaves and flowers, carrots and turnip tops.

Crickets or other live foods, especially mealworms, left in the cage uneaten should be taken out - as they may nibble on your dragon when it is asleep, causing terrible damage, even death.

When feeding your lizards in a group, there will be a strict pecking order: the dominant (alpha) male will eat first, then the lower individuals in the society. If a dragon tries to eat out of turn it will be warned or even attacked by the alpha male.

Also bearded dragons - not just adults, young ones too - can be offered ground cuttlefish to provide extra calcium in their diet, which they will consume if needed. Foods should be dusted with some sort of calcium and multi-vitamin powder (normally about 1 pinch to supplement 20 - 25 crickets or similar). Bearded dragons can become very obese, so be sure not to over-feed when they are juveniles and adults, they should not be thin, but they should not look rounded like a ball. Bearded dragons are quite a flat, plump-looking lizard, so make sure they are not under-nourished either. Feed adults 4 - 5 times a week, around 5 - 9 locusts or similar (i.e. not just locusts) at every feeding

Handling

Pogona vitticeps are for sure one of the best pet lizards to handle. They are easy to tame if handled on a fairly regular basis when young, and sit still on your arm or shoulder without trying to escape. They are very docile, yet alert, and some even enjoy being handled. Some become so tame they will eagerly take food out of their owners hand (like my own - Goldie and Skinny), or perhaps that is just being greedy! A bearded dragons claws may feel sharp on your arm or hand, but these lizards are generally great to hold and stroke.

Breeding

Bearded dragons become sexually mature between one and two years old - but until then it is very hard to tell the sexes apart. In adults males head bob, display their beards and try to defend territory, but rarely arm wave. On the physical side, males possess a large vent opening, hemi penal bulges after the vent and enlarged scales before the vent (i.e. before is from the head down, so the enlarged scales are in between the stomach and vent). Females, on the other hand have a small vent opening and no enlarged scales or hemi penal bulges.

The optimum age for breeding in bearded dragons is between two and five years old, but they can continue to reproduce for a couple of years after that, although success rates drop. Before reproduction bearded dragons must be conditioned for breeding. To do this, several months before actual breeding (in the autumn, say) you must begin to gradually drop the temperatures in the enclosure, and decrease hours of light in a day, down to around 9 hours of light, which will send your lizard into a 'semi-hibernation' when the animals are generally much less active and eat less too. Hibernation stimulates the development of reproductive cells in the bearded dragon, but unless the dragon is in perfect health, hibernation should not be considered as it will cause considerable stress and could lead to death in your pet. The cage temperature should drop to 24 - 28 degrees centigrade (76 - 82 degrees Fahrenheit) at day and around 18 degrees centigrade (65 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.

Hibernation should go on for about 10 weeks, and then temperatures and daylight hours should slowly be increased again, up to summer temperatures after a few months. Feed your dragons as much as they will eat and add extra calcium than normal to the female's diet. You should notice more displays of head-bobbing and arm-waving, but make sure the male is not too aggressive; if the female has cuts or scratches - although a few small bites near the neck are typical occurrences during mating, so unless they are deep or infected, do not worry too much - or seems to be very worried by the male, split them for a few days.

If the female becomes gravid, which happens a couple of months after breeding, she should be very plump and the outline of eggs may be visible through her abdomen. She will begin to dig into the substrate, and a nesting box should be placed into the enclosure. This should be at least 6 inches of damp substrate, vermiculite or soil for example, and could be placed in a cat litter tray or in a tub. The female should then, when ready, dig a hole in the box (hopefully!) and lay between 10 and 25 eggs, and she will then re-cover the eggs in the nesting box substrate. After laying will look lighter and flabby and should be feed food high in calcium. The female bearded dragon may lay up to five clutches in one breeding year, at 25 - 35 day intervals.

The eggs should then be placed in an incubator - without being turned. They should be incubated at 29 degrees centigrade (84 degrees Fahrenheit) for roughly two months. A couple of days after hatching the bearded dragons should start feeding on lots of little insects. They eat a lot!

Copyright © Chris Jorden. 1999.