Raising Bearded Dragons

Pogona vitticeps

What Are “Beardies”?

Rais­ing Beard­ed Drag­ons Pog­o­na vit­ti­ceps. These docile desert lizards are oth­er­wise known as, the “beardie”. They fea­ture rows and groups of large, spiny scales which are locat­ed at the back of their heads and throats. This is what gives these rep­tiles a beard­ed appear­ance, thus the name “beard­ed drag­on”.

From my expe­ri­ence rais­ing beard­ed drag­ons and from cred­i­ble cus­tomer feed­back, I have learned that their lifes­pan can exceed 10 years. The longevi­ty in their life depends on the care in which the own­er gives to their com­pan­ion pet through­out their life. The more nat­ur­al you make their habi­tat, the bet­ter.

These rep­til­ian lizards were brought into pet shops in the 1900’s to Europe via exot­ic des­ti­na­tions. They are one of the most inquis­i­tive, docile lizards to have as a pet and makes an extreme­ly pop­u­lar begin­ner lizard. They grow into active, enter­tain­ing, strong lizards when giv­en the prop­er care and nur­tur­ing. When han­dled often, and with con­fi­dence, they are usu­al­ly very calm and gen­tle. Their char­ac­ter and spunk are quite dom­i­nant and is indi­vid­ual. Each beard­ed drag­on has it’s own per­son­al­i­ty traits/habit /behaviors, kin­da like we do. Many peo­ple become beard­ed drag­on, Pog­o­na vit­ti­ceps lovers when they see them in our shop. Cus­tomers young and old become mes­mer­ized by their behav­ior. Like the cute way they may wave an arm, flat­ten out their body like a pan­cake, chase a crick­et, or bask in the “sun”. Top it off, they are adorable, great con­ver­sa­tion starters and take great pic­tures!

Types Of Bearded Dragons

There are 9 dif­fer­ent types of beard­ed drag­ons and orig­i­nate from Aus­tralia:

• Ger­man Giants
• Leatherback
• Silk­back
• Red
• Blood Red
• Ruby Red

The Inland beard­ed drag­on (Pog­o­na vit­ti­ceps) and the Rank­ins drag­on (Pog­o­na hen­ry­law­soni) are the types com­mon­ly found in pet shops.

Beard­ed drag­ons have sev­er­al dif­fer­ent morphs includ­ing Nor­mal, Hypo, Trans, Hypo Trans, Het Hypo, Het Trans, Dou­ble Het, Hypo Het Trans and Trans Het Hypo. Upon more research you will learn about these dif­fer­ent morphs. The most com­mon drag­on to be avail­able, and least expen­sive, are the nor­mal brown phase beardies. They have pale yel­low with brown col­or mark­ings and could also have a light blue/gray hue or an orange speck­led look around their crest and beard areas.

What Color Is A Bearded Dragon?

Beardies also come in more exot­ic col­or phas­es includ­ing Red, Yel­low, Cit­rus, Orange, Tiger Stripe are a few. Oth­er vari­eties of the drag­on have dif­fer­ent tex­tures of skin such as the Silk­back, Leatherbacks and “Dun­ners”. Spe­cial­ty rep­tile stores, like Tail­sNTeeth, have more exot­ic types of beard­ed drag­ons.

Purchasing Your Bearded Dragon Pogona vitticeps

Tail­sNTeeth Select Beard­ed Drag­on pro­gram ensures the best pos­si­ble rep­tile spec­i­mens are avail­able for you. Due to high demand there is often a wait­ing list for strong, healthy active vibrant ‘beardies’. Con­tact us for avail­abil­i­ty. We reserve the right to screen poten­tial own­ers for suit­abil­i­ty.

How To Get Started

We offer excel­lent starter kits and oth­er ter­rar­i­um habi­tats, décor and plants to cre­ate authen­tic rep­tile liv­ing worlds in your own home. In our next arti­cle seg­ment, we will show you how to cre­ate a won­der­ful, nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment to cap­ture your imag­i­na­tion.