Many people get a bearded dragon and don't know what to do next... or even first, sometimes. Many pet shops don't provide accurate or complete information to customers. We're here to help!

Bearded dragons are lizards indigenous to Australia, and are commonly kept as pets. These reptiles get their name because of a behavior where they can puff out and darken the skin under their throats, which looks like a beard. They are omnivorous, as they eat both greens and insects. Bearded dragons are one of the most popular of reptile pets. Please make sure to check out the wealth of information on this site to help you take the best care of your bearded dragon as possible.

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Bearded dragons can live as long as 10 years or longer.

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How far would you go to save your bearded dragon’s life if your precious pet was afflicted by cancer? When cancer strikes an exotic pet like a bearded dragon, keepers are frequently left with no good options other than to euthanize their pets because the cost of surgery can be cost prohibitive for many people. What if you were to learn that Petco—yes, the same Petco from which pet owners across America buy their pet supplies, has devoted $15 million to help eligible pets fight the toughest battle of their lives.

Read full article here.

Now when you recycle or drive your hybrid automobile to work to curb the far reaching effects of climate change, you can feel good about helping your pet beardie’s cousins in the wild. Scientists at the UK-based Royal Society have recently released intriguing findings that suggest that climate change can not only affect bearded dragons’ intelligence but that this difference in cognitive ability persists into adulthood.

Check out the full article

Researchers from the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have discovered that bearded dragon lizards take their time to decide whether they are male or female. ... Using a suite of techniques including scanning electron microscopy and histology, the researchers revealed that in the egg, female dragons with ovaries also completely develop the male sexual organ, called a 'hemipenis'. "Amazingly, this male structure is retained until just before the females hatch out of the egg," Ms Whiteley said. "This means that during approximately one third of the embryonic development, female bearded dragons present as half male." Read Full Story Here!

Stop the press!!! Bearded dragons change colors based on environmental and social conditions!!! Oh! Wait... most of us who have had bearded dragons have known this for quite some time.

However, it's great to see real scientific research being done on reptiles and bearded dragons specifically. While we all know about the various social behaviors, color changes, and such, we know this through our own anecdotal experiences. With more scientific research being performed about bearded dragons, we may learn new subtle details that were previously unknown.

Be sure to check out more information about this new bearded dragon research!

Many people know that humans have sleep patterns. We have the different phases of sleep, including REM (rapid eye movement) and slow wave sleep. And in each phase our brains go into different patterns of stimulation than when we're awake and cycles regularly between each phase.

Well, it turns out that bearded dragons also have sleep patterns. This was previously not known. A new study led by Dr. Gilles Laurent from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany has led to this discovery in bearded dragons and is hoped to help us better understand how sleep patterns have evolved. A bit geeky, but neat stuff. Anyone ever wonder... what do bearded dragons dream about?

For more information, check out this article or Google search for "bearded dragon sleep patterns" under the news tab on Google.

In these colder months with less daylight, many of our bearded dragons decide to take a deep slumber. This can be very scary for the keeper of a bearded dragon, as they don't want to eat, they sleep all day, and in many ways, this resembles serious illness.

Georgina Rayner of Swell Reptiles (UK) has contributed a nice little article with helpful tips during this difficult times. Be sure to read the new article, "Practical Tips for a Healthy Bruiting Bearded Dragon".

And if you would like to read more information on brumation, check out our previous article on the topic, written by Denise Bushnell.

Bernard, a bearded dragon in Putney, had gone missing on September 2nd. His owners quickly took action and put up fliers and notified their local Guardian. They urged their neighbors to keep an eye out for Bernard, who may have been hiding in their gardens and yards. While Bernard had plenty of local insects to keep himself fed, the family was concerned that he was vulnerable to other predators and the cold of night.

But fortunately, two days later, Bernard found his way back home. He was cold and and hungry, but he was well. "Two days later Bernard appeared back at home, cold hungry and not giving any clues to where he had been or how he managed to get home" [Putney SW15].

As I had mentioned in my previous post, please be careful with your bearded dragons and keep a close eye on them when you have them out of their enclosure. They can be fast and sneaky! I, for one, am very happy to hear that Bernard and the Nielsen family are once again united.