An Epilogue

This is the epilogue for my Rankin's dragon, Rankin, that had passed away.

The first part of this is mainly for first time owners of bearded dragons, or similar species. Make sure that your breeder has a good reputation, and also advice that I have is do not buy an import. Rankin had passed away around 3 years ago, and I went inactive on this site because I was very sad about this. He was an import, from a reliable breeder. Since he was an import, he wasn't bread(I think this is right) by that breeder. He refused to eat any live food, I tried every week to feed him a different type of worm, and he was living off of salad. He didn't eat the salad without my help, so I tried baby food after a couple of weeks of this. I coated the baby food in various vitamins/supplements, and then checked to see if he liked Crested Gecko Diet. He ate the Crested Gecko Diet, and a lot of it. He had no visible signs of parasites or disease(went to the vet), but was very thin for the amount he ate. His stools were very healthy, except I could tell he wasn't doing well. I was doing everything I could, spending an average of over an hour a day with him to make sure he ate and caring for him for a period of a few months. He was a large part of my life. One day while I was feeding him he was very inactive, then the next day he barely moved, and then the next day I saw him lying with his mouth open and eyes closed, and I knew he had passed away. This destroyed me, but at least I still had my crested gecko, Ralph. Ralph sadly had passed away a few months ago due to age, but crested geckos are amazing animals. Ralph lived for around 8 years(I owned him for 4), and that loss was definitely worse. Ralph was like that friend that you could always depend on and would like you no matter what, I'm just happy that he lived a good long life.

My advice is, if you are good with organization and can manage humidification, and are looking for your first lizard to own, I'd recommend a crested gecko. Crested gecko's have extremely basic care, the only con is handling them can be a daunting experience. A warning is that I have seen female crested geckos retain sperm, and lay eggs two years after not being near a male(I found this insane, the egg was infertile, but it was still crazy)

Hi, welcome back to the forum after your long hiatus. It was so sad to read the story of your experience with what I'm assuming was your first Bearded Dragon. Sadly, the story of your first Bearded Dragon experience is very similar to the stories told by many other first-time Dragon owners. While owning your first Bearded Dragon certainly does not HAVE to turn-out this way, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Bearded Dragons are definitely not the "Beginner Reptile" that a lot of Pet Shop employees and breeders make them out to be, often touting them as the best pet reptile species for a young "child".

I think a lot of the reason that Bearded Dragons are often advertised as a great "Beginner's Reptile" is simply because of their laid-back, loving temperament and the fact that you can not only handle them right away, but because they WANT to be handled, cuddled, and included in what you're doing all the time. You certainly cannot say that about most other reptiles; most geckos hate to be handled, handling most chameleons is impossible, anoles want to be left alone, and lizards such as iguanas, tegus, and monitors, while having the potential to become very "dog-like" in their personalities and interaction with people, unfortunately grow to huge sizes that pretty-much require an entire room dedicated to them, and make it almost impossible to have other "family" pets like dogs or cats. So Bearded Dragons make the "perfect" pet reptile. And they really do. However, that does not mean that they are not still desert reptiles that require very specific lighting, temperature, and dietary requirements.

I would not ever try to discourage anyone from getting a Bearded Dragon as a pet as long as I knew that the person was able to afford to properly care for one, both financially and time-wise, and that requirement is not specific to just Bearded Dragons, but rather any pet. If you cannot afford to buy a proper cage and toys and then continue to buy food, bedding, and provide medical care throughout their entire life, then no, I wouldn't recommend that you go out and buy your child a hamster. So the type of pet makes no difference in that respect, and is no different for a Bearded Dragon. What is different is making sure that a potential Bearded Dragon owner does their homework about what specific lighting, temperature zone, diet, etc. needs that a Bearded Dragon needs to not simply survive, but to thrive. And this "homework" does not include talking to an employee at the pet shop on the day a person goes to buy their first Beardie.

In my experience, the best way to determine exactly what UVB light, what temperature zones, what diet and nutritional supplements ANY reptile needs is by speaking to people who have not only owned Bearded Dragons in the past, but people who you can see first-hand, with your own eyes, that CURRENTLY have a healthy, fully grown Bearded Dragon who has no health issues. Ask then EXACTLY what Brand Name, Wattage, Strength, and Type of UVB light they use. Ask them EXACTLY what Basking Bulb they need to achieve proper temperature zones inside the dragon's tank, and WHAT those temperature zones are, and what the best way of keeping track of those temperature zones is. Ask them EXACTLY how those lights need to be set up over the tank, how large the tank needs to be when the dragon is a baby, and how large a tank they are going to need as an adult. Take note of the fact that they do not have a loose substrate in the bottom of their tank. Take note of both the Calcium and Multivitamin powders they are using. And be sure that you ask them about what live insects are appropriate to be feeding the dragon daily, how many insects the dragon is going to need to eat every day, from the tons and tons of live insects they will need to eat every day from the time they are baby throughout their first year of life, to how this amount of daily live insects will decrease once the dragon is a year or so old.

The bottom-line to successfully owning a Bearded Dragon for the first time, and yes, it is very possible to bring home a month-old, baby Bearded Dragon as your very first pet reptile, and have that baby dragon thrive and grow into a large, healthy adult who never has any serious health issues. It's very possible, but not if you don't do properly prepare long before you actually go out and buy the actual baby Dragon. And again, your best resources for educating yourself about setting-up a proper enclosure with proper lighting, proper temperature zones, and what a proper diet are not pet shops, not even reptile-specialty pet shops. You have to remember that these resources are making their livings by selling you not only the dragon itself, but also by selling your the tank, the lights, the decor, the supplements, etc. And if they have an overstock of a certain Compact or Coil UVB light, don't think for a second that they won't advise you to buy one of them, even though they are fully aware that Bearded Dragons are desert reptiles who need a very strong UVB light, and by-far do best with a long, fluorescent UVB tube and tube fixture with a reflector. Don't think for a minute that if they see you with a 22" Reptisun 10.0 T5HO UVB tube and tube fixture in your hands before checking-out at the register that they are above telling you that you'd be much better off buying the 13 watt Compact version, simply because they have a ton of them piling up. That's just the way our world works unfortunately.

And as far as the "best place" to buy a Bearded Dragon from, or the best place to buy ANY reptile from, don't automatically assume that buying a baby from Petco or PetSmart is bad and buying a baby from a "reputable" breeder or online vendor is going to be perfectly fine. That's also not how this works, as we see people on this forum all the time who have spent a small fortune buying some exotic morph or color, or even simply a normal dragon, from a well-known online breeder, from a local, private breeder, or from a local, "reptile specialty" shop, and they think that because they're spending more money or because it's a small, independent shop or breeder and not a Big-Box store that this means that the baby Dragon is going to be totally free of disease, will have been under the best available lighting since it hatched, been fed the best available diet since it hatched, and just have a very false-sense of security. These people come onto this forum in the first place because these dragons arrive to their homes actively sick and not eating, lethargic, malnourished, and often with incurable diseases such as Adenovirus. I don't know of many, if any breeders or reptile shops that regularly test for Adenovirus, if they test at all. I've seen many, many baby dragons lately that are shipped while going through an active Gout-flare-up, Yellow Fungus, open tail-nips and toe-nips, etc. And I'm sitting here with my female Dragon sitting on my lap while typing this, she's a year and 2 months old now, and I brought her home from my local Petco when she was about a month old. She's currently 19" long, 516 grams two days ago, healthy, happy, and the most beautiful color orange and coral you've ever seen. She's never been sick a day in her life, she's never not eaten or been lethargic a day in her life. Nor was my first ever Bearded Dragon, a male which was also purchased from the very same Petco 15 years ago, and who lived to be 12 years and 9 months old, and was only ever sick once, at age 4, with an Upper Respiratory Infection.

The unfortunate truth about why most baby Bearded Dragons stop eating, become lethargic, and die young is because they are not given an appropriate environment to live in, nor a proper diet or vitamin supplement schedule. And this is so very sad and unfortunate because it's typically not because their owners don't care or don't try to provide them with the correct lighting, temperature zones, diet, etc., it's because their owners are given horrible information from any number of presumably "reputable" sources, from pet shops and breeders to the manufacturers of the lights, the supplements, the dietary products, etc. So the best advice I can give to anyone who is thinking about getting their first Bearded Dragon because they really want an interactive, loving lizard, but they are hesitant because of all of the horror stories they're reading and all of the new, first-time owners they're seeing having all the same issues, is don't let that deter you from getting a your first Bearded Dragon; Rather, make it the reason that you 100% ensure that you've got a proper environment with the proper lighting, temperatures, and a proper dietary and supplement plan ready LONG BEFORE you even think about bringing your new baby home.

redpanda, I am so so sorry for your losses...the experience you had with your rankins sounds aweful! I agree with you that Beardies are not perhaps the best reptiles for beginners! All reptiles require extra care in providing for their environment, dietary needs, heat, etc., but Beardies are particularly needy, and expensive! When I take my big boy out in public, I tell potential owners (especially mothers of small children who just "want one") that, at over a hundred $$ per month,average food and care, my boy will have cost me ten thousand dollars, by the end of his life. Yes, TEN ThOUSAND dollars. I ask them, do have that kind of pocket change lying around, and do they want to spend it on a Beardie, or on a really big family vacation, to Hawaii, or Europe? That really makes people stop and think!

Thank you for sharing your painful tale of caution, for others to hopefully read and consider. Did you ever know what caused your Rankins to not thrive? It obviously was not from a lack of concern and trying. Are you thinking about getting another Beardie? I can recommend a certain breeder who never sells his babies before they are eating all foods like champs, and he actually handles every baby, every day. He will not breed a Dragon who has any sort of genetic issue, no matter how much he pays for it to be a breeder, or how beautiful it is. There are never any guarantees, when buying living creatures, that they cannot develope an illness, but I think that researching the breeder does help reduce the chance of a heart ache. PM me, if you are interested! I am not a paid representative, nor do I have any investment in the Beardie breeder I am speaking of.

DeziLu says, welcome back!