Can they get separation anxiety??

Can bearded dragons gets separation anxiety? When I start playing with him, he’s happy and his colors brighten, then once I put him back in his terrarium, he gets a bit dark.

I would like to know too! I've been busy lately and my boys both seemed a little down until I took some time for cuddles. That seemed to snap them out of their "mood".

The darkening may be due to a reaction to the lights (absorbing them) but they do seem to get bummed a bit or bored when they are alone. Watching my dragon through his webcam when I'm gone has shown that he mopes a bit once he realizes he is stuck in his tank. He perks back up as soon as I'm home and interact with him a bit.

Walter (I should say "Walterina", as we recently discovered she is a female) moped in one spot of her cage for an entire week, refusing all food, when I was at the hospital recently. My boyfriend handles her daily with pets and cuddles, and is actually usually the one to feed her, but she and I are snuggle buddies each evening for hours and I guess me not being there threw her for a loop? He couldn't even tempt her with her favorite bugs, or get her to watch her movies which she usually enjoys so much. She just went there to a perch in the middle, a not too hot or cold spot, and plopped each day.

I can't ask her if she just happened to have indigestion, or teenager hormones, or some other physical explanation for that behavior, besides "depression", so I observe patterns, make connections and wonder how deep her emotional roots go. Either way, she's a special critter I enjoy having in my life.

yes.

A couple of years ago I had to go to hospital and was being treated for a month , my wife had to take over caring for the reptile children .

Peppa and Toothless were only juveniles and really missed me . Toothless so much so that he refused to eat anything .

One day when my rang me to check on how I was going , I suggested she turn the phone onto speaker phone so I could talk to the skinks and dragons, who all immediately responded to my voice by looking in all directions trying to find me.
My wife reported they all perked up and seemed a lot happier after I'd spoken to them.

Toothless who was not really into snuggles became very clingy towards me when I discharged myself and came home and become a dragon who wanted to be near me all the time and became a very smoogy boy.