How common is it to get salmonella from a beardie?

I first read online that *95%* if not ALL reptiles carry it?? But then I read on here that it's rare to get it from a bearded dragon... What's the real answer?


Excuse the grossness - but I have had some "symptoms" that make me worry I have salmonella. For days I had symptoms, today is the fifth day... And I got him over a week ago. I went to the doc to get a test but the results probably won't get back until after the holiday weekend, so that's awesome.

I was not the best about washing my hands, and now I am constantly paranoid and worried and washing my hands any time I even touch anything ...

I hope you feel better, and the test comes back negative.

I haven't seen any info linking likelihood to reptile ownership. There are lots of captive reptiles and anecdotally I've not read or heard personally of infections from dragons and reptiles are linked to a rather small percentage of the annual reported cases. The recent outbreak from dragons was linked to about 100-200 reported cases - a small number considering how many dragon are out there. So the odds are in favor of not getting it.

However, It will come down more to your own hygiene practices and if/how much your animal is shedding the germs. Contamination from feces is the main culprit. Things like not bathing the dragon in the sink or allowing it on the kitchen counters etc are really important. I forget to wash my hands a lot so I keep instant hand sanitizer by my reptile cages.

I used to be very paranoid about salmonella as well. When I'm done holding my lizards, or between holding different lizards/after handling their equipment and whatever, I always use hand sanitiser.... more of a compulsive habit I've formed over the last 9 years since I started dealing with reptiles, but really, Salmonella doesn't even cross my mind when it comes to the lizards, I'm more worried about it when I don't cook my chickens' eggs all the way through(which I rarely do since dry yolk is bleh, but I digress...)

It really does come down to your hygeine/sanitation practices, and you really have to somehow eat their poo to get salmonella from the dragons. My dragons are generally very clean. They usually poo in the tub and after wards I rinse them off and give them a quick scrub down and rinse with baby soap on their bodies, then they are clean and good to go! If they go potty in their cages, I clean it up ASAP and spray the area with vinegar to clean it.(That's also what I spray the tub with after they poo in it. It's my favourite cleaning product!)

But I've had my Scout for 4.5 years and only once I was really scared I might get salmonella because he had pooed in his cage and there was liquid on one of his furniture pieces and I couldn't tell if it was really soiled or not, so I went to smell it and got it on my lip because I'm a clutz. Ooops! But I was fine. My anxiety made me feel ill all the rest of that day and the next day, but I was fine haha.

I always eat with my dragons, share food with them, let them run on my bed, kiss their bears, put their faces and chest on my face as I snuggle their beard, let them crawl all over my laptop and desk and on the kitchen and dining room counter.... They(The dragons) are always clean though and no one's ever gotten sick =) Now if they were running around in their own feces all day, I would NOT kiss or hug them or let them run around the tables. They would go straight to the tub for a scrubbin'. I think everyone warns people because of the .00002% chance you can get it from them, but I think that uncooked chicken or eggs are a greater risk since you're actually consuming it. Only people with reallllly bad lizard hygeine would probably stand a chance of getting salmonella.

Did you get salmonella? I use f10 to clean cage and my bathing tub for DaisyDragon.