Do YOU think Beardies Can Love You?

[RoachKill]

Another thought: BD's vote with their feet. Unless you have a very lazy dragon, if he stays put while you pet him, he likes it. If he goes exploring, he wants to explore. If he crawls up on you to go to sleep, he likes it.

Now a lot of us BD owners think we can read their expressions, this is a much more murky area... I side with those that claim the BD's have expressions.

 

[BeardieAlan]

I'm sure I'm just "the thing that brings food" to my beardie.

 

[Jess]

For "solitary reptiles" BD's sure manage a lot of social adaptability fitting into our families. One example:

Spike's our 7 year old female. She was outside being watched by my wife, when she got freaked by some noisy crows. She chose to run to my wife instead of running into some dense plants. Where the heck did the "Help Mommy!" response come from?

I've gotten the "Help Mommy!" response too, but IMO it's more because they are familiar with us, and associate us with good things.
Running into the bushes = unknown. Human = safety.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

I too, Agree with Jess. (It's hard not to agree with you! you always seem right!). I think it's more that if they're in an unfamiliar place, they most likely only recognize you. So they run right to you, in an attempt to try and be "at home" and safe again. Like little kids, when they're scared in a crowd of people they go to their mothers because they recognize their mothers and feel safe and at home there.

Beardies may be underdeveloped with emotions, but they're certainly NOT stupid :wink:

 

[turtlelover1992]

i personally like to believe they love us. I know scientifically I cant prove it but I feel that dobbie loves me. :lol: but I may just be a sentimental fool

 

[PumpkinJelly]

That's how it is for me I like to think Fiz loves me, even though Science proves me wrong :x

 

[lilgreeneyes]

I think it's science vs. interpretation.

We all interpret LOVE differently, along with the gestures showing love.

Science says that a reptile brain is underdeveloped to show emotions such as love. But...I'm kind of curious and here's why.

In the wild, they don't get to "interact" with other beardies, which makes them solitary animals. In captivity they still don't want to "hang out" as in be housed with other beardies because it causes alot of issues. However, beardies DO interact with humans, therefore getting to experience the human emotions. So is it possible that the brain of a bearded dragon in captivity could be slightly structured differently than a bearded dragon in the wild?

But this is just my opinion.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

That does seem pretty interesting the way you put it. If only Beardie's could talk. If they could, I'm sure it would be pretty neat to hear what they'd say. Maybe somewhere, deep, deep down, they're lying to science and they really do love us That would be pretty cute, and maybe there is that chance.

But until "science" declares it, I guess there isn't.

But very interesting theory you have there.

 

[Kylie]

:?: I rescued 2 beardies from a sad environment.... Snuggles used to dominate Legless (her sister) until I seperated them. While her dominance was very low-key, it still affected Legless immensley. Legless used to act like a statue all day every day when they were together, but now she's the most outgoing beardie in the world! She's totally different now.

Snuggles likes our relationship when it suits her, althought she's more of a daddy's girl. She'll cuddle when she's sleepy but apart from that, is happy to be left alone.... I don"t think she "loves" me as such, but she does enjoy my company...

Legless on the other hand, watches out for me constantly, is more upbeat the second I walk into the room & will lay on my chest watching me for hours on end. She even sleeps with her face on my lips/chin whenever she gets the chance. Her reactions to me are so very different from Snuggles & it truly seems that she does in fact love me very much. There's a certain sparkle in her eye whenever she sees me & everyone says it. I firmly believe that she does love me & that not all beardies (as with humans), are the same.... Some will show you love, others will toterate your company....

While humans are yes, far more intellectually advanced than reptiles, I don't believe we are SO far advanced that we can determine how love is measured by every other creature on this planet. I raised this question with my boyfriend who is in fact - a scientist. Even he now thinks after watching them each day, that they are capable of loving.

Not sure if this has been helpful but I wanted to show you 2 different examples.... And yes, I truly believe beardies are capable of "loving" us if they want too.... I ceratinly feel that Legless loves me with her whole heart :wink:

"Edited": to add that many people may argue that an un-trained cat could not use a human toilet instead of kitty litter, yet as I was typing this post my un-trained cat was peeing in my toilet bowl. Granted, he missed a bit, but for the most part, aimed quite well... http://photobucket.com/Gandolf (photo was taken with a crappy old Nokia phone camera).

 

[beardie parents]

But again that's just me and my experience with Darwin. He's not the most sociable of animals, but has a natural curiosity that rivals even my cat.

We've had a total of 6 beardies. Two of them were very curious and loved to learn. My husband taught Miss O and she really loved to learn. He would explain things to her and she loved it. Our current one, Goldie is almost as curious as Miss O was. My husband brings Goldie to the shower when I'm taking a shower to show her why I'm not with her. Well, one day I took her into the shower to show her how the water comes out of the ceiling. I explained to her how I do it then when I turned the middle nob to start the shower, she looked like "oh, that's how it's done. Goldie even knows how to find her way back to the truck when we are out with her in the boondocks.

I say that to let you know you can help your Darwin learn like Miss O did and Goldie has been learning. It's really fun to help the curious ones learn. Not all beardies are really curious but it seems your Darwin is, you will probably bond with him more than if you just treat him like a "normal beardie".

To let you know about Miss O, she and Miss y were best friends. Miss O was a very loving beardie and she had to be loved. One time we were taking Miss Y to the vet and she was with us but someone walking out of the vets while we were walking in said "yuck" about her and Bill saw her reaction and she was very upset and sad about that because they didn't like her.

Goldie is almost the same. She is almost as curious as Miss O was and she really likes to be with us. Sometimes she wants to be on our shoulder, sometimes she wants to wander, but that is usually because she wants to go outside and it's not quite warm enough or way to cold to take her outside. She and Rosie Zoom loves outside, that's probably because we have a double wide trailer on 4.8 acres and they feel comfortable out there, as long as we are with them.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

First off, how could someone make a comment like that to an adorable Beardie? I love Beardies so much now, and I have never ever been disgusted by them one bit, even when I had only seen them as little squirmy babies in pet stores.

I see what you mean, though. But how did you know Miss. O was offended by that person's comment? (Do not take that in a rude/sarcastic way, because it's not intended to sound that way!). I mean, sure if she could understand people then she'd have a reason to be sad, you know?

Reptiles as a whole really puzzle me, because they're so different from other species!

 

[izz]

Ive noticed that beardies pull looks, like if i give Sparks crickets insted of roaches, he pulls a look like " Where are my roaches"
And when he is sitting on me theres a look for when he wants to run off or eat something.

 

[beardie parents]

Pumpkin Jelly, first off, Miss O was on me and I didn't see her face but my husband did. She was easy to understand. When you bond with your beardies and really get to know them you see things in them that no one else does. Then there is the beardie we saw in a pet store (owned by the pet store owners) named Pumpkin (5yo at the time) I clearly saw her ask me, as I was holding her, "who are you and why are you bothering me?" Beardie's are loving creatures, most of them, and will love you as a young child loves their parents.

 

[Kylie]

No, they cannot Love humans, the brain is not developed for that.
I am talking from a scientific standpoint and not some dreamy blaha.
:study:

My boyfriend is as I mentioned, is a scientist & when I read him this post he has why is that rainbow lorikeets (birds) mate for life?

It's interesting that we all have different opinions but the only thing that truly matters is that we love them & care for them like crazy. Good topic!!

 

[PumpkinJelly]

Pumpkin Jelly, first off, Miss O was on me and I didn't see her face but my husband did. She was easy to understand. When you bond with your beardies and really get to know them you see things in them that no one else does. Then there is the beardie we saw in a pet store (owned by the pet store owners) named Pumpkin (5yo at the time) I clearly saw her ask me, as I was holding her, "who are you and why are you bothering me?" Beardie's are loving creatures, most of them, and will love you as a young child loves their parents.

Yes, I see what you mean by being able to "read" Beardies. It sounds crazy to other people, but that's just how we Beardie-Lovers roll!! I figure that my Beardie likes me, because if he disliked me then he would certainly be biting me and not chilling with me on my couch.

Like you said about Miss O being sad & being able to read her, I once experienced that with Fiz! It was... maybe two or three days ago. I snapped a picture of him because it was so cute! I walked into the room where Fiz's viv is, flicked on the lights, and peered in. To my surprise, Fiz was on the ground, in this wierded-out pose as if he were saying, "Jeez! Knock next time! I need Privacy too!"

Here's the pose (Sorry about the messy floor! Fiz is shedding and today I'm doing a full cleaning of their tank! I figured that I might as well not just keep cleaning the repticarpet when Fiz isn't even done shedding, so I waited until his shedding was done and it is, so I can clean today! Whoopee! Now I gotta go feed them!

Beardies just crack me up sometimes!