Favorite Things

[IAmAMirage]

Hey y'all! I wanted to ask what your favorite thing(s) about your beardie(s) is. Mine is when my little guy, Mirage, runs up to something and licks it. lol. It's super cute!

 

[ChileanTaco]

My Taco licks my finger when I pet his face

My favorite thing about my beardie is how the various textures of his skin feel.

 

[IAmAMirage]

My Taco licks my finger when I pet his face

My favorite thing about my beardie is how the various textures of his skin feel.

Awe so cute! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Chris.]

It is so cute when they lick stuff or just in the air. It makes them look so prehistoric

My boy snuggling up against my throat or on my belly to take a nap, is super cute but I also like to watch him run around stomping and headbobbing.

Also when I'm in the office (where both tanks are) and start working on something and they both come right to the glass and just watch my every move. Adorable!

 

[ChileanTaco]

Also when I'm in the office (where both tanks are) and start working on something and they both come right to the glass and just watch my every move. Adorable!

Our tank is not in the office (as my husband who works from home permanently has a lot of video calls and we feared this might irritate my dragon; I'm working from home just sometimes with rarely a video call so I might have done this) but across the dining table in a corner that faces the balcony.
So, Taco also likes watching "every move": us eating something (I often think what he might think about spaghettis or shrimps ), me watering or potting plants on the balcony, doing some crafts either on the dining table or on the balcony (we frequently do some "finer" things like drawing and beading there, as well as some "rougher" things like woodwork or working with concrete).
The funniest thing was when for X-mas I was baking a huge amount of German Christmas cookies. Was making some "Elisen", "Bethmännchen", "Honigkuchen", "Butterplätzchen" and so such So I was frequently bringing things from the kitchen to the table and leaving them there, like trays of finished "Plätzchen" and stuff I wanted to get out of the way, then after a while appeared back to put the "Butterplätzchen" together with some marmelade... He was looking. He appeared right behind the glass. He was standing at the glass (he's usually not doing this, also not scratching or glass surfing). I then showed him a "Plätzchen" close-up (through the glass) and he was looking

 

[NickAVD]

I really like it when Foxy settles down to sleep on my chest. He puts his beard on me and starts rubbing his beard against me left and right, as if he is trying to bury himself in the sand, then he moves his left hand back, closes his eyes and falls asleep. It looks very cute and his trust in me gives me an incomparable feeling.

 

[NickAVD]

The funniest thing was when for X-mas I was baking a huge amount of German Christmas cookies.

Oh, I couldn’t help but write about baking.
In our family, everyone just loves the Christmas stollen, what a pity that in our area you can only buy it at Christmas.
And no one knows the recipe.

 

[ChileanTaco]

For the Stollen, there are many recipes. A "secret" is that it must be baked well before Christmas, weeks or even months before.
(But if you are in the US it can be that the baking oven just cannot handle making a proper Stollen well. I've spent approx. 7 years in the US and never had access to a convection oven, and the difference was huge, many recipes especially like bread and bread-like cakes just didn't turn out well. Recipes that turned out well in Germany, and do equally well here in Chile (I again have a convection oven now but just didn't work with the US oven.)

 

[xp29]

Hey y'all! I wanted to ask what your favorite thing(s) about your beardie(s) is. Mine is when my little guy, Mirage, runs up to something and licks it. lol. It's super cute!

My favorite thing is EVERYTHING lol but if I HAVE to pick one, it's a toss up. Either when they wiggle in on my chest for the night or when I'm talking to them and they turn their heads and interact with me, or when they snuggle in on my chest as close as they can get to each other, it's just proves there is a ton more social dynamics between them than people understand.

 

[ChileanTaco]

or when I'm talking to them and they turn their heads and interact with me

Yes For a "Hey, Taco Tac-Tac", I get at least him blinking with his eyes

 

[xp29]

Yes For a "Hey, Taco Tac-Tac", I get at least him blinking with his eyes

Sinatra will mostly just stare at me, Ruby and Zsa Zsa will turn their heads this way and that way, I know they mostly don't understand what I'm saying but it's endearing that they listen anyways.

 

[ChileanTaco]

I know they mostly don't understand what I'm saying

Also. I think for them it's "the sound humans make". I would guess Taco has no concept of a name, but would
look as this sound announces to him a human comes and will interact with him.
(I found he reacts mostly to the "Tac" part. So when I say "Taco", or "Hey Tac", or "Tac!" or any of that.)

Like we might look when we hear a bird singing, or the hooves of a horse outside the window, despite we were not called but as now something interesting will happen.

 

[xp29]

Also. I think for them it's "the sound humans make". I would guess Taco has no concept of a name, but would
look as this sound announces to him a human comes and will interact with him.
(I found he reacts mostly to the "Tac" part. So when I say "Taco", or "Hey Tac", or "Tac!" or any of that.)

Like we might look when we hear a bird singing, or the hooves of a horse outside the window, despite we were not called but as now something interesting will happen.

I agree to some degree, but the do learn to understand some things, Ruby knows damn well what, "Ruby you ready to come out" means if she is she'll boogie right to the front, if not she'll usually go in her hide.

 

[xp29]

My favorite thing is EVERYTHING lol but if I HAVE to pick one, it's a toss up. Either when they wiggle in on my chest for the night or when I'm talking to them and they turn their heads and interact with me, or when they snuggle in on my chest as close as they can get to each other, it's just proves there is a ton more social dynamics between them than people understand.

This is tonight, kindda fitting considering the thread Ruby does this every single night. Before I lost Sweet Pea, she did it as well.

 

[ChileanTaco]

I'm sure they can learn that. Mine also knows that "up!" means I will pick him up (he then "helps", means climbs on my hand and arm). And he barely reacts to what is just humans talking to each other (I guess as then the "the sound humans make" like "Tac!" or an announcing "up!" isn't present).
I think this is somewhat similar as even as we usually don't understand bird voices in detail (despite some seem to have language-like communication!), most of us know e.g. the difference between a bird nicely singing and a bird's alarm sound (blackbird singing vs. blackbird announces a cat).

He also knows that:
- me reaching behind the enclosure is lamps on/off (I usually run them on a timer, but had not for the first few months)
- me putting the tube lamp from the front to the back of the lid means I will open the enclosure now (I have to do so as it sits on the part of the lid that opens - as that's always done, and never done for other reasons, easy to understand I would say)
- if he wants to come out, he has to sit where I can get him (easily) and he knows where this is (on the branch or right side of his climbing structure)
- me pointing with a finger somewhere means there is something for him to look at (trained that with bugs )
- what certain things are for (e.g.: spray bottle, or me using the bamboo tongs (they are not feeding tongs but used be me to e.g. rearrange things I cannot get easily, or wiping down the glass in the back) is "harmless" and can be ignored)

A thing he still has to learn:
When he wants back into the enclosure, I understand this right away (he then climbs up on me like crazy) and in fact, there is no need to continue doing so (and scratching me) as he could see I'm bringing him back immediately *sigh*
(I don't mind the scratches much, his nails aren't overly long and my skin isn't that sensitive so after 3 days or so they're gone. But hey Taco, you could save yourself from the climb-like-crazy stress - human always brings you back straight away)
But what he learned is that he can just walk away from my hands/arms once back in - no need to jump and run. When he was younger he did so: first scratching me to get back in, then once in I got another pair of big scratches when he used my hands like a runner a starting block to jump from my hands on his basking spot.