Sometimes, these "random" people online, are much more experienced than these big breeders and vets.
9 times out of 10, someone posts up an experience with a vet here that is quite frankly astounding due to the simple fact that it would seem the vet has absolutely no experience with dragons.
And the same can be said for breeders. You don't really need to know bearded dragons at all to make two opposite sex reptiles want to do the deed. Breeding doesn't make you an expert by far, and being a vet doesn't make you an expert on bearded dragons either.
However, these random people on this site, many of them ARE experts on bearded dragons. They own and have owned bearded dragons for years and over a decade, spend tons of time on this site not only learning from their own experiences, but from others too.
An expert is defined as someone who has prolonged experience through practice or EDUCATION in a particular field. In this case, I would consider learning from others experiences (even if you haven't personally experienced them) to be a very fine example of educating oneself.
Most vets are anything but experts in bearded dragons specifically. Some have a general to decent understanding of them, but again, few and far between.
I agree with you, the best knowledge is your own experience, but there is still tons you can learn from others.
But I digress. I wasn't trying to put any of your friends knowledge down, just trying to show you the other side of the coin and that we aren't really just "random internet people."
You do what you want to do, your dragons, your life, your decisions. I was just giving you my thoughts on it (this is a discussion forum after all...
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But remember, you make the choices for these creatures, they don't have a say in it.
ALWAYS, make the best choice possible for them, even if it goes against what others have told you, or what you might want.
-Brandon