Alright so this is the page where I give you the answer on the question: What is a bearded dragon? I think you all know those boring reptile info articles and that is not what I want to give you to read here. I have written this article as a bearded dragon owner, not as a scientist …lol. So I hope you enjoy this article and don´t worry, you will get a lot of info from this article.
Bearded Dragons, which are also called “Beardies” by bearded dragon owners and Pogona vitticeps by scientists, are from Australia …obviously. I mean Australia is the land with the weirdest and most exotic animals on earth, of course an animal that looks like a dragon had to be from Australia, right?
There are 8 subspecies of bearded dragons and one of them is the dwarf bearded dragon (Pogona henrylawsoni), which are basically just smaller bearded dragons with less spikes.
Dragon Appearence
Oh yeah, the spikes. Did I already mention why the bearded dragon is called bearded? I think you already know it. They look like they would wear a beard, however it is not a hairy beard, it is a beard full of spikes and if you think that this sounds awesome: It is!
But don´t worry, they are even more awesome than you might think now. If bearded dragons are annoyed, or if they flirt with another bearded dragon, because they want to mate, they bloat their beard. It looks amazing!
Further they are able to colour it dark if they are flirty, annoyed, or if they do not feel well for example. Do you know further situations where your bearded dragon coloured its beard black? Tell me about it in the comment section!
Besides that, beardies also have spikes on their flanks. The spikes have only one purpose: They want enemies to think that they could get hurt if they touch or bite the bearded dragon. Beardies can also bloat their bodys to appear wider and bigger.
A lot of people say that the basic colour of bearded dragons is brown or some kind of grey, but I think it is more accurate to say that they are sand-coloured. What do you think?
However there are also a lot (…and when I say a lot I really mean a lot) of color varieties. For example the red bearded dragon or sandfire bearded dragon. So if you think about adopting a beardie, you should have a look at the bearded dragon color varieties first.
Most bearded dragons can get a body length of 25cm plus a 30cm long tail, but in the east of Australia they can even get bigger! Big Boys right there!
Beardies are cold-blooded
Bearded dragons are cold-blooded animals, which means that they are not able to maintain their body temperature. So they have to lie in the sun to absorb heat. Therefore they can do some pretty clever things.
They make themselves extremely flat and wide and colour their body darker to absorb heat.
What a life, huh? Lying in the sun all day 🙂
In Australia they stay in places with around 80 degrees if they want it a little bit cooler. If they need more heat, you can find them in sunny places with 110 degrees! That is why you definitely need the right bearded dragon lighting. You should have a look at this article if you need information on that: Beardie Lighting!
Dragons are loners
This might be a shock for a lot of bearded dragon owners, but bearded dragons are actually loners. A lot of beardie owners I know actually did not know that and I totally understand why.
If you visit a pet shop, you have most probably seen bearded dragons there and they are always in groups there.
However the male bearded dragons do not really like each other and it can happen that they fight each other …and that can end bloody in some cases.
As I already said, bearded dragons can colour their beard black if they want to flirt, but they also have a lot of other ways to communicate with other bearded dragons and sometimes even with their owners lol.
For example they wave if they want to say something like: “Calm down, you are the bigger one, I admit it!”.
On the other side, if they want to tell that they are the best and most dominant beardies they nod their head.
Bearded Dragon food
When it comes to food, they are not very picky. In their home Australia, they eat insects, small mammals, spiders and vegetables. If you need more information on that, you should have a look at this article: What to feed a bearded dragon? It contains everything you need to know about that.
Of course there is a lot more to say about bearded dragons, but this articles answers the question: What is a bearded dragon?
Bearded Dragons as pets
Bearded dragons are very easy to care for to be honest. That is one of the reasons they are very popular reptiles. Further they are extremely relaxed. Most bearded dragons get used to their owner and get used to be handled very quickly.
Especially for kids this is a big plus, because kids just want to explore, that´s normal and of course they want to touch their pets.
So that´s it my fellow bearded dragon lovers! I hope you enjoyed this article and I would love to hear some stories about your bearded dragons.
Did your bearded dragon ever wave or something like that when you came into the room? 🙂
Let´s chat about it in the comment section!
All the best,
Pierre