Our Bearded Dragon Lizards

This is an introduction to the other pets in our family, our bearded dragon lizards.  Their names are Beardie (the male):

and Lizzy (the female):

We have had them for about 7 years now, since they were babies.  Both were bought from a pet store about 6 months apart.  I had earlier pictures but they got lost when my computer crashed but this is them now in their home: 

Lizzy & Beardie

I have actually been very surprised about how attached one can become to lizards-I mean, really? a lizard?  Who knew.....

They were bought for the boys but I became attached to them when I almost killed (yes, killed) the female, Lizzy.  That's why she looks so frail and skinny.  She got out of her cage one day and because they are very social beings, she followed up behind me y and I didn't know it.  I stepped back, bare footed and stepped right on top of her head and shoulders-hard!  It made me fall down completely and when I turned to see what I had stepped on I saw Lizzy, leaning side ways and bleeding.  How she survived I'll never know but when it looked like she wasn't going to die right away I picked her up and moved her to her cage expecting her to be dead soon.  I know I punctured her lung because for a week only one side of her rib cage would expand when she breathed.  I also damaged the entire right side of her neck and shoulders.  She did not die.  Somehow she made it but it took her weeks to mend and during those weeks she had to be fed with a syringe and not moved for fear of worsening the punctured lung.  She never did regain 100 percent and she has always looked kind of peeked and frail since then but the experience bonded us in a way I would never have dreamed.  She will actually paw at the side of the cage to be picked up when she sees me now.

About a year after her 'near death' experience, she laid a clutch of eggs, much to everyone's surprise!  I didn't know the signs and the next thing we knew she was popping out 15 little eggs in the cage!  I was in no way prepared for this and after researching I discovered that they will continue to lay clutches of eggs about every 4-6 weeks for a period of time from one fertilization so I attempted to put together an incubator.  This did not work very well however and over the course of the next few weeks she laid two more clutches and I was not able to bring any of them to full term.  I am told it is very difficult to do even in the best of circumstances.  But we did get a picture of one clutch:

This is a video we tried to take while she was laying her last clutch.  You can't see her actually laying them but you can see the little cave like place she made to lay them in.  Lizzy Laying Eggs

These bearded dragons are interesting creatures.  The males have an interesting head bobbing thing that they do to show dominance and during mating season and the females have an interesting arm waving thing that they do to show submission.  The male can be very rough with the female at times and very protective at other times.  They are social and tend to like to 'stack' on top of one another.  The male doesn't like being fooled with as much as the female does and Lizzy likes baths where as Beardie does not.  Here is a video of Lizzy playing in the water.  

They eat fruits and vegetables and crickets and meal-worms among other things.  They need a warm, dry location, about 78-88 degrees which is accomplished with a heat lamp and they need a UV lamp as well.  It is a little difficult to learn at first but once you get it down and the initial set up going it's not too bad.

These bearded dragons are much better pets than say an iguana or a savanna monitor, both of which we have owned in the past.  They are better because they just practically don't bite, they don't whip you with their tail or try to hurt you in any way and they actually do like to be held once they are used to it..  They inflate their 'beards' for protection which is where they get their name from.  They are also active so they can be fun for entertainment.

Update 2012:

We lost lizzy.  As I said, she never did recover from her injury well and while she lived another 6 years or so she was always frail.  So she just started looking weaker and weaker and stopped eating and pooping and was really sick for about three days and then she died as we knew she was going to.  So I guess we had her for about 10 years.  I was sad to see her go.  We buried her properly in the back yard.  This leaves only Beardie now who is alone.  It has been just the two of them for so long I wonder how he will do.  R.I.P. Lizzy.

Update 2013:

Still have Beardie.  He's still alone but doing OK.  He is more sociable with us than he was before but he looks kind of lonely to me.  I really don't want to get another one but I'd like to find him a companion as Beardies are social but physically he looks good.