Bearded Dragon

The Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps, also called the central or inland bearded dragon) is a lizard in the family Agamidae. Its name comes from the pouch under the chin, which can be inflated and darkened.

Adults grow to around 60 cm (24 in) from head to tail tip, with the tail making up more than half of that, and can weigh around 550 g. Males are generally larger than females. Colours range through light brown, reddish-brown, red, yellow, white and orange, and selective breeding has produced many colour morphs.

The Bearded Dragon is one of the most popular pet reptiles in the world, and is the most kept reptile in Western Europe and the United States.

Bearded Dragons are native to eastern and central Australia. In the wild they live in semiarid woodland, arid woodland and rocky desert, mainly across inland New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia. The species was first described by German zoologist Ernst Ahl in 1926.

Australia banned the export of native wildlife in the 1960s. Even so, most captive Bearded Dragons descend from stock illegally exported between 1974 and 1990. By the early 1990s a captive-bred population had been established in the global pet trade.

Since then, breeders have produced morphs with colours and patterns rare in nature, including strongly red, orange and white lines and patternless types. The Leatherback trait gives smoother skin with fewer spines, and breeding two Leatherbacks produces scaleless Silkbacks.

Bearded Dragons do not make sounds apart from a soft hiss when threatened. They communicate with colour changes, posture, arm waving and head bobbing. A slow bow is often used by adult females to show submission to a male, a fast bob signals male dominance, and a vigorous bob comes from males just before mating. Waving an arm in a slow or fast circle can signal submission.

They are not social animals, but sometimes gather in good basking spots, where a hierarchy forms and the top animals take the highest or sunniest places. Males can become very aggressive towards each other.

When threatened, a Bearded Dragon flattens its body, opens its mouth to show yellow membranes, puffs out its darkened beard, hisses and may make small jumps. They are not known to attack humans. They are also good climbers, and can learn by watching others: in one experiment most onlookers copied a Bearded Dragon that had been trained to open a door to reach food.

Captive Bearded Dragons are susceptible to Agamid adenovirus 1, which can cause liver disease, enteritis and failure to thrive. Many adults carry it without symptoms, but it can be fatal in juveniles or stressed animals.

They are also prone to metabolic bone disease when they lack enough ultraviolet B light and dietary calcium. Without UVB they cannot make vitamin D3, so they cannot absorb calcium. The result is calcium drawn from the skeleton, causing fractures, tremors and deformities.

Scaleless Silkback Bearded Dragons lose water through evaporation at twice the rate of normal ones, which makes them highly susceptible to dehydration.

This is general awareness only, not veterinary advice. Always consult a vet about your pet's health.

What is a bearded dragon?

It is a lizard in the family Agamidae, native to inland Australia. It gets its name from the throat pouch it can puff out and darken.

How big do bearded dragons get?

Adults reach about 60 cm (24 in) including the tail, and can weigh around 550 g. Males are generally larger than females.

Do bearded dragons bite or attack people?

They are not known to attack humans. Adult males can bite more forcefully than females, a difference associated with their larger heads.

Why does my bearded dragon bob its head?

Head bobbing is communication. Fast bobs are used by males to signal dominance, slow bows are often used by adult females to signal submission to a male, and vigorous bobs come from males before mating. Fast or violent bobs from either sex can also be a sign of stress.

Do bearded dragons make noise?

Not really. They only hiss softly when threatened, and otherwise communicate through colour, posture and gestures.

Why does my bearded dragon's beard go black?

The beard can darken when the animal is threatened, or during courtship and territorial displays. Males usually have darker beards than females, and in mating season theirs often turns near-black.

Bearded Dragons have a parietal eye, or third eye, in the middle of the forehead. It is involved in temperature and hormone regulation, and light of wavelengths under 580 nanometres entering it has been linked to magnetic sensing.

Their skin darkens in sunlight and lightens in darkness, following a built-in daily rhythm.

They lift their bodies fully off the ground when moving, which reduces heat absorbed from hot ground and lets air flow underneath.

Sex is normally set genetically, but eggs incubated above about 32 °C can turn genetic males into fully functional females. These females can lay nearly twice as many eggs as normal females.

A female can keep sperm and produce fertile eggs even after being separated from a male.