He will get to be about 2ft long and they are usually full grown within a year.
We have a smaller terrarium for him right now, it's 30x12x12 I think. We have a heat lamp and uv light for it. The temperature in the hot side of the tank is usually around 100-114 and the cool end is usually 87-93.
He eats crickets, meal worms and veggies. He doesn't need much water, because he is native to desert Australia, BUT beardies (as they are sometimes called) can become dehydrated. They don't soak up water through their scales, they can only get it through their "vents" aka butt and mouth. At first we had a "lizard lagoon" in the tank for him to get in and drink from but he wasn't using it much and it was causing the humidity to rise (which can cause respiratory issues for beardies) and it was making the alfalfa pellets...gross. So now we just bath him a couple of days a week in the kitchen sink. He doesn't like it much right now but he will...someday haha!
As I mentioned before he has alfalfa pellets in his tank right now. There are many different kinds of flooring you can put in there. We bought a bearded dragon starter kit and it came with the tank, lights, substrate and food. So, we have been using the alfalfa pellets simply because they came with the tank. They aren't pretty but Crumb always ends up eating one or two when he's trying to catch his crickets and they won't hurt him so that's good. After researching some more we have decided to switch it for something else. There are a number of different substrates you can use: tile, reptile carpet, shelf liner, sand, astroturf etc. And it sounds like there are pros and cons to every one. I think we are going to go with a reptile carpet. They can smear their poo on it I guess but it's really easy to clean and he can't eat it...I don't think... Anywho, we also went out on a bike ride and found a stick that he can "bask" on and a rock and Chase is making him something special to climb on. :)
Oh yeah, we don't know FOR SURE if he's a he. It's incredibly hard to tell unless you're a beardie freak until they have sexually matured, about a year, and then the males have small bumps beneath their hind legs.
They also wave! I've read that it's a sign of submission, the experts think, but I think it's just an involuntary movement. Like a really cute spasm or something. Beardies also do a head bob which is supposed to be a sign of dominance but Crumb will do both at the same time and he waves at his food...why would he be submitting to his food? It sounds like they are kind of weird until they are grown up though.
They are called bearded dragons because when they are upset they get dark, almost black some have said, mainly under their head, where a beard might be and they puff it out and do their head bob. They are not really known to be too aggressive though. They bite but I haven't heard any horror stories about it, usually they only bite on accident when they are overly-excited to be fed.
I've noticed Crumb changes colors a lot too. he will get really light and then he will get really dark and you can kind of see his "beard." A lot of different things contribute. Mood, body temp, environment etc.
If we take good care of him then he can live up to 10 years! :)
Anywho, tried to answer all the general questions. Bearded dragons are great pets!!!
here he is sleeping on his log/stick. I think he's adorable!
here he is looking really light!
here are all of his really cool colors! He is turning out to be pretty orangey.
he will do a "glass dance" when he wants out. He just jumps all over the glass.
We've only had him for a couple of weeks so I don't think he is totally used to us just yet and sometimes he hides from us and just peeks his little head out.
This is how he slept the other night. Don't ask me how he does it! (sorry for the poor quality, it was hard with the shutter speed in the dark) Another time he slept like this but on the floor and he fell over at some point in the night, didn't even wake him up haha!
This is his favorite spot. Butt to glass.
Look how dark he looks here! (and look at all the "crumbs" on his stomach ;)
Looks like he is high-fiving himself here haha!
Everyone says he looks big and scary in the pictures until they see this one. He is still just a little guy!
