Beastie, My Best Bearded Buddy

                                  

My name is Kylie and this is my best friend, that is reptile friend, Beastie. She is a  Bearded Dragon. I got her last July as a family pet. Before that I had a lizard that I found at the park close to my house. That lizard lived for two years at my house. I took care of it until one day we found the cage open and it wasn’t there. I cried so much that my mom decided to get another one.

This one is so much fancier that the one from the park.

Let me tell you a little about these incredible creatures. 

They are not scary at all.  Bearded Dragons are friendly creatures, but they can become aggressive if you don’t take them out to play. They need exercise just like we do. As babies they are the size of a kindergartener’s middle finger. I know this because I used my little cousin's finger to measure Beastie when we first got her. She will one day grow up to be about 2 feet long. When she gets to be that long I will also be a lot older than I am now and will be able to handle her. Bearded Dragons can live up to 15 or 20 years. So when she  is 20 I will be 29 and she will live with me.

Wow! Cool right?

This is how I take care of her. Every morning before I go to school I feed her fruits and veggies. When I get home from school, the first thing I do is check on her to make sure she is okay. I do my homework and then it’s time to spend some time with Beastie. Because she eats fruits and veggies the morning, she needs to get something else in the evenings. So she gets a nice meal of crickets around 5 or 6 pm.  When she  grows bigger I will be able to feed her mice and worms.

Bath time for Beastie is once a week. I use the swimming pool from my doll house. I put some warm water up to her knuckles and put her in. Then I get a toothbrush and scrub her body.

I do not use soap. Soap and dragon don’t mix. They will get sick.

Bearded Dragons need to be in the sun for 12 hours a day. Before, we used to put her outside to get sun. Then my mom bought a special lamp that is like the sun. This gives her all the warmth she needs. 

When Beastie is about to shed her skin her eyes swell up. This also could mean that she is sick. I have to check her everyday to make sure that she is fine.  Another way to tell that they’re about to shed is their skin will be a grayish color. Other sign that I have to check for is when she is too hot, she opens her mouth for a long time until she cools down.

For now, she lives alone with us and she is very happy. I take good care of her and hope that she will live to be 20 years or more. Maybe one day she will find a friend and will have little Beasties. Then, I will share them with others and keep some. This will be like Charlotte in the story Charlotte’s Web, one of my favorite books.  

Below are picture of Beastie.                        

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