bearded dragon 11-30-25

Conversation around the kitchen table had turned to pets. We discussed how many cats or dogs each owned. Then, hold the phone, Christy Winget said she had a bearded dragon named Drago? “I got him when my family member just had their second child. I always played with him when I visited. If I had not liked him so much I would not have taken him,” she said. She does like Drago. She takes him out of his 40 gallon aquarium, so he can roam the house. Sometimes he holes up in a cozy corner, and she has to “hunt him down with a flashlight. I have lost him a couple of times. One time I found him sleeping inside the grandbaby’s toy.” Some nights she lays on the bed, and he sleeps on her chest. “I don’t sleep with him. My husband is not fond of that. I move him to his tank before I go to sleep.” Occasionally he sees his reflection off the tank’s glass and gets so angry seeing another male that she has to take him out of the tank to roam calm down.“He loves to go outside in the summer because it is not cold. He likes to get on my shoulder and go for a ride in the car.” She also declares, “Now that I know how much time and care he takes, I will never get another, but I love him.” Originating in Australia, this pet requires a special diet of Dubia Roaches and superworm in the larvae stage. Winget maintains a container farm with the superworm in various stages: egg, warm, larvae, beetle. “Bearded Dragons are supposed to eat a lot of leafy greens and vegetables. He used to eat some. Now he pretty much refuses all the vegetables and mainly eats bugs. I used to raise crickets for him, but he doesn’t like them now. They have to have calcium, vitamin B3, probiotics and a multi-vitamin.” All those come in a powder form that she sprinkles on his food. Mainly he gets water from his food. If he gets constipated, she adds baby plums to his diet and a tummy rub. Besides catering to Drago’s dietary needs, Winget said she bathes him to soften his skin so he can completely shed his skin rubbing against a rock in his aquarium. In the past, Drago has lost three toes and the tip of his tail because shedding was not complete. Drago mostly lives inside his temperature controlled 40 gallon tank. One side is kept at 100 degrees. The other side is about 75-80 degrees. Since bearded dragons do not have automatic temperature regulation, they seek heat or shade to adjust. “They like lower humidity. They have to have the full spectrum UV light. I do at least 12 hours when it is winter, but I have a timer that goes on and off. It is a little cooler at nighttime. They are very temperature sensitive.”At least once a year for two or three months Drago will go into a brumation (a short, shallow hibernation). “It is hard to tell if they are alive. I just have gotten so used to it. But every so often I will poke him a little. He will look at me with a look that says, ‘why are you messing with me?’ Every two or three weeks I wake him up and make him drink some water. If you wake him up you can tell he is angry, he gets black under his chin.They puff up under their chin.”Bearded dragons do not get fat enough for a long sleep. Some die during brumation. “He should be going into brumation right now, but a little while back he went into a short brumation so he is awake now.”“I am glad I have a bearded dragon.. When he dies though, I will not get another now that I know how much care he requires.” That may be a while. Bearded dragons can live up to 15 years. Meanwhile, she definitely has a conversation starter on pets.