Dark ovals or squiggly lines have shown up on your dragon’s belly, and they were not there yesterday. That marking is what keepers call bearded dragon stress marks. The name sounds more alarming than the reality usually is. In most cases the marks are a normal reaction to something temporary: a cold morning, a new…
Bearded dragon salmonella is one of those topics that sounds terrifying until you see how transmission actually works. Healthy dragons can carry the bacteria in their gut and shed it in their droppings without ever looking sick. You cannot spot a carrier by eye. The risk to a healthy adult is low and almost entirely…
Clear fluid bubbling from the nostrils after a soak, a sudden puffing motion, maybe a small gag. That is what it usually looks like when a bearded dragon inhales bath water. Most of the time the water stays in the nose and clears on its own within a minute or two. The part worth watching…
A bearded dragon sneeze is louder and wetter than people expect from such a small animal. There is a quick puff of air, a fine spray, sometimes a faint head shake, and a scatter of white specks left on the glass. In most cases that is a healthy salt sneeze, and bearded dragon sneezing ranks…
A dragon flattened against the glass at a forty-five degree angle, chin jammed in the cool corner, looks like it gave up halfway through a thought. Bearded dragon sleeping positions get strange, and the odd ones are usually the healthy ones. A dragon that wedges itself somewhere ridiculous is one that feels safe enough to…
A snapped nail on a bearded dragon bleeds far more than its size suggests. The bright red against pale skin is what sends most keepers into a panic. The good news first: when a bearded dragon broke a nail, it is rarely a true emergency. Most cases stop bleeding within minutes and heal on their…
A bearded dragon with its eyes shut sends most keepers straight into a panic, and that reaction makes sense. These lizards evolved to keep their eyes open and scanning, so a closed eye reads as wrong. Sometimes it is wrong. A bearded dragon with its eyes closed can be doing something completely normal, or it…
A bearded dragon rubbing its nose on the glass is one of those behaviours that starts innocuously and turns into a real injury faster than most owners expect. The snout scales are thin, the glass is unforgiving, and a dragon that does this persistently can have a raw, bleeding rostrum within a day or two….
Tongue pressed flat to the side of the tank, dabbing the same spot over and over. It looks strange the first time, and it sends plenty of owners straight to a search bar. A bearded dragon licking glass is almost always normal exploratory behaviour, not a sign that something is wrong. Dragons read the world…