A new fire-breathing pet

Well, I was convinced to take in a new animal. This poor bearded dragon had been at Petsmart for a couple of months and was picked on by all the other beardies. In the end, they couldn't even give him away (I held off for the chance that someone else might adopt him...but no). He is so adorable and has a great pattern on his underside.


Right now he's watching Merlin (my cat) try to play with the crickets I have in a bug box (they move a lot more than the lizard). To give you a reference for the pictures, he is about 3 inches long. You can see he is missing toes. On the left side he has toe stumps on his front foot and a single toe left on the back. He is also missing at least half an inch of his tail. Poor baby. He is totally rapt, watching the cat. It is hilarious. Okay, I took pictures of it .

Anyway, I have obviously not named the lizard yet, but am throwing some around (including Smaug); right now I'm calling him Stumpy. Of course, it's hard to sex dragons at this age and I don't want to traumatize him, so I will just go with the Petsmart "I think it's a male." If it's female, I'm passing up a great opportunity to use the name Tiamat or Takhisis (D&D).

I had him on sand for the last three days but after waking up two nights in a row worrying that he is going to die from impaction, I gave up and went to carpet and that seems to be working just fine. I am having to keep crickets, which was my biggest stumbling block, but I have only had two near escapes (in four days!!) and will only get better, right?

I keep reading how dragons are most difficult to keep in their first year and that casual reptile owners should only buy adults, so I am working on a bit of a high anxiety level right now, but I will give it a go and try not to kill him. Who knows, maybe I saved him from becoming a feeder animal...I hate to think what they do with damaged reptiles they can't get rid of at these stores. I wonder if there are reptile rescues? In the mean time, he's eating and drinking and going to the bathroom and basking and watching us, so he seems okay.