Just a Lady Who Loves Reptiles
I have raised and cared for many reptiles and amphibians over the years. I have loved all things dinosaur, dragon & lizard since I was a little girl. I spent my days catching anoles, toads, frogs, salamanders and geckos in my back yard growing up in Florida. I remember making terrariums out of giant pickle jars, punching holes in the metal lid and adding sticks and leaves. I was always hoping to keep one forever, but without fail at the end of the day my parents made me let them go. As I grew older I purchased a variety of reptiles and amphibians from local pet stores, but I have never loved a lizards as much as I love Bearded Dragons when we bought a few at a show where we live in California.
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My Human Loves
My kids just love our reptiles! My son Tristan wants to be a Zookeeper when he grows up. He has a pet tortoise named Tuck and he loves our dragons. Helping us with their feeding and care over the years has only strengthened his love of animals. My daughter Elora just wants to hug all of them all the time. She helps us get our new dragons used to the hands and snuggles from the sometimes 'aggressive' love kids give.
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A Bearded Dragon Lady
I made a care sheet for bearded dragons but it wasn't until I made my Instagram account @BeardedDragonLady that I realized just how many people were out there that needed the right advice. I started sharing adorable pictures of hatching babies and one of my favorite breeders. Then one after another I received question after question. "What substrate do you use?" "What do you feed your dragons?" "What morph is my dragon?" "How do I get my dragon to eat vegetables?" "Is my dragon a male or female?" and so on.
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I knew I needed to try to give the best answers to these dragon parents, so many of them were doing things that were dangerous to their dragon's health and they didn't even know it. After being overwhelmed by hundreds of questions every week I decided to make a blog and direct people to it for the most common questions. To my amazement over 11,000 followers on Instagram later there were still new people who had unanswered questions, clearly this needed its own platform. |
I was thrilled to see that people who had been following me for years were now helping new followers who were asking me questions, we had started to create a little community. I felt so proud to see the people willing to help and share knowledge. I started to realize Instagram and the blog alone were not enough, I needed to make a site entirely dedicated to education. To provide dragon owners with the best information out there. And that is what I have set out to do here by providing many pages of knowledge and a blog on one educational site. I hope to create a bigger community that will continue to share their knowledge and promote correct care, becoming proper care advocates helping all new dragon owners give their pets the best possible life.
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My Hope
Everyone knows you can type 'bearded dragon care' into Google and get 1,000,000 pieces of information. A lot of these are forums and opinions of reptile lovers all over the world, however it may not be the best information out there. Use multiple sources, try asking a breeder, a specialist Reptile Vet or reading an actual book on bearded dragon care as well as surfing the web. Your research on your pet does not stop after the pet store, it should continue throughout their lives. You purchased or adopted this animal, and ultimately you make the decisions to take the proper care of it. I hope you take the knowledge I provide and do what works for you with your dragon. Come join us on Instagram and welcome to the community.
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