The bearded dragon forum various on how busy it is via time of year etc. With many bearded dragon owners and potential owners being in school, this is also the time exams are approaching etc where people have less time to come to the forum etc. Also, for those areas of the world (at least on the western hemisphere) spring is arrving and the weather is better so more people may be spending their free time away from the computer. I have been around for several years myself (can't remember if it was '02 or earlier) I have noticed this forum slows down from time to time through the year.

I really don't see bearded dragons loosing their spot as a popular reptile, especially for beginners. With their more calm natures and personality, they will hold a spot in people's hearts for generations to come, much like leopard geckos. Bearded dragons don't get overly big, are big enough for even small people to handle without worries of accidently crushing them, don't take huge amounts of room in the house (a 4'x2'x2' cage is not that big compared to the room required for other pets and reptiles).

As for breeders coming and going, I can see many reasons for that. One, the market is rather glutted with bearded dragons. They are prolific and a big healthy female can lay 100 eggs a season. The cost of raising, caring and housing breeding animals as well as roughly a 100 hatchlings (incubating them, space to house the babies, feed them, medicate them, etc) per female, does make it an expensive hobby to get into. High end bearded dragons have a much higher profit margin than normal to semi-colorful dragons more commonly available. The supply is high for bearded dragons and the demand tends to be for more colorful bearded dragons, hence the high end morphs fetch a good price and I am assuming, not too hard to sell for the various breeders of these beautiful and exotic looking dragons.

Petstores always seem to have bearded dragons, (amazingly enough not that badly overpriced, though still close to twice as much as what I would get them for from a breeder or reptile show), yet to find a green iguana baby, I would be more harder pressed (for one, they are banned in this city, two, even when I lived in a city they weren't banned, they didn't show up often in the petstore).

However the reason there aren't many bearded dragons available is that most breeders don't have any available right now, as their new 2006 batches are most likely still in the incubator or still too young to sell. In another month or so, there will be plenty of baby bearded dragons available, I am sure of it
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PHLdyPayne

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