Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My hypothesis is that the life span of captive bearded dragons will go up. The only thing I need to find out is whether or not the people that own (or used to own) old dragons kept them under different care at first. By this I mean, have our standards for reptile husbandry gone up? I was looking at a book that I bought over the summer about bearded dragons that I believe was published in 1997 or 1996 or something, and there are things in it that differ from what is accepted today. in it, they recomended using artificial plant decorations, and said that aspen bedding could be used. I didn't read into the sections about nutrition and health yet though, I'll get to it later. So I want to know if people thought this to be true years ago, or if this book is just stupid.

I would like to think though that the average life span of our pets is going up as we learn more and take better care of them. I want to see my sidney live to be at least 10 years old.

later

I am not a Dragon expert, but I do deal with a number of different types of lizards so here's my input...

I think more than likely what we will find as information becomes more available is not that the life span of the species will increase much, as this would require all sorts of medications and equipment (for an idea, check out the old people in a hospital), but we will hopefully find fewer dragons dying unnecessary deaths, which could in turn raise the "average" lifespan, but nobody talks too much in those numbers anyway. Although, there is some potential for extending the lifespan a small bit as we learn more about proper diet and environmental conditions, but we're probably not going to see them start hitting 15 years old or anything.

Besides basic husbandry such as temps, lighting, and cleanliness, I think the two biggest factors for a bearded dragon's lifespan are nutrition and breeding. Heavy breeding probably takes a year or two off the life of a female dragon. And a lot of the big, healthy dragons out there are the ones being bred.

But I think nutrition is the most important factor in a bearded dragon's lifespan. I remember reading that studies showed that vegetable matter was 90% of a wild adult dragon's diet. Does a heavy protein diet shorten the lifespan? Does feeding certain vegetables increase longevity? These are questions that will probably be answered over the years as we learn more and more about bearded dragons. Perhaps more dietary studies of wild populations can give us more insight into beardie nutrition.

Your hypothesis is a very hard one to test, since there are so many factors in keeping dragons. Maybe you could look at other more popular animals, such as dogs and cats, and see if their lifespans have increased over the years, and try to make a comparison with dragons.

I myself am feeding my dragon a relatively low protein diet. I feed him crickets about twice a week, which is less than most of the books say. At three years of age, he is large, active, and vigorous. I'm curious to see if he will live longer than the average 7-10 years. I certainly hope so!