Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I manage the reptile section of a small, independant pet store. The manager has recently purchased a "false bearded dragon," on the grounds that it is inexpensive and supposedly easy to care for, but I can find disturbingly little information on them. They are apparently also known as "Tanzanian toad-headed agamas." I've googled both common names; other than wholesale price lists mentioning other toad-head agamas, I found a single care/info page with only about six lines of text (and not specifically for Tanzanian toad-heads). Nominally helpful, but not quite enough to satisfy myself or the customer base.
I would very much appreciate any references to online care sheets or scientific articles concerning these lizards, or a pictorial guide would be fantastic. They seem to be relatively new to the pet trade and aren't mentioned in any of the in-store books.
Thank you all so much for your time and help!

I have to say I never heard of them. The only beardless bearded dragons I can think of are actually another speciea of bearded dragon, the Lawson's Bearded dragon. Do you have a picture of these false bearded dragons?

I had an oppurtunity to buy 1.2 trio from a pet store onhline. Aren't they from Egypt? They said they are easier to care for because they don't require UVB, high temps for digestion, specialized diet.... I couldn't find anyuhing on them either and they couldn't provide any info other than what they had been told so I passed and don't even remeber the name of the place. Guess this isn't much help but is this what you are talking about? If you find anything let us know!!

Later,
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Robert Wood
Tulsa,OK

You might consider the possibility that you're dealing with Rankins Dragons. They look similar to bearded dragons, but are smaller.

Check out these links for photos to see if these are a match.

http://www.reptilekeeper.co.uk/rankincare.php

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.gamesby/rep07.html

If its not these guys, there are actually quite a few different kinds of Agama that they could be. If these aren't a match let me know and I'll try to track down some other possibilities.

I know exactly what your talking about. Toad Headed Agama's, there's about 40 species of them all over mostly asia and the middle east.

Im pretty sure that the care sheet you found was.
http://www.anapsid.org/toadhead.html

It's unfortunately the most info on caring for them I have seen. any bearded dragon care sheet works for them, they live in the same conditions just not in australia.

Genus Phyrnocephalus
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The universe is vast and we are so small.
There is only one thing we can truly control.
Whether we are good or evil.
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1.0.0 Tangerine Albino Leopard Gecko
1.1.0 Bearded Dragons

Thank all of you so much for your help so far! They do NOT match up with any of the photos of dwarf beardeds (Rankin's, etc) - they are agamids, and are from an entirely different taxonimical genus, Phyrnocephalus. (Thank you Dedalus for the genus; the care sheet I found wasn't even *that* detailed!) The most notable characteristic is a beautiful blue under its throat, edged with yellow towards the chest. It lacks the distictive "bearded" pattern (the dorsal stripes and 'eppaulettes' (sp?)), but does have a very attractive, fairly thorny, mottled, rich brown coloration (not the 'dusty' brown of beardeds). It has the heavy, triagular head of a dragon or an agamid, and supposedly has a maximum SVL of about 5 inches.

Thanks!

- Stickysweet
2.4 cats
0.1 crested gecko
0.0.3 red-eye treefrogs
0.1 rat
5 empty tanks to fill...

Probably take me a few days, but I'll see what I can come up with. I have a book dedicated strictly to Agamas.