Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I've read 3-10
4-10
5-6
up to 20

Does anyone have their own version of this based on some kind of fact?

I would not consider 3 years part of the normal lifespan if they can live to 20. That would be like saying normal lifespan for a human can be 12 years. Sure, it can be. If you don't feed them well and maybe throw um down a set of stairs.

so far it looks like 3-20 from what I've read though. Pretty broad

From what I have seen, heard, and experienced I am going to say 7 to 10. Of couse there are always exceptions for a couple of years either way.

From what i gather, 10-15 at least. Im pretty sure some have reached near 20. This is all just drawing on memories from what i have read in the past.

Maybe some people who have been in the hobby for a long time could throw some ages of their beardies out there....
-----
0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Everything I have read has been 7-10 years, like someone else said that can go a few years either way. I think it also varies on how they are cared for. My first lived to be 7 years 8 months but she was a rescue and her first year was rough.

I've heard reports of wild beardies living up and over 15 years of age, but usually in captivity their life span is half that, which is why I've sort of changed my way of thinking when taking care of these guys. I'm trying a different setup, something much more natural (dirt for substrate, temp gradient from 75 degrees to 130-135 and everything in between, a hiding spot that naturally has higher humidity from being on the dirt). I can't guarantee that this is going to yield the results of a longer life, especially since my beardie didn't have the best start (I wasn't the brightest keeper), but I'm confident a more natural setup will give me happier, healthier lizards.

I just reviewed approximately 30 web sites looking for the longevity of the inland bearded dragon. It appears to be a general consensus of 7-10 years. The lowest estimate being 4 years and the highest (and only one over 10 years) was 20 years. There was nothing to indicate that they live longer in the wild and there are very few animals that have a longer average life in the wild rather than in captivity. The one major reason is........there are very few predators that the dragon has to fear in captivity.
Just an interesting side thought the majority of these sites recommend an average basking area temp of 95-105 degrees.

I can't remember where I heard it, but I just remember someone in australia talking about the wild beardies living much longer. It might have been somewhere on this site. As you probably learned on the uro forum, I don't really keep track of my sources very well.

I also don't rely much on internet caresheets or books for the reptiles who's captive care I am already familiar with. I'm starting to stray away from that stuff and develop my own husbandry strategies (which are based off of other strategies of a select few other herpers who have had great success). I've noticed that with the common husbandry practices (specifically with beardies and uros), health problems tend to occur quite easily. Parasitic overloads and impactions don't just naturally happen. In the wild these animals eat food off the ground where they are likely to accidently ingest all sorts of other things as well. This is mostly a problem from being in captivity where they don't have access to the higher basking temps that they can find in the wild. The more heat they get, the easier they can pass what they ingest. So that's why I give my beardie and my uro access to temperatures higher than what they would need all of the time. It allows them to regulate themselves. My uro's temps did raise severely today for some reason though and it hit a high point that I don't like it to hit, but she moved out of the way and doesn't seem to care. I don't think it affected her at all, but I'm not going to say so until I wait and see. So you do have to be extra watchful with higher temps to make sure it doesn't overheat, but in the longrun I think it's a better way to go. Of course, with high heat, I also make sure there's a hidespot that has a higher humidity so that they can go there to maintain hydration if they want.

Once again, it's all theory. You can use it at your own discretion. As of now I see these methods to be superior to the commonly accepted husbandry, but only longterm results will really show if there's truth behind that.

It is hardly logical to designate the results of the experimentation on one animal to be superior to the tried and true methods (or as you call it the norm) of many others. It is easy to speculate or guess about what is best for a particular animal, but I think you need to be responsible in what you pass on as "fact" and what is speculation. (I do appreciate when you declare that you are theorizing; you don't always do that.) There are a lot of people who read this forum and think because they see it here it must be right. One of my pet peeves is the 'cause' of impaction. Although there is very little evidence as to the cause, it is automatically assinged to the substrate. In your case I know you don't believe that, but it is an example of unproven theory being repeated often enough until it is believed to be fact. I think it is important that we state that most of what we say is opinion and there are very few experts on any of these forums, although I am pretty impressed with some of the folks in the boa forums.

That's all understood, but it isn't what's been done on one animal. As far as beardies, yeah, it's only been used on some animals, but the results are enough for me to say it's a better way of keeping them. With uros, the soil and high temperatures have been tested on many individuals, and on breeding groups at pro exotics, who have grown to adult size in about 1/3rd the time it usually takes in a captive environment, and they have also reached sexual maturity and began breeding at about the same time (I'm hoping that soon we will see if the breeding was successful). As you must know, uro's are very hard to breed, and I think that's because we're not really giving them the appropriate conditions to live in.

It's just like with monitors. Years ago people thought that keeping them on paper and giving them low hotspots they were keeping them right, and they couldn't find out why they weren't as healthy as they should be. Then people began experimenting with burrowable dirt substrates and high basking temperatures and those methods have proven to be the best at raising most monitors (terrestrial in nature). It's these people that started experimenting with similar setups for their other reptiles, and these people that have been having greater success (meaning no parasite problems or impaction problems, even though they're feeding off a particulate substrate).

I think in this forum I do a good job at stating that it's speculation. In the uro forum I don't, because it has basically already been proven that they do much better in captivity when given the same or similar resources that they would get in the wild.

I'm just trying to help people on these boards, because time after time I see people constantly having problems with parasites and constipation, and this has to do with the way they are keeping them. As a reptile keeper, I realize that most people aren't going to stray from what their books say they should do, but I think that's a handicap more than anything. It's the duty of reptile owners to be able to make decisions that could push the hobby along and make for happier healthier animals. So far, since I've started using these methods, my once sickly dragon has been acting 100% healthy and about 10 times happier. The same goes for my uro, and the more and more I talk to people that are trying these things, the more and more I find that they have the same results.