How NOT to Care for Bearded Dragons - Mistakes to Avoid! 

Watch all my bearded dragon videos in this playlist! ru-vid.com/group/PLIXZgmnvg0nC1582A2eQbMe8IWBFzTugp

alternate title: How not to train your dragon

Stan be bobbin' at the babies Stan be bobbin' at the new beardie Stan be bobbin' at Betty Stan be bobbin' at the wall Stan be bobbin' at his reflection Stan be bobbin' at nothing I love Stan. Thing: *exists* Stan: *ASSERTS DOMINANCE*

I just realized those baby beardies sat there the WHOLE time without moving

Frog just vibing: Stan: wanna fight

Alternate title: Stan Asserts his Dominance

The bearded dragon that was left in the cage: “My loneliness is killing me AND I, I must confess that I still believe STILL BELIEVE!”

OTHER PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER IN RESCUE BEARDIES: We rescued our boy Ragnar a few years ago. The owner wanted to get rid of him and contacted us because he knew we had a beardie already. Until my husband got there, we thought he was in good health but when he saw him he texted me and said "this beardie is really poorly. I know you won't want to pay for a sick beardie but look". And sent me a picture of Ragnar clinging to his light cage because he was cold, in this tiny viv. Needless to say he came home. He had never had a hot enough viv because his thermostat was too low so he had a respiratory infection. His growth is stunted, he has lost toes and the tip of his tail through stuck shed and he had NEVER seen water. The only moisture he was getting was through his morio worms. And he has been on sand so his pores are permanently enlarged. He is also partially sighted because when he would cling to his light, he was too close to his UV strip. They called him " Mr Bitey" but it turned out they just had no clue how to handle him. You have to REALLY upset a beardie for them to bite. My Husband just got him right out of his viv and sat hik on his chest and the owner was like " I didn't know you can hold them like that". ( He did bite the vet who underestimated him whilst giving an injection though and cracked her thumbnail). He is doing SO much better but his RTI took a year to clear completely. He also has something called " water anxiety". Because he never saw water he dunks his head and drinks and drinks until he makes himself vomit. He has twice almost drowned himself, but we work with it and he is a happy little grump now. Bringing him home is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.

I got my beardie and the old owner fed him wrong and almost put him down for THEIR mistakes but now he is health and active

*Alex discussing his baby bearded dragons* Alex: “...They don’t have any weird deformities” *Me looking at my bearded dragon that’s missing his entire tail because the breeder housed too many together for too long* Me: Dont worry, he’s not talking about you...

How to not care for Bearded Dragons: Step 1: Don't buy one, therefore you won't have to care for one

The best way to explain to others why you shouldn't feed them only pellets is "pellets are like if people only ate saltine crackers for the rest of their life"

2:03 Metabolic bone disease 8:30 Stunded growth 11:00 Stuck shed 13:50 Loss of limbs 17:12 clogged femoral pores Hope this helps☺️

Even though I dont have or plan on getting a beardie it's a GoHerping vid how can u not watch

My mom and I recently adopted a bearded dragon because it was a rescue that was left in a bird cage without any light which resulted in metabolic bone disease [thankfully it’s not too bad]. So, we decided to take him in and are giving him a proper setup. He’s doing a lot better now, loves getting baths and eating. His name is Norman. :)

Nobody : Stan: bobbing* Nobody : Stan: Me is alpha

My dear Neko passed away on 7.3.19 and I still don't know why. She was only 3 or 4 years old and seemed perfectly healthy. We had her since she was a baby and she was still eating and everything seemed normal the day before she passed. The day she passed I noticed she wasn't as active and it was almost as if she was still sleepy and didn't want to fully wake up. However upon picking her up we noticed that she was struggling to breath. We gave her a bath and my fiance noticed that she seemed like she was normal during her bath. Afterwards though things took an unfortunate turn for the worse. For 3 hours she was very still and only moved when she desperately tried to gasp for some air. The vets in the area don't have experience with bearded dragons and they unfortunately was giving me the worst advice ever. Long story short, Neko died in my arms after several hours trying to breath. It was one of the saddest things I've ever had to endure. When you don't own lizards, they're just that. Lizards. Ew! But when you own one you'll realize that Bearded Dragons are basically like puppies that never get big. They're so friendly and are a joy to own. I just wish I knew why she passed away. I'm a grown man and I cried like a baby for two days after she passed away. 😪

I love Stan behind GoHerping just headbanging like he's listening to heavy metal xD (Yes I know he's nodding at the beardy he sees, but still just look at him! Smack that image in a gif with some Slipknot over it and he's headbanging)

Alex: discusses beardies, informing calmly. Stan: WTF MAN GET THOSE OTHER GUYS OUT OF MY VIEW THIS IS MY SPACE!!!!

My first reptile pet was a bearded dragon. He is 3 years old now and absolutely adorable!❤️ I feel like caring for a bearded dragon isn’t that hard, you just have to do your research before you buy one.

i’m proud to be 13 and have a 1 year old beardy that i got for my 12th birthday, i got him as a hatchling, i worked so hard to make sure he was perfectly healthy and happy and now he’s a little over a year and as happy and healthy as can be, we cleaned his cage and gave him a bath today. he really loves swimming. i was also very lucky to have my parents to get advice from because they raised 5 bearded dragons at once, yes in different cages, from hatchlings until they sadly passed, so i was lucky and educated.

is nobody gonna talk about how he just conveniently forgot one of the babies in their enclosure

did Stan deadass think Betty was another beardie-

Every. Single. Time, Stan gotta steal the show and I love that.

Stan was cracking me up the whole time in the background

5:46 the spongebob shoe noises were a nice touch

When feeding my old beardy, we had to first feed her greens, then a bit of fruit, and only then we could feed her insects. She would refuse to eat the greens if she had already eaten something she liked more XD

A former roommate had a female bearded and she was an absolute lover. She got so much attention and care. We kinda spoiled her rotten lol. On my days off I would handle her. We made her a spot in the grass she could play around in. When my roommate moved out I told him " you can go just leave the lizard" .

We did a crazy amount of research when I told my parents I was bringing a beardi home (definitely did not tell them the full truth but they ended up loving him sooo much) he’s around 8 years old or so now. He has a small kink in his tail he had when I got him, his favourite food is definitely banana he enjoys going for walks in the summer chilling on our shoulders and getting the sun in. But put him down and you’re gonna be chasing the little guy 😂😂 he’s a little bugger.

Clogged femoral pores squeezing is basically just super-sized pimple-popping for reptiles... That's why it's so satisfying.

I got a bearded dragon from my dads boss, I’ve had reptiles for years and three bearded dragons of my own at the time, and the guy had Bennie (the dragon) in sand, Bennie had clogged pores, and was only being fed super-worms his entire life (he was 7 when I got him). So yeah. Some people shouldn’t have beardies. I’m just lucky he didn’t have any other problems.

When I was 3 years old I was gifted a baby bearded dragon on Christmas from Santa. I was so excited and happy because I had wanted a bearded dragon for so long. I named him sammy and he was my best friend. We would fall asleep together and I even had a leash for him so we could go on walks in the park. May 20, 2020 Sammy passed away at the age of ten years old. I’m 13 now, and I loved Sammy so much. I still love him and I hope he’s happy. I started to notice something was wrong when 1. He wasn’t moving that much 2. He wasn’t eating as much 3. His stool was getting stuck. When quarantine started in New York I was asked to help a family care for another families bearded dragons while they were quarantined in Australia. Of course I helped, and they were two male bearded dragons about a year old. Immediately I knew that they should be separated soon because they had already started bopping their heads. After Sammy passed away I was told by my mom that I was asked to foster the bearded dragons because the family doesn’t know if they will come home. Although I was, and still am, grieving; I excepted. Right now they are still living together but I need to seperate them soon. The beardies are brothers, so even though they are getting aggressive, they still care about each other haha. Anyway I just thought I’d share. If anyone has any tips for making the brothers more comfortable in this new environment I would be very grateful 🧡

My bearded dragon died last month and all the vets could say is that he was born with a sickness that took 3-4 years to catch up to him:(

Stan and Betty having a convo in the back is so cute

I love how most the comments are about Stan he's finally getting the recognition he deserves

Nobody: Stan: Oh ho! You're approaching me?

This is an amazing video. Even if you aren't doing rescue anymore, the information you put out there will live on forever, and that's a lot to be proud of. Thank you!

I literally brought my bearded dragon to a “reptile vet” and I told her about the pores I and how they were clogged and she literally looked at them and then told me he was fine... anyways I fixed it myself and he’s all good now

6:06 the bearded dragon in the background is just rocking out

“ in the background u see a adult bearded dragon vibing “

I have now had my bearded dragon for about a year and in that time I have learned a lot and I definitely made some serious mistakes that could have been really bad, luckily I was able to fix the issues before they caused long term problems, but if I’m being honest her health has not been where it should be until a few months ago. The first mistake I made was getting a beardie in the first place. This is my first (and so far only, but that will change) reptile (also my first personal pet that I’m 100% responsible for), and I know people are gonna be up in arms about that, and I understand why. It was a stupid thing for me to do, it did end up working out just fine and I’m doing great with her now but the first 6 months were a major struggle. The next and probably the worst mistake I made was getting her from petco. I didn’t know about their practices and about where they get the animals and everything, and if I had I surely wouldn’t have gotten any animal from them. Because of a combination of my inexperience and an animal that came from the poor conditions of petco, she had a lot of health issues early on. First she started showing signs of tail rot, which luckily I had read about in my research and I caught it very early and took care of it. With a combination of antibiotics and giving her tail daily betadine baths I was able to fix it before it got bad, she didn’t even lose a noticeable amount of her tail. This was really scary because it happened basically right after I got her, I think her tail got bitten or pinched in the store and I didn’t notice and then it got infected somewhere along the way and I didn’t know until I started to see it. The next problem I faced was a parasite imbalance. She was having really gross and messed up poops and I had no idea what was going on and I actually had to bring her to the vet for that one which was crazy expensive. The vet said she thought it was likely that she already had this problem when I got her but it had just started to get bad. That was also taken care of, (with some more expensive antibiotics of course) but again it was so scary and stressful. I used to be really bad at handling, it took me a few months to get her tamed down which is way longer than it normally would for a beardie, which is literally just because I sucked at it and didn’t know how to do it. I did more research and learned about how to safely and properly handle reptiles without stressing them out and that helped a lot. By far the most difficult thing was getting her to drink water. As other Beardy owners will tell you, they don’t have the instinct to drink from a still bowl of water, so you have to figure out how to keep them hydrated. Some people will tell you that they get enough from their salads and from the insects that they eat, and that’s pretty much what I thought at first until she started to show signs of pretty bad dehydration. I can now say to anyone who wants to get one, KEEP YOUR BEARDY HYDRATED, THEY NEED TO ACTIVELY DRINK WATER TO BE PROPERLY HYDRATED. I spent the last 3-4 months dripping water on her face with a syringe multiple times a day, and splashing the water around in her bowl to try and entice her. She now has finally started to make the connection in her mind that that bowl is where water is, and she actually goes and drinks from it on her own now. I still drip the water for her every couple days to make sure she’s getting enough (it’s also very funny and cute and she seems to really enjoy it for some reason). Once I got the water under control she really turned the corner, she’s an absolute picture of health now. She’s perfectly plump but not overweight, she’s got the slight wrinkles of loose skin that are common in young beardies, but not the severe wrinkles from dehydration, she’s super active and eats with gusto, and she’s just overall doing beautifully. The other thing that was unexpected was the sheer cost of taking care of this little gremlin. Between buying her, her $600 custom enclosure, other supplies, food, vet bills, etc I’ve spent approaching $3000 on her in the last year. It won’t be that much forever because now she’s older and needs less insect feeders and she won’t be having many more vet visits (knock on wood), plus I included the price of purchasing everything at the beginning in that too. I wrote this whole novel because I’m one of those idiots who got a bearded dragon as a beginner, but luckily it has worked out. Now do I think everyone should do this? Definitely not. I spent months, literally hundreds of hours online, researching every single thing about bearded dragons not only from captive care stuff but also how the live in the wild, behavior, etc. I thought with all that research and effort I would be able to do it no problem but I wasn’t. I had no experience and I only learned from having to take care of her and do the best that I could. The truth is, no matter how much you read up on something you never know if you’re up to it until you try, and that can be concerning when the thing you’re trying to do is care for a living breathing creature. Even with the copious amounts of research I did, there were so many issues I ran into that I just never could have thought of before. No amount of research can fully prepare you for something like this, there are gonna be things you never expected. I definitely don’t condone being irresponsible and I have no problem admitting that I was incredibly stupid and irresponsible, and that I probably should have just gotten a leopard gecko or some shit. I’m not saying it’s impossible for an beginner to get a beardie and do well, because I literally know from experience that you can do it, but I also know that most people aren’t gonna be as lucky or frankly as dedicated as I have been. In retrospect it definitely would have been a better decision to get something easier and less time consuming, but on the other hand now that I know I can take care of a beardie, something like a ball python or a corn snake will be a breeze. Make of this what you will, I’m just voicing my own thoughts and experiences as someone who fell into the trap and got a bearded dragon as their first reptile.

15:27 Stan is harassing Betty. 18:53 Betty told him off.😆

This is helping me through self quarantine

“He’s submitting to Stan- or SHE’s submitting to Stan” *eyebrows raise*

As a new owner of a beardy, I really appreciate all your videos regarding taking care of these little guys and how much love they need. I refuse to listen any pet store regarding these little guys and always find good advice in your videos. Thank you so much for for education and I look forward to having a very happy and proud bready.

I swear half of the videos I just watch crazy Stan have an attitude. 😂 he’s hilarious

Also the exoterra bulbs exploding is so related and happens so much but I've never connected the fact that they were exoterra. It's terrifying and makes me worry about my reptiles getting hurt.

I wanted a bearded dragon ....after watching this I dont think I'm ready now😔

Love the way Stan emphasises the point about UVB lighting by heavily nodding at 4.16.

dude you’re the reason im fascinated by reptiles, although every animal scares me

Perfect timing! I was just given a 2 year old bearded dragon. I’ve watched tons of reptile videos, but have never had one! I was asked to take her by someone who didn’t have the time and wasn’t giving her the best care so I said sure. I’m glad my favorite reptile RU-vidr uploaded a vid on them!

This guy is awesome. Takes all these rescues and educates on them. Great job my man

Hey man, this made me smile. I'm in the military and back home my little sister watches over my Bearded but this reminds me when I first got him and did my research. Thanks for the recap and I am going to remind her to take care of Clay.

owns a perfectly healthy beardie, must watch bc i love alex too much

"Keep them toes" -GoHerping2020

I appreciate the information you give and love seeing your beardies! I acquired my son's beardie when he deployed and was so happy that he said I could keep her when he returned! I need to learn everything I can to be a good beardie mom! Thank you!

Your videos are amazing! Spreading knowledge the way you do is very admirable. If I ever find myself in the unfortunate situation of needing to give away any of my pets, you will be the first person I think of. Keep doing good. ❤️☺️

watching that first lil guy arm wave with his malformed front legs was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Yooo you helped me through a lot. You were one of the most influential people in my life and encouraged me to get reptiles. I just want to know that you are hilarious and doing something amazing and changing the world. God Bless!

Thank you so much for the info about the bulbs! I am just compiling a list of products I will need for my new Beardie and those Exo Terra lights were on my list!

I rescued a stunted beardie when I was 15, though she never grew beyond the size of a juvenile due to her previous home we managed to keep her in enough of a good shape for a couple years until her troubled upbringing caught up to her and she passed. I of course look forward to trying to get another bearded dragon after some time, and frankly this video is very helpeful!

Stan: ayy yo girl let me hollar at u Betty:👀👀👀 Stan: mmmhh girl u hella thiccc Betty: bitxh excuse u

In front of me are 5 happy healthy bearded dragons....

i love watching your videos! You give the best advice and this is the only account i will recieve my information from. Keep it up :)

This helped me calm down, because I've always been terrified that I'm abusing my baby, and I desperately want to know I'm not doing anything horribly wrong.

I laughed so much when he said "Stan are you trying to eat betty?"

When I was like 9 my gecko got stuck she’d on his lip. He quietly stared at me and his food for like 2 months and refused to eat. I, a stupid 9 year old, couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t eat. Eventually his little tail began to shrink as he absorbed nutrients from it. So I make my mother, my poor mother, take me and Chewy, the leopard gecko to the exotics vet. She paid the co-pay and everything and during the initial examination the vet just goes “oh here” and pulls a tiny piece of skin off his lips. We spent big money that day because 9 year old me didn’t have internet access. My mom also became the person to get bit by my lizard during his 14 years of life. He didn’t like being fed with a syringe.

This was super helpful. We are looking into getting one and it helps to know what could go wrong and what to look out for.

Just started with bearded dragons. This is all super helpful, thank you.

Damm watching those deformed one got me thinking how can they do that to a beautiful creature

Bearded dragons: "I'm strong and tough! Fear me!" Also bearded dragons: *rotting limbs because it's not wet*

I'm getting a bearded dragon! I'm very excited, but also confused about a few things, so I'm trying to get as much information as possible. Thanks for putting information out there!

I love that like - while holding the beardie, it does try to crawl out, but you're so natural in just supporting it that it doesn't actually fall - and it's not like it's trying to get away from you either, like it's not scrambling in a panic if anything, and mostly just content to be held - now that. That speaks of good handling.

I just love and enjoy Stan just stanning it up in the background

Yep that's why I did a crap load of research leading up to getting my beardy

Thank you. Going to adopt one in the future doing my research beforehand to know what to keep an eye out for

I will be getting one within the next few months thanks for your advice & tips very helpful🙏🏻

A bearded dragon don’t care guide? The babies are so cute. Edit: Stan is clearly the star.

I love Stan, it was hilarious when he was bobbing at Betty

Just last week I went to buy a jeweled lacerta and had done all my research and was dead set on it. Then I walked past the baby beardie enclosure and saw Peaches (the 8 week old beardy I bought :D). Thanks to channels like yours I already felt like an experienced reptile owner because I obsess and binge your stuff as well as a few others (Dave K, WWR, Clint's reptiles etc) best decision I made as she's the liveliest little thing I've seen 😍 keep making awesome videos! New unboxing was godly 🤣

You're such an amazing Beardy advocate. Thank you for loving them all.

This really helped me. I recently took in my aunt's bearded dragon, Frank, who is 6 years old. He is a very picky eater and I've tried kale, collard greens, red lettuce, spring lettuce, carrots, sweet potato, bell pepper, pear, Brussel sprouts, etc. I'm now going to try stuffing the super worms before I feed him. I've been watching you for 2 years now, and you always give super helpful tips. Thank you!!

My mom said she might get me a bearded dragon for my birthday and I want to care for it the right way so I’m researching them and looking for information like what to do and what not to do. This video has been very helpful and filled with information!

So informative! Great video. Thank you.

Thank you for all you do and the information for these little ones, also Stan is such a punk. Ended up getting my Bearded Dragon in the winter several years back and he happened to go into brumation a month later. Thought he was dying or sick because he wouldn't do anything and did this for 3 or 4 months. Thankfully he came out and sense then just eats and hangs out year round now.

I *NEED* YOU TO NAME ONE OF THE BABIES *TERRY CREWS* PLEASE I CANT EXPLAIN IT RIGHT NOW ALEX BUT I NEED IT TO BE DONE PLEASE

13:04 luckily my leopard gecko has gone through 3 sheds while I've had him and theres was no stuck shed

Poor dragon. I'd call him Hawking. Great video. It's always great to see informed/thoughtful pet owners, especially young pet owners.

You are a saint, I love what u do for these dragons . I've learned a lot from ur content. Just wish that more people would follow ur advice. Thank you for ur videos and continued care.

I don't know why, but my first thought when I saw that first bearded dragon was : huh... That looks like a frog!

I've had my beardie for three years now since he was a baby and I'm relieved with how happy and healthy he is. He's my little boy and I've done everything I can to raise him well :) I'm definitely glad I did a lot of research to avoid situations like so many beardies go through...

Thank u for all the info you talk about and in the video I would love to know more from u

One of my beardies has metabolic bone disease. She was a abused rescue but she is doing a lot better now. I love her little floppy wrist. 💕

It's a little off-topic but I just wanted to say I'm new to your channel and I really appreciate the subtitles. I don't have hearing problems, but sometimes I just want to be in a quiet place and written subtitles help a ton for times like those. c: Your content is always super interesting, and your personality mixed with your editing style definitely keeps me around and excited for what's to come. Thank you so much for all the effort you put into teaching the world about what you do!

Im amazed at how chill those lil babies are 😍😍

Very informative video! Excellent job!

Stan: yes yes go on don’t mind me. (Stan’s brain): enemy spotted

I'm getting a berdie in a couple months and I've finally convinced my parents to let me get one from your website! We are very educated in reptiles and amphibians and the way that you talk about these animals is so great!! We can really tell what your doing and I'm so glad I'm getting my new baby from you!!

This is unrelated but I had a dream that I got a snake but was too scared to care for it so you offered to take it and I knew it would be well cared for

Very insightful and helpful! Thanks man!