Lizards – Page 63 – Reptiles Time

Bearded dragons are one of the most popular pet reptiles. They can show a sign of intelligence, such as problem-solving. Beardies also seem to display emotional capacity. They are considered intelligent because they can recognize their owners. They also have a level of intuition which helps them learn to mimic other reptiles. How Smart Are Bearded Dragons? Bearded dragons have excellent problem-solving skills, which means brilliant reptiles. They can learn by just watching other beardies around them. It's a clear sign of bearded dragon intelligence which was only thought to be possible in higher forms of mammals. These lizards are brilliant and will imitate other reptiles to solve different issues. Even if bearded dragons are not social animals, researchers prove that they can do social learning. Some studies show that reptiles learn by imitation. It means that bearded dragons are capable of learning. The researchers from the University of Lincoln in the UK conducted a study. It determines if a bearded dragon can be trained to open the door to get the mealworm. This study also aims to see if other bearded dragons can open the door by observing other bearded dragons do it. Seven untrained beardies are placed inside the enclosure with some trained beardies. The untrained dragons watched the trained ones open the door using their claws and head. The untrained beardies could also open the door by observing the trained dragons. It proves that bearded dragons can learn through imitation. Copyright: serezniy Can Bearded Dragons Recognize Their Owners? Yes, bearded dragons can recognize their owners as well as their names. Many bearded dragon owners reported that their pets show recognition when they hear their owner's voice. They do not quickly get angry when it comes to their owners. Bearded dragons are smart enough to recognize their owners even in different environments. But how do you know if your bearded dragon recognizes you as its owner? The beardie will rush to the glass of their enclosure to greet you. It can also turn its head in your direction upon hearing your voice. Beardies can also display boldness when you try to reach the beardie from its tank. When you see these signs, that means that there's a strong bond between you and your bearded dragon. When training your bearded dragon to recognize its name, you may need to associate it with food. Use the same tone and call its name repeatedly. After some time, the beardie will eventually respond to its name when called. Don't worry if your beardie didn't recognize you as its owner right away. Bearded dragons need consistency and time to identify you. Try to have a specific schedule for feeding your beardie and cleaning the enclosure. They may be aggressive at times but be patient. In time, your beardie will soon recognize you as its owner and rush to greet you. Can Bearded Dragons Understand You? Yes! If you communicate with your bearded dragon regularly, it will understand you in time. When you call its name, the beardie will come running to you. Bearded dragons will react to logic which is almost the same as logic. They will respond to a specific stimulus with an innate and typical behavior. These reptiles are very territorial by nature, and they are known for this behavior. An adult male beardie will show aggression when they see another bearded dragon coming closer to its turf. They will also fight for food and compete for a female beardie. The male will also fight with a female beardie if it doesn't show submission. Bearded dragons are not social animals, but they react to certain events. One experiment shows that bearded dragons react based on their instinct or logic in different scenarios. Instinct is an innate behavior that has a fixed action. These reptiles are known to act based on their instincts. Training your bearded dragon with a consistent routine will help them react less by instinct. By interacting with humans, bearded dragons' negative innate behaviors will be reduced. It can also develop better reactions to the events they may experience in the future. Are Bearded Dragons Dumb? No, bearded dragons are not dumb since they can imitate other reptiles, which means they are brilliant. They can remember routines and patterns, so it's essential to train them based on those. Bearded dragon intelligence level is high enough to respond to negative or positive situations. You should use certain routines to tame a bearded dragon. It's fascinating to keep them as pets compared to other less intelligent animals. Communication is a sign of intelligence. Bearded dragons can communicate through body language. It will bob its head quickly to show its dominance. Their coloration will also change. When it waves its arms or slowly bobs its head, that's a sign of submission. Some behaviors may indirectly show their intelligence. During the colder season, beardies will go through brumation. It's similar to hibernation with some animals. During brumation, bearded dragons will stop eating or drinking. When the temperature drops and light changes, brumation begins. These behavioral patterns mean they are smart. If you want to see your bearded dragon display its intelligence, make sure to set up the right environment for your reptile. Depending on their size and age will be the suitable environment for them. Provide them with the right tank size and decorations to stimulate them mentally. Train and bond with your reptile to keep them smart. Are Bearded Dragons Cuddly? Yes, bearded dragons can be cuddly pets. It will love and trust you as its owner over time. Beardies enjoy sitting on their owners even for an extended period. They like to play on the floor, watch TV, and do other human activities. Play with your reptile regularly since they enjoy it. Unlike cats or dogs who will curl up with their owners, bearded dragons will not do the same. They will enjoy sitting on their owner's lap or shoulders. Beardies like to spend time with the person they trust the most, which happens to be their owners. Spending time with your beardie will make them very happy. When the bearded dragon falls asleep on your lap, that means it trusts you a lot. Reptiles are very cautious creatures, and they are always ready to attack if necessary. But when your pet relaxes or falls asleep while close to you, it means that it feels safe around you. It may take some time to happen if you're still a new bearded dragon owner. How Bearded Dragons Cuddle? Bearded dragons show their affection to their owners in different ways. Some may just sit on your leg or your shoulder. The beardies will look alert, ready to protect you. Others may lay their heads down and even sleep while you stroke its head. The way they cuddle depends on their personalities. However, some bearded dragons don't enjoy being handled by anyone. It's just how the beardie is, and you have to respect that. They have their boundaries no matter how close you may be. Baby beardies were more nervous when they were being handled. Give it some time to get used to you and earn their trust. It may allow you to hold it in time. How to Handle Bearded Dragons Safely? Start with slowly moving your hand towards your bearded dragon. It will not be afraid with your hand if you clean the enclosure and feed it regularly. If you have a new reptile, it might be more nervous whenever it sees your hand. Make sure not to make any sudden movements. It will scare your bearded dragon and may feel threatened. Carefully slide your hand under its belly. If you have a baby beardie, slide a finger under its chin. That will help the baby to grip your finger when you lift it. If the bearded dragon didn't react, carefully lift it while allowing its tail to rest on your arm. Some beardies may become nervous or even try to escape when you do this. If it does, don't force or squeeze it to stay. Allow the beardie to stay inside the enclosure. That means it's not ready yet, and give it some time to get used to you. Work on building more trust in your pet. If your beardie allows you to lift it, make sure to hold him closer to your body. That will prevent the reptile from falling. Doing so will also make the dragon feel secure and warm. Do Bearded Dragons Learn Their Name? Yes, bearded dragons can learn their names over time. But it can't happen overnight, and you have to train your beardie for this to happen. Coming up with a good name for your reptile is not just a waste of time. Giving it a name can help you to call your beardie to come when needed. Bearded dragons are smart enough to respond to their name. They can associate it with something that benefits them, like food. Using the same tone of voice and repetitively calling its name will help the beardie learn to know its name. But they will not respond to their names like other pets. The bearded dragon will know its name because they can associate it with something beneficial. Most of the time, they will learn to respond when their name is called to give them food. Calling your beardie's name every day during meal times will help them know its name. After a while, your beardie may come to you when you call its name, even if you don't have food for them. It means they have already learned to respond when their name is called. It can be beneficial for you as the owner and your bearded dragon. The beardie thinks that you're feeding it every time you call its name, which even makes it excited. How to Train a Bearded Dragon to Know Its Name? Teaching your bearded dragon to know and respond to its name is not as hard as you think. They are very smart and will learn their names when appropriately trained. Below are four steps that you can try to teach your beardie to respond to its name. Just make sure to be consistent to see the results shortly. Bearded dragons need to associate their names with something beneficial for them. Food is an excellent motivator for bearded dragons. Try using that when you start training your reptile. 1. Call and Feed It's the first technique that you should do to train your reptile. Call the beardie's name and then show them some food. It will let your bearded dragon associate their name with it. Hand-feed worms or place the worms close to you. Let the beardie come close to eat the worm after calling its name. Make sure to repeat this simple technique until your bearded dragon associates its name with food. After some time, the beardie will run to you whenever you call its name. You can keep doing it whenever you are there to feed your reptile. Don't call the beardie's name when you're there to do other things to avoid confusion. Here are the steps for this technique: Call your Dragon before showing any food Instantly show food after calling name Repeat until the meal is over 2. Consistent Commands and Tone It's essential to use a consistent tone when calling your bearded dragon's name. This technique will help them to learn their name faster. Bearded dragons can follow a simple routine. By calling its name with the same tone every day, it will learn its name and respond to it simultaneously. As an example, if you call your bearded dragon like how you call a dog, you can say, here, Beardie. But adding another word with their names can confuse them. If you only call it by its name, the dragon will likely respond to that. Calling your dragon's name without other words will help them associate their name with food. Food will be their reason to come to you, and if you do this, again and again, the beardie will get used to it. The time of your voice is also essential in how long the bearded dragon can learn and respond to its name. Be consistent and call them using the same tone every time. Using a kind and excited tone will be effective for beardies. 3. Repetition Repeating the technique is essential if you like your bearded dragon to learn to respond to its name. It will help the reptile to associate its name with the food if you call its name during mealtimes. Make sure to feed your beardie a full meal once a day. Avoid over feeding it since it can become lazy. The beardie might refuse to catch feeder insects as well. If you hand feed your dragon all the time, it might only want to eat by hand forever. When teaching it to respond to its name, you can do it every meal time repetitively. If you want to use this technique more than once a day, place the food closer to you. That way, the bearded dragon will need to come to you to eat. It's better than hand feeding it when it looks at you when you call its name. Let it run to you when you call its name to get the food. 4. Calling the Beardie Without Food After being consistent for a week or so, it's best to try calling your bearded dragon without presenting their food this time. By now, the beardie may already have associated its name with food. If not, you can just keep going with the other techniques. After a few days, try calling it again without the food. Some bearded dragons may respond sooner than others. Be patient if your beardie is not one of them who can react quickly. It's recommended to do this technique once a week until the beardie will not forget it. The bearded dragon will know its name and respond to it, but being consistent will make it part of its behavior. Is It Important for Bearded Dragon to Know Its Name? Yes, it's crucial that bearded dragons know their names and respond when being called. Luckily, it's possible for bearded dragons to know its name shortly after training it. But how can it benefit the reptile? Knowing its name seems just a good skill for your reptile to show off. It may seem like it's an excellent skill to show your friends. After all, training your reptile to respond to its name earned you the bragging rights. But teaching your beardie its name is not just about that. This skill can be helpful for your bearded dragon's safety and happiness. How Knowing The Beardie's Name Can Keep Them Safe? Training your bearded dragon to respond to its name is essential for its safety. If your beardie suddenly gets lost outdoors while taking it for a walk, how can you find it? It may seem very unlikely to happen, but many owners have already experienced this scenario at least once. If you train your bearded dragon to respond when you call its name, it will be beneficial. Finding your lost reptile will be so much easier when it knows its name and responds to it. The beardie will come running to you when it hears your voice. It will help save your reptile from getting lost. Knowing their name can keep them safe if you can't find them in the garden. Reptiles are curious creatures, and they can just disappear while exploring. That's why it's best to train your beardie to respond to its name before letting it outdoors. By calling its name, they will think you have food for them and run to you right away. How Knowing The Beardie's Name Helps With Bonding? When your bearded dragon knows its name, it can help with bonding time. Calling your beardies name will cause them to run towards you. It's an excellent feeling for beardie owners. It will make the bond between you and your beardie stronger too. The bearded dragon will trust you more. When you call your bearded dragon, it can also increase handling and cuddling. Although the bearded dragon comes running to you because of food, it's still a nice feeling. It can become a bonding experience between you and your beardie. Just give it a treat sometimes when it comes to you. It will encourage this behavior to continue. Can My Beardie Sleep With Me? No, bearded dragons should not sleep on the same bed with you. It can be hazardous for them to sleep with you due to their sleeping habits and small size. This idea is not recommended to do for the safety of your bearded dragon. Below are the reasons your beardie must have its own place to sleep and you should stay on your bed without your beardie. 1. Risk of Suffocation If you let your bearded dragon sleep with you on the same bed, it can be risky and dangerous. It's an irresponsible act if you allow this to happen. Beardies are smaller than humans, and you might crush or suffocate them while you're sleeping soundly. That can be dangerous for your pet. 2. Lack Of Safety Sharing the bed with your pet sounds terrific and can be a good bonding experience. But doing that is very dangerous for your bearded dragon. Aside from the fact that you might roll it over and crush your beardie, it can also fall from the side of the bed. It can end up in a disaster, and it's not safe. 3. It Might Hurt You If you roll over on the top of your bearded dragon as you sleep, it's impossible for it not to try to survive. It will fight over and over until it's free or dies from suffocation. Being crushed by a large human is no joke. It can crush them instantly, and the bearded dragon may not survive. 4. It Can Get Messy If you haven't thought of this before, now it's the right time. Don't allow your bearded dragon to sleep on the same bed as you. It can make a mess overnight, and cleaning can be a hassle. Beardies can't be potty trained like cats or dogs. It will not go outside to do its business away from your bed. Do Bearded Dragons Have Feelings? Yes, bearded dragons are capable of feeling emotions. They can be based on their experiences which makes them feel something about it. Beardies can feel pleasure, pain, and even suffering. They can develop positive or negative feelings as pets. It will depend on their encounter with a particular event or person. Based on some researchers, it's evident that beardies and other reptiles have feelings. They can experience anxiety, distress, frustration, pain, stress, and excitement. Reptiles can also react better to their owners than other people around them. They know their owners and treat them more than other people. However, bearded dragons' feelings will not show precisely like with dogs or cats. They can create a bond with humans as well. The level of affection the beardies show also depends on their personalities. The typical reactions and different levels of feelings are as follows. Recognize their owners and other people. Stay on their owner's neck. They are sleeping on the same bed as their owners. Shows excitement by scratching the glass in their enclosure. When the beardie tries to reach their head to you, it means they want their heads to be stroked. Sometimes, they also show emotional cues by opening their mouth, stiff posture, leaping forward, and hissing. If the beardie shows this behavior, it means it feels threatened and about to attack. Do Bearded Dragons Think? Yes, bearded dragons also think as we do. But of course, it's based on their level of intelligence. They can learn specific routines, which makes them easy to train. Beardies can be a wonderful pet around your home. But don't expect to do a task without learning it first. They can learn if you teach it some tricks. However, bearded dragons are not capable of reasoning, but they still enjoy interacting with humans. You can also take them out to explore the rooms in the house. They have reasonable reactions when they are out of their enclosure. It means you don't have to worry that it will trash your whole place as dogs may do. What Do Bearded Dragons Think About? Bearded dragons may be aggressive sometimes. But it's not the same as their method of reasoning. They are very territorial because of their reptile behavior. It's not related to the way they think or their sense. It's an innate part of reptiles since they have to fight for territory in the wild. When you observe the change of your beardies' behavior, it can be related indirectly to their reasoning level. If the beardie suddenly moves around the enclosure fast, that means that it's going through a lot of stress. If they feel this way, it will do something to solve the issue they have. If the bearded dragon is stressed, it can affect their reasoning. You will see that they begin to show some stress marks. That means that there's something wrong with their habitat. Their belly may also show dark lines when they feel stressed. It hinders their reasoning because of their emotions. Are Bearded Dragons as Smart as Cats? Bearded dragons are not the same as cats, and they have different levels of intelligence. But both of them are friendly. Bearded dragons are known as the friendliest reptile around. Cats can learn other tricks, learn their names, and have a better memory than dogs. Bearded dragons can also learn the same things as cats do. When it comes to other bearded dragons, some can be smarter than others. The variations in temperature after birth have a significant effect on their intelligence. If the bearded dragon is exposed to a higher temperature, they are less intelligent than those exposed to average temperature. That's why not all beardies are smart. FAQs 1. How to know if my bearded dragon likes me? It's easy to know if your bearded dragon likes you or not by showing how much it trusts you. A sign of trust is when the beardie closes its eyes, presses close to you, licking, running towards you, and relaxed body muscles. All of these things mean that your beardie likes you a lot. 2. Can bearded dragons get attached to their owners? Bearded dragons can bond with their owners without a problem. But the level of affection they show will depend on their personalities. Some beardies like to cuddle up with their owners. They want to stay close to their humans and seek comfort when they are scared or stressed out. When the bearded dragon trusts you, that means it likes you. 3. Can bearded dragons show affection? Yes, bearded dragons are known to show affection to their owners. They are the only known reptile who can do this. Their level of affection depends on their personalities. Some can be very cuddly, but some will just sit on your lap. They don't show their affection like other pets. But beardies can feel a strong bond with their owners. 4. How to entertain my bearded dragon? Entertaining your bearded dragon will help it to avoid boredom. Let it swim, allow it to enjoy running on the grass, watch TV, play ball, take a ride, or snuggle with your beardie. You can also add new decorations to the enclosure and keep it busy and entertained with its new toys. 5. Do beardies like human contact? Yes, most bearded dragons can get used to being handled by humans. They can learn to trust their owners and recognize them. Adult beardies are more comfortable with human contact. The younger bearded dragons may still feel nervous when they see their owners nearby. Make sure to handle your beardie regularly to develop a bond between the two of you.