Aladar (our bearded dragon that I bought myself when I was 22) just recently turned 8!!
Because Al is contained in his 40 gallon tank he doesn't get in any trouble and he's such low maintenance he doesn't require much attention. He's fed and I keep his tank clean but other than a hundred passing by's a day, a few licks on the glass from his buddy Oliver, and a visit now and again from the little girls that live next to us he's sort of left to entertain himself. And frankly he doesn't even like to be held anymore, which is completely my fault since I stopped handling him when he was still pretty young due to his fascination with fleeing from my hands. He'd always run to a hiding place that was IMPOSSIBLE for me to get to and I would have to sit and wait and entice him with a bowl of meal worms until he decided to come back out. Well that was fine and dandy when I lived in a room at my dad's but once I moved out to my own apartment his days of freedom slowly came to an end. And it only got worse for Aladar once he and I added Dave to our family and adopted his younger sister Roxy who it turned out was not his biggest fan! And that's just through the glass.
And [this is so embarrassing] earlier this year I thought he was dead and Dave and I went as far as turning off all his lights and heaters for a couple days and it wasn't until I went to take him out to bury him that I realized he was just in a VERY deep sleep (in my defense: he's been known to "hibernate" for a couple days but not so deep that you couldn't wake him up out of it)! I've thought about giving him to someone that may be able to offer him a more exciting life but it just wouldn't be the same without him around and frankly I wouldn't be able to sleep at night thinking about how he was. And I know that feeling would never go away. And Oliver would miss him.
I wish we could get him a lady friend (if I put another male in the tank there would be a fight to the death). But unfortunately it's hard to come by adult dragons (and when you do they're expensive) and you can't tell whether a young dragon will be a male or female for a year or 2.
I'm not even sure he'd appreciate having to share his tank, I was never a big fan of sharing my room with my sister! And who knows, maybe one day we'll have a fearless son (or daughter) and they'll be the best of friends!
And [this is so embarrassing] earlier this year I thought he was dead and Dave and I went as far as turning off all his lights and heaters for a couple days and it wasn't until I went to take him out to bury him that I realized he was just in a VERY deep sleep (in my defense: he's been known to "hibernate" for a couple days but not so deep that you couldn't wake him up out of it)! I've thought about giving him to someone that may be able to offer him a more exciting life but it just wouldn't be the same without him around and frankly I wouldn't be able to sleep at night thinking about how he was. And I know that feeling would never go away. And Oliver would miss him.
I wish we could get him a lady friend (if I put another male in the tank there would be a fight to the death). But unfortunately it's hard to come by adult dragons (and when you do they're expensive) and you can't tell whether a young dragon will be a male or female for a year or 2.
I'm not even sure he'd appreciate having to share his tank, I was never a big fan of sharing my room with my sister! And who knows, maybe one day we'll have a fearless son (or daughter) and they'll be the best of friends!
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