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With the loss of my leopard gecko Moo over spring break, I realized how old my bearded dragon Benito is getting. I just wanted to share his story and pictures because he's my very special little guy. <3

I was babysitting for one of my Mom's old employers. His wife was a vet and she had recently gotten a beardie for her kids. She got a male and a female as a pair later and kept the female. She gave away the male to a girl and all was well. Eventually the girl started talking with the vet and mentioned that she had a deal with her Mom. It was either get a beardie or get a tattoo. Eventually she grew tired of the beardie and mentioned that she was going to let him die so she could get a tattoo. Well obviously this was NOT okay so the girl ended up giving the beardie back. Underweight, starving and with stunted growth, the little beardie didn't have much chance to live. The vet ended up keeping him at her hospital and feeding him some high fat/high calorie food to get some meat on his bones.

One night after babysitting, my Mom picked me up and the vet came tearing out of her house, asking me if I wanted a bearded dragon! I turned to my Mom and, surprisingly, she said yes!! A few days later, the vet shows up at my house with this teeny little lizard. What's the first thing he does? Poops on our floor... Jeeze...



Here I am holding him the first day I got him. He was so small! He was a few months old already but was EXTREMELY small for his age. The vet said his growth would probably be stunted because he was so mistreated. I had a friend of mine over to come see the little guy and we had to come up with a name. We ended up with: Benito Beano aka El Gato Diablo. I really can't tell you WHY we chose this name... The only reason I can think of is that we were 15 and in high school so it was funny, lol.

So I had my little Benito and I had a few screw ups with him. I didn't have access to very good care sheets so, while I had his basking spot and his UVB bulb, I had him in a 20g tank with crushed walnut shells *shudders*. I stumbled onto a website with AMAZING information (beardeddragon.org) and got him off the walnut shells. He continued to grow and LOVED his crickets!



Eventually he started getting big... too big for his tank. How did I know? He told me...



Here he is, the little escape artist!! I came home from school and found him on the curtains! So, realizing it was definitely time for an upgrade, my Mom and I went to the pet store to get Benito a new tank!



Here it is! God, he loves that log thing. He sits there and basks and just looks so happy. The paper was on the back of his tank for a while because he would see people walk in the door and have a little spaz attack, lol.




He lives it up in there! That first picture is one with some delicious pumpkin baby food on his face! The second is him nomming down on some greens and canned silk worms.




Here is Benito now! Scroll up and look at that teeny tiny lizard picture... I don't think his growth is too stunted! He's about 19 inches long and definitely on the chubby side, lol. I'm so glad I was able to get Benito and have fun with him! He has so much personality. He can be quite the grump in the morning but there are so many things he likes to do!




Here he is on his leash, enjoying the sunshine. He gets scared if you stand up and hover over him but I think he likes to be able to relax in the grass and soak up some sun.



Of course, he also likes to bask and hang out on his hammock! Look at that GUT! That was just after a delicious lunch of mustard greens, carrots and tasty superworms!



Something Benito DOES NOT like is getting medicine. He got some bumblefoot and had to be on meds... He was NOT happy.

Anyway, Benito is a very special lizard to me. He has overcome some pretty tough stuff in his short life and I'm glad he can be happy with me. He's nearing 9 years old, so he's definitely an old man. I don't know what I'll do without him because he means so much to me. Until then, Benito is being spoiled and cared for and he doesn't act like he's 9 at all. He has a morning "run around like crazy" time each and every day and it makes me smile. Thanks for reading all of this and looking at the pictures. I just wanted to share Benito and his story.

That's a nice story! If he lives long enough I wonder how he will handle having his tank moved from his now familiar surroundings in what, a year or less?

Aw he's so cute! I love beardies.

Cialbi wrote:I wonder how he will handle having his tank moved from his now familiar surroundings in what, a year or less?

He'll get used to it. Traveling will be a pain in the butt since I'll need to keep him warm and stuff. I'm guessing he'll get used to it quickly... especially if he can be bribed with wormies!

Cute lizard. Does he breathe fire?

It's great to see that he recovered so well from his rough start. What a great parent you must be!

After seeing him with pumpkin baby food on his face, I think I'll try that with Princess. (She likes some yogurts but I had never thought to try baby food.) And what a cool picture of him bearding.

Mania wrote:It's great to see that he recovered so well from his rough start. What a great parent you must be!

After seeing him with pumpkin baby food on his face, I think I'll try that with Princess. (She likes some yogurts but I had never thought to try baby food.)

tyvm! And the baby food... oh my gosh. Benito is especially fond of anything fruity. I got some banana/apple mixture and he went crazy. He also likes anything orange for some weird reason... That's probably why the squash/pumpkin stuff went over so well! This is definitely something I need to remember if he ever needs meds again. Forcing them into his mouth got me the evil eye for weeks. But if it's in delicious baby food...

I love bearded lizards, ive dreamed of one for years but i have a cat so, yea He is one handsome devil thats for sure! I would kill to be able to pet his scales and feed him some of that baby food xD he looks like a little kid with it oozing down his chin <3

Miraga wrote:This is definitely something I need to remember if he ever needs meds again. Forcing them into his mouth got me the evil eye for weeks. But if it's in delicious baby food...

Oh, absolutely. I know that a pill wrapped in peanut butter works great for a dog, and if your Benito loves baby food that much, you could use that to make the process of forcing him to swallow a pill that much easier. I imagine that you'd still need to be a bit more forceful than you would during regular feeding; pets can be amazingly cunning about eating food but not the meds that were mixed into the food, and last thing you want is for Benito to get into the habit of spitting out the pill while enjoying the baby food.

Oooo, I have a bearded dragon as well ^-^ They're so fun <3