Great Classroom Pets Explained ~ Bearded Dragon Edition!

There are SO many great reasons to have a classroom pet.  Many students never get to have a pet of their own at home so this is their only 'pet' time, it builds interest in your classroom, they are great for writing about, kids learn responsibility by caring for them, develop empathy taking care of them, they get to learn about a new organism, develop their observation skills, you get additional inside jokes with your students, etc.  I have had about a dozen different species of animals in my classroom over the last few years, and I'll talk more about having a tank of fish in another post, but this post is about why you should consider getting a bearded dragon for your classroom pet!

You will love a bearded dragon. I know.  It's a lizard.  I had never had a reptile before I got my two bearded dragons for free, so I wasn't sure how I'd like them and how they would interact with my students, but I thought the worst that could happen is that they'd be lame and I'd just give them to a student.  Wrong! They are so fun!   There are some simple things to do to set up your bearded dragon system, and then they are very low maintenance and low cost.

First, you'll need a really big tank ( like 50 gallons big!) within a few years, so I suggest just starting with a large terrarium now. Check at garage sales, put an ad on Craigslist, or check goodwill if you don't want to pay around $300 for a new one. My dad found mine at a crazy Goodwill on Portland Road in Salem where they have everything in huge bins.  It was just over $20! You'll probably have to get the accessories new, unless you can get some nice Craigslist person to donate them to your class, which will run just under $100.  Beardies need a special UVA UVB light and a heat lamp(or a heating pad).  They are desert animals, so it needs to stay warm and dry in their habitat.  Putting the heating pad/heat lamp at one end of the tank is good because then they have a cool end of their terrarium to escape to if it gets too hot.  You can get climbing rocks/branches/foliage if you want.  My students love rearranging Chubb's 'furniture' in her terrarium! Get a deep bowl for the food/water that they can't tip over (mine is a cat bowl because my beardie, Chubbs, tracks her substrate (bedding) all over). Do not pay gobs of money for the stupid sand they sell at petstores, which can give them skin irritation and kill them. Just buy millet, the plain bird seed that they sell in feed stores for $5 for a gigantic bag. It looks nicer too and is easy to clean with a kitty litter scoop.

Here is a picture of my students with their candy Native American dwellings, but you can see the tank in the back of the classroom.  You have a lot of options when it comes to feeding. The colorful pellets they have at petstores are great and you can get a yogurt type food they love too. I feed ours crickets every once in a while, but they are more expensive. I usually keep the crickets in a separate terrarium and then dole them out one by one and let my little table groups come up to watch if they want to, which they all do! Feeding your beardie live crickets is the fastest you'll ever see them move! When they get big, you can feed them live mice too! I have never done this in front of the class (somehow it's okay if a lizard eats an insect, but if it eats a mammal then it's gross and cruel...).  If you want to see Chubbs eat a mouse, click this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zb-y5PloYg  and  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=TNvYUI9rfRs  Bearded dragons do well with a variety of fruits and veggies, and you can google what's safe for them to eat. I give mine the smooth-leafed dandelion from the playground (free!) and little pieces of whatever fruit/veggie I'm having for lunch.

Bearded Dragons are low maintenance.  I do not feel like coming in every weekend to feed Chubbs, so I always give her enough pellets to last her through the weekend with some little fresh greens on top and she is as happy as can be. I do this right before I leave work in Friday as well as fill her water bowl. During the week, I have two responsible students, who applied for and got the 'zookeeper' job, feed her, once in the morning and once in the afternoon/lunch time. On Friday, they get to stay in for recess and clean her cage. The crazy thing is that they love it and all the kids want to be zookeeper so badly! This is great because then I have to do very little care for her and can just get her out to run around before school or carry her around on my shoulder (she sits on my shoulder for picture day) or whatever I feel like instead of wasting precious time caring for class pets. I usually come in once or twice for Christmas break and spring break, but that's it. They are very low maintenance!

My bearded dragon is very calm (except when eating live food!) so every Friday, during our classroom meeting time when all my students are circled on the carpet, I get Chubbs out and let her walk around. Sometimes we feed her a grape or a cherry tomato. Because they roll, she chases after them, which the kids love! The general rule of thumb for feeding beardies is that the piece of food needs to be smaller than the bottom of the triangle shape on the top of their head (just before their neck). They don't really chew up their food with teeth; they just kind of mash it with the sides of their mouth (except mice they eat whole) so it's important to not feed them something that's too big that they'll choke on. They can bite, but I've only been bitten once when one of mine was a baby and she was eating off my hand, and it felt like a tiny pinch. Generally, if you don't wiggle your finger right in front of their mouth like a worm, you won't have any problems.

When I have my students pet Chubbs, I just put her on my arm and have them pet from the top of her head gently down towards her tail. Make sure to tell your students about the possibility of salmonella and have them wash their hands thoroughly after touching your beardie or its things. Make sure they know to be gentle with her, not to pull her tail, to gently touch her spikes (they all want to do this), to sit still, etc. Apparently you can take them outside if it's warm, but you have to be really careful that they don't eat any bugs or plants, because there is not a complete list for all the plants/insects that they're allergic to in a schoolyard/backyard setting. As a general rule, I do NOT let my students hold Chubbs now that she is about 2 feet long from head to tail because if she tries to wiggle free, her spikes DO hurt a little, and her tiny claws make miniscule scratches on bare skin. I just don't want to risk anything happening to my students or her, so we stick with petting and watching, and I do the picking up and holding.

Generally, the more you get your beardie out to walk around (before or after school when the students aren't there to step on her and when the floor is clear of debris is best) the better. One time, I thought I had clean floors, but then Chubbs found a red hot cinnamon candy that was underneath a bookshelf and almost ate it! I had to pry it from her little mouth! They will eat anything that looks like food/that can fit in their mouths, so you have to be careful with them. They generally chillax in their terrariums and only move a little, but they are always watching, and soon you'll notice they have their own personalities too (which I never expected from a reptile). I'm sure I'm forgetting cool things they do/important care tips, so leave a comment below to remind me.  Because they are so low maintenance, they're safe around kids, and they're fun to watch, pet, and feed, I think bearded dragons make great classroom pets!

 I also have two tanks of fish, a terrarium of crickets throughout the year, and "visiting" pets, like rough skinned newts, banana slugs, pill bugs, snails, etc that just stay for a week or two before being released into the wild again.  Do you have a classroom pet?  Which animals do you think do best as classroom pets?