Bearded dragons are usually passive most of the time if kept under appropriate conditions. Thus, very friendly and rarely ever aggressive with people.
However, the spread of information on the ability of these animals to secret venom has often caught many unawares as they struggle with the notion of whether beardies could be dangerous or not.
The fact is, beardie venom is usually secreted in tiny amounts, which are often inconsequential and thus harmless to humans except for quite small prey animals.
This, however, does not guarantee the safety of these animals since they are usually carriers and thus facilitate the spread of specific bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
These pathogens, once transmitted, usually attack individual immune systems causing serious implications on already weaker immune systems. You can, however, often minimize this through the practice of proper hygiene within the terrarium and even on yourself.
Dangers associated with Beardies
Bearded dragons are usually carriers for some of the following pathogens, which can be tremendously dangerous to humans upon interactions.
Salmonella
This is a type of bacteria usually found on most reptile feces, including that of bearded dragons. Salmonella is quite dangerous for humans since, if transmitted to humans, it may cause an infection prompting manifestations of severe symptoms. As such, this is usually serious, and if you suspect an infection, you should seek professional medical care immediately.
However, you can avoid these negative implications if you practice good basic hygiene and overall common sense in handling beardies. Therefore, you should regularly wash your hands and avoid touching your mouth or face after touching or cleaning the beardie and its environs.
Pinworms
These constitute another batch of parasites carried and transmitted by bearded dragons. They are also equally dangerous to humans. Aoid them.
These usually emerge through a natural cycle in untidy spaces. Therefore, maintaining basic hygiene guidelines could also easily prevent such a problem. You can prevent them also by feeding beardies with a reputable insect food.
Bearded dragon’s bite
Bearded dragons are docile by nature. Yet, frustrations, hunger, or mishandling, could make them more aggressive. Thus, beardies could even bite their owners’ creating grooves on the skin and even scratching it in some instances. Exposed wounds may often become infected if not treated properly, thus qualifying beardies as dangerous.
Summary
Bearded dragons are usually safe if properly cared for by the keeper. As such, you should always ensure high hygiene, diet, and care standards.
It will help eradicate the possibility of contracting infections through beardies.
Essentially, beardies are never really dangerous unless circumstances dictate or allow it to be so.
Our next article: Are Bearded Dragons Poisonous?
My name is Brad and I am the main editor of BeardieZilla.com.
The only goal of this site is quite simply to be able to help you. To help you by the means of my experiment, of the relation which I maintain with my bearded dragon as well as some of my knowledge about beardies.
I hope that you will find answers to some of your most pressing questions here.
Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the blog!
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