Lizard Love: A Girl and Her Bearded Dragon

During the pandemic, Canton resident Sara Mehl’s 6-year-old daughter, Myra, saved up to purchase something she really wanted: A bearded dragon.

“At the time, we had two dogs, two cats, a bird and a horse. And so, my first thought was, We have a lot of animals, but we also love animals. We love taking care of them. We love learning about them,” Mehl says. “I thought this would be a nice experience, because this would be the first animal she got to pick out on her own.”

Prior to picking up their bearded dragon, the family thoughtfully worked to build the right kind of habitat, complete with lighting.

After they brought the lizard— now named Desert — home, they discovered that caring for him was unlike anything they’d undertaken before.

“We have to feed him live bugs, which we had never done that before,” says Mehl. “He has to eat certain greens and salads, and we have … specific dietary requirements for him that I felt was a fun challenge.”

When he first arrived, Desert was about 4 inches long. He’s now grown to over 18 inches.

“He likes to eat out of our hands,” Mehl says. “He certainly has a personality.”

Myra, now 12, does a lot of the feeding. She also makes sure Desert is taken out of his enclosure to experience different stimuli beyond his habitat in her bedroom.

“In the summertime … she will take him outside, and we have a little play pen for him outside, so he can actually get some real UV rays,” Mehl says. “She’ll hang out with her bearded dragon outside in the sun.”

Although bearded dragons are solitary animals and aren’t very active, Desert is playful.

“We would put him at the bottom of our stairs, and he loved jumping from the bottom stair. He would run all the way up the stairs,” Mehl says. “He just loved it. He would just happily bop up each step. … You could put him on your shoulder. He likes to kind of climb up, kind of hang off your shoulder, and he’ll just hang out there for an hour.”

Desert has a laid-back attitude and doesn’t mind being posed for photo ops — as Mehl did when trying to create a monthly calendar featuring him for her daughter.

“He kind of seemed amused,” Mehl recounts.

Bearded dragons are a good choice for someone seeking a pet they can see grow and thrive, Mehl says. They may be able to tolerate other pets, as Desert does with Mehl’s cats, who carefully spend time around him.

“He’s kind of a nice balance to the other animals that we have,” she says. //CG