Gotta love our venomous buddies!!

So it hasn't been brought up on these forums in quite some time. I figured since there were so many new faces this year, it would be a great time to repost about this very interesting and little known fact about our scaly little friends. We had a thread a while ago but I can't find it now.

Bearded Dragons have venom glands located on both the top and bottom jaws. They produce minute amounts of crotamine. Rattlesnake venom!

It is not dangerous to humans but is more than enough to knock out the insects they swallow whole.

So if you ever get bitten by a not so nice beardie and the area feels tingly or numb, that is the reason why.

Once again. Totally harmless to us, but there you have it :)

And just because I know there will be some of you who tell a friend who then says "oh your lying, that's not possible" lol!

Here ya go! You can prove it!

http://www.herpcenter.com/herp-aware...e-thought.html

Very interesting, I remember when I got a tiny cut from my savannah monitor (was hand feeding him and my finger went across his tooth and cut me)

I got an infection, it hurt a lot and looked a little funny. I didn't get antibiotics for it or anything and it went away on its own.

I wasn't suprised at all, think about all the bacteria in their mouth? not many monitor keepers consider the ramifications of being grazed or even worse bitten.

Now, monitor bites are bacteria and viruses ect, venom is differen't!

Thats so weird that beardies are venomous :rolleye2: thanks for that great fact!

I had heard that P. barbata had venom glands, but i dont think P. vitticeps does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogona_vitticeps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogona_barbata

Two notes:
--I'm not saying that they aren't, but as all of the articles talking about the venom only say "Bearded Dragon," they may be talking about P. Barbata (P. Vitticeps is more common as a pet)
--Before you say wikipedia is unreliable, it was actually found to be about the same as Encyclopedia Britannica

It seems all dragons are venomous.. Both the eastern dragon and the central dragon. I have found a couple pages which state this very thing. I won't put them all here but here you go..

http://www.leidenuniv.nl/en/research...php3-c=134.htm

"The lizard-like bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps has a venom system in both its upper and lower jaws. 'On the basis of this information, we assume that these four families of lizards and the suborder of snakes are descended from a common ancestor which must have lived some 200 million years ago,' explains Vonk. 'These creatures must have had a venom-producing system in both jaws.' According to this theory, the iguana are then the most primitive, because they have retained the ancestral system of venom glands in the upper and lower jaw. The other three lizard families went on to develop venom glands in the lower jaw, and snakes in the upper jaw."

thats really interesting (and cool). I had a beardie for several years, but couldn't take her with me when I moved. She went to a good home though :)

thats really interesting (and cool). I had a beardie for several years, but couldn't take her with me when I moved. She went to a good home though :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeV

Very interesting, I remember when I got a tiny cut from my savannah monitor (was hand feeding him and my finger went across his tooth and cut me)

I got an infection, it hurt a lot and looked a little funny. I didn't get antibiotics for it or anything and it went away on its own.

I wasn't suprised at all, think about all the bacteria in their mouth? not many monitor keepers consider the ramifications of being grazed or even worse bitten.

Now, monitor bites are bacteria and viruses ect, venom is differen't!

Thats so weird that beardies are venomous :rolleye2: thanks for that great fact!

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Recent studies have shown that monitors have venom glands (I believe in their lower jaws) and produce venom. This compounds any issues with bacteria. Similar to beardies, I believe they produce rattlesnake-like venom

I'd read about beardies having venom glands, but I did not know they had glands in both the top and bottom jaws, I thought it was bottom only like monitor lizards. Thanks for sharing.

I have a feisty little beardie that I've been trying to work with to be handable, I had no clue they had venom glands. ( not that I'm too worried since its reported to have no effects on humans. ) Thanks for sharing!

I don't think I could ever look at these teeny tiny little babies with big heads as even being remotely dangerous. But this is an awesome fun fact of the day. So cool! It's really neat to learn that even in minute amounts it's still there.


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