Pet Bearded Dragons Linked to Salmonella Outbreak in US

livescience ^ | April 24, 2014 | Bahar Gholipour

[JoeProBono]

[skinkinthegrass]

facts are, the little kids..shouldn't handle the Dragons
(fingers in mouth), unless under Older Teen/Adult supervision.

[rwfromkansas]

Just wash hands after and they are fine I am sure.

[Veto!]

Sad news. Bearded Dragons are actually friendly, alert little guys, very different from other lizards. If I didn’t have a cat, I’d be tempted to own one. Hope they can they be cured of Salmonella.

[JoeProBono]

[Pecos]

Iguanas are also a common source of the disease.

[JoeProBono]

[Veto!]

Awww. We CAN all get along.

[null and void]

FYI

[Darksheare]

Beardies have an excellent vision range.
Same with most Swifts.
They will see and respond to things past ten foot away.
Some lizards seem to be “near sighted” and will only respond to things within ten foot.
Not beardies.

[Veto!]

Thanks for the info. I visit Beardies in the pet store, and they do follow me with their eyes…even looking backwards over their “shoulders.”

[Darksheare]

Welcome.
Not certain about their intelligence though.
Tex Chick has beardies and can provide info on how smart they are.

[Tax-chick]

They do not seem to be very clever. They’re alert to predators, but that’s about it.

[Chuzzlewit]

my daughter had 2 of these about 10 years ago.. I never got why she wanted them... you might as well put a stick in a cage and give it name, as far as I’m concerned.

[BuffaloJack]

No surprise here.
It’s an established fact that upward of 90% of all reptiles and amphibians carry salmonella of their skin.
There was even a recent case where a zoo employee, who worked with reptiles, infected and re-infected his newborn daughter until he was instructed to bath and change his clothing when he got home from work, before he could hold his daughter.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember the olden days when it was pet turtles that were the problem. You don’t see them in stores anymore.

We had some and never got sick.

[JoeProBono]

[PowderMonkey]

Along with a host of assorted reptiles collected by my daughter, I kept a baby Red Eared Slider that reached 10 inches in diameter. Never had a problem with salmonella, because everybody was required to use a strong disinfecting hand soap with a thorough washing after contact with the critters and their environment.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

If you think that’s bad, never have a pet armadillo, a beast that is spreading across the Southland, and wasn’t even stopped by the Mississippi river.

Armadillos can carry and transmit leprosy to humans.

[JoeProBono]