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Loki is a bearded dragon, known to enthusiasts as a "beardie." Beardies are lizards from Australia, and are some of the friendliest reptiles you can own as pets. They become acclimated easily to humans, they're a good size without being overly large, and they very rarely bite or act aggressive.
A little bit of care information: Bearded dragons require an enclosure of at least 40 gallons when fully grown, and they prefer more space than that. They like horizontal space, space to run around, more so than they enjoy vertical space to climb up. They need a basking spot, UV light, water (usually in the form of baths, as they won't often drink standing water), and a diet of protein (crickets, worms, roaches, and the extremely occasional pinkie mouse), and greens/veggies. They can't be housed together except as small babies, so plan on multiple enclosures if you buy more than one. I have found Bearded Dragon.org to be a great resource for all of my beardie questions; definitely do your research before taking responsibility for one of these beautiful animals.
All about Loki: I bought Loki from Petsmart on June 13, 2010. I'd estimate she was probably 4-8 weeks old at the time, making her a little over a year at the time of this blog post. I had just lost the first baby bearded dragon I bought, also named Loki. He must have been sick when we took him home, as he died the day after we brought him home. I was sad, but in her tank, Loki cheered me up. She was absolutely tiny but acting like she was several times her size, "glass dancing" against the side of her cage.
She grew very quickly over the past year. She seems to be around her adult size now, between 17 and 18 inches long. I have been most impressed just by her personality. She is very laid-back and easy-going, although like many beardies she gets a little moody when she is shedding (how would you like to deal with your skin falling off and still smile?).
Loki is a "normal" beardie, meaning she has typical colors of a natural/normal bearded dragon, but there are many people breeding exotic colors. I like Loki just as she is, though. She has very pretty tan, yellow, and purple markings.
We have taken Loki to the vet a few times since buying her: once for a normal checkup and then to see if she had a parasite infection, which she did. It's important to make sure you have a good exotic animal vet if you need one for your exotic pet. We go to the Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, which is excellent. In fact, they helped us out a lot simply by figuring out that Loki is a girl! It can be hard to determine the gender of bearded dragons before they hit maturity.
It's really fun to hang around with Loki. She's a big personality in a tiny scaled body!
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