PEOPLE AND THEIR PETS + QUIZ
Lianne Bunn with bearded dragon Narla
Lianne Bunn
Iguess you could say I’m a crazy dragon lady. I breed lizards. It’s cool to be able to make a business out of your hobby. About 12 years ago I got a blue-tongued skink for my partner for his birthday. A couple of years later he came home with two bearded dragons and that’s how it started.
What really draws me to them is that they’re interesting pets that you can also learn a lot about. It feeds my need to keep learning new things and figure out with each different pet what they want to be happy. They’re pretty cool characters, each with their own personality and I find them pretty laid-back.
We’ve got 15 inland bearded dragons, two coastal bearded dragons and lots of water dragons. I’ve just got seven tortoises as well. They’re all pets. We all love them all but you can only have certain ones out together, so it’s like a jigsaw puzzle of working that out. All the girls can come out together. It’s only the boys that will scrap with each other.
The water dragons are a bit different. You can’t just pop them on the sofa because they’re not as friendly but their outdoor enclosures are attached to the deck. We’re there with them several times a day and they still eat out of your hands or jump up on your leg.
They’re part of our family and each have a little story. There’s Three Leg, who has three legs. He was our first. One of my favourites is Ninjango. He’s my buddy and he comes for rides in the car. He’ll sit on the dashboard or on my shoulder. Or he perches on the hood of the pram while I’m pushing the baby. His father, Fabio, does the same.
Narla hangs out a lot because she’s inside with us, so the kids always have her on the sofa or on their laps. My daughter’s got one called Sparkles – and Sparkles has a pink harness and goes for walks along the beach. The first question people ask is always, “is that real?” and the kids love it. We meet so many new people that way. Usually people are either really into them or absolutely terrified.
I know people don’t see them as cuddly animals but they are. They love to get up on your shoulder or on your knee. My daughter will often have one in bed with her. They’re great, they don’t drop fur on your sofa. We’ve got a couple of cats but the dragons make themselves look really big and spikey and the cats soon learn.
My partner gets up early and picks dandelions for them every morning, which we give to them when we turn their lights on. Then, after I’ve taken the kids to school, I feed them all fresh fruit and veges with a bit of calcium powder. On special occasions we spoil them with wax moth larvae.
Babies are a lot more work because they need feeding two or three times a day. After they turn 1, it’s such easy care: just feeding, cleaning their enclosures and petting.
They’re just so neat to watch. They’ll be on the deck, stacking up on each other to get the last bit of sun. You can spend hours watching their behaviours, bobbing their heads and changing colours to suit their moods.
I love it.