There are currently more pet bearded dragons in the world than ever due to the recent popularity spike that beardies have seen within the pet keeping community.
With bearded dragons now being the most commonly kept pet reptile in the world, we see a huge range of different questions about keeping bearded dragons as pets from the community,
Due to a number of viral videos on social media showing bearded dragons doing “tricks” in a similar way to a dog, we have seen more and more people asking if bearded dragons have a good memory or not over the last few months.
Bearded dragons have a surprisingly good memory relative to the size of their brain and they can often remember more than people initially release.
With so many people reaching out and asking about how good of a memory the average bearded dragon has, we have decided to publish this article to go into as much detail as possible to help our readers.
What Do You Class As A Good Memory?
The first thing that we need to take a look at is what you actually class as a good memory as bearded dragons are limited to what they are actually able to learn.
As we mentioned earlier, relative to the size of their brain and the memory capabilities that other, similar sized animals have, we would consider bearded dragons to have an above average memory capacity.
The issue is, that bearded dragons can be difficult to motivate to do much with their memory capacity.
This is why so few people are uploading videos of their pet bearded dragons doing tricks onto social media as it can take a surprisingly high amount of training to get your pet beardie to do even simple things.
The most common thing that most people report their bearded dragon being able to memories is that the feeding tongs coming into their vivarium means it’s lunchtime.
That said, most bearded dragons can recognize their owners after some socialization and some people have been able to teach their pet bearded dragon tricks such as to come to their owner when they call their name.
Do Bearded Dragons Have Good Memory?
As far as reptiles and other small animals go, bearded dragons do have a good memory and they have shown the ability to learn some basic things provided you stay consistent with the training.
The issue is, most people don’t get a bearded dragon to do tricks and depending on your location, it may be dangerous to your pet to keep it out of its vivarium for long enough to train it anything without your beardie getting too cold.
On top of that, your bearded dragon’s personality will come into play too and most beardies definitely seem to lack the motivation to use their memory on demand.
How Long Is A Bearded Dragons Memory?
It is difficult to know how long a bearded dragon’s memory is as there is no real reason for scientists to use their funding to research it.
That said, there have been multiple reports of people being away from their pet bearded dragon for months or in some cases even years at a time and then their bearded dragon remembering them when they return.
Some of the people who have trained their bearded dragon to do various tricks have also reported that they can go over a month without practicing a trick without forgetting it and then do it on demand when requested.
This would suggest that a bearded dragon has a memory that lasts for a couple of months at an absolute minimum but there are various ways that you are able to judge memory duration that can change this estimate.
Is A Bearded Dragons Memory Long Enough To Teach Them Tricks?
A bearded dragon’s memory is long enough to teach them tricks with some bearded dragons being able to learn multiple tricks without issue.
The issue is, that most bearded dragon owners lack the consistency and training methods to quickly train their bearded dragons the tricks you can see them do on social media.
Some people may be motivated to try train their beardie to do a trick for a couple of hours but this is not long enough for the average bearded dragon to memorize a trick and do it on command.
In addition to this, most bearded dragons are only really motivated by food but thankfully, superworms act as the perfect high-value treat for bearded dragons when looking to teach them a trick.
Just remember that you really shouldn’t be giving your pet bearded dragon too many super worms due to their high fat content not being good for bearded dragons when consumed in large amounts.
Still, many of the people who have proven that a bearded dragon’s memory is good enough to learn tricks have used superworms as the high value treat to help inspire their bearded dragon to partake in the training sessions.
We know that we mentioned this earlier but just as a reminder, don’t keep your bearded dragon out of its vivarium for long due to potential problems with temperature too.
Do Bearded Dragons Remember You?
Some bearded dragons do remember their owners where as others can struggle to remember you.
We doubt that this is anything to do with the memory of your pet bearded dragon but is usually due to a lack of optimal socialization training between you and your pet bearded dragon.
If you do put the time in to socialize with your bearded dragon then there is a high chance that their memory will be able to associate you as a friend.
Just remember, the personality of your bearded dragon will dictate the pace that you are able to spend time socializing with it and if your beardie does appear to be stressed or scared, return it to its vivarium immediately.
Is There Anything You Can Do To Improve Your Bearded Dragons Memory?
Although a number of people on social media have claimed that feeding your pet bearded dragon certain foods has the ability to help improve their memory, there is little evidence to actually back this up.
Ideally, your bearded dragon should be having their vitamin and mineral intake from their diet supplemented with a suitable reptile supplement two to three times per week depending on the product.
These reptile multivitamins should offer everything your bearded dragon needs to have a healthy brain and fully functioning memory without having problems so there is usually no need to go off and try to find special foods to improve the memory capacity of your pet bearded dragon.
