

He’s afraid of baby animals, though, like puppies and kittens. “He also loves to go on adventures, so I take him for car rides and bring him to pet stores for something different.

“He knows his name, for sure, and knows when I say, 'mealworms,' that he’s about to eat,” Oosterbann said. When I asked about Smaug’s personality, Oosterbann was quick to point out the reptile’s intelligence. “As luck would have it, he was already named Smaug when I adopted him.”īearded dragons can live for 10 to 15 years in captivity, but respond positively to a change of scenery. “I always said if I ever had a bearded dragon, I would name him Smaug after the dragon in Lord of the Rings,” said Ian Oosterbann of Fredericksburg. When I asked the man about his friend, he introduced me to Smaug, who he had adopted four years ago from a military man who got deployed and needed to rehome him.
