Compiled by Ariel Pan
The Oracle: What are the names of your bearded dragons?
Allen Su: One of them has a shorter tail because the other one bit off her tail. My brother and I were just like, let’s call one of them Short-tail and the other Long-tail, so that’s what they’ve been kind of called ever since. The third one is named Groudon.
TO: Why did you choose to get this pet?
AS: I originally wanted a dog or cat like a lot of other kids, but my mom said that there wasn’t enough space in our house. [So we ended up getting] these bearded dragons because when we got to the pet shop, they said that they were really easy to take care of. I can kind of tell why, because you just leave them in their cage, and they’re still fine, and they can pretty much eat almost anything.
TO: How do people usually react to the bearded dragons?
AS: There’s usually like two reactions. One is usually like, “Oh, that’s cool,” and they just want to pet it [or] touch it. Then, the other one is absolute, complete terror, and that usually happens with people’s moms. They’ll see it and they’re like, “Oh, that’s disgusting! It’s dirty!” and they’ll scream and try to get it away from them.
TO: What are some funny stories?
AS: So these two are female—what they’ll do is, every April or so, they’ll start to lay eggs. When I was really little—I was 8 or 9—and we just got these, they laid eggs, and I was like, “Wow, these look really cool,” so I picked one up and set it on the log to get my brother and my dad. Just looking at it, I thought it was kind of cute—like they’re trying to take care of their eggs—and then they ate it. They were eating it, and I was so traumatized. I was like, “What, why would they eat their own eggs?”
