<\/a><\/p>\n

Now don’t get all excited because the title says today’s fact is about dragons.\u00a0 The Komodo Dragon does not breathe fire or guard princesses in a tall castle, at least I am not familiar with any that do. Don’t get me wrong, just because they don’t breathe fire doesn’t mean they are not an interesting animal.<\/p>\n

The komodo dragon is the largest member of the lizard family averaging around 6-10 feet long and weighing about 150 lbs.\u00a0 Obviously, not an ideal candidate to keep as a pet in a terrarium.\u00a0 Besides the size of this particular lizard, it’s eating habits would also make keeping it as a pet to be difficult. The komodo dragon feeds mostly on carrion (dead animals) but have been known to hunt pigs and small deer. What is impressive about this is the way they eat their prey.\u00a0 For the larger animals they will tear off junks and swallow them whole while holding down the prey.\u00a0 For the smaller prey, up to the size of a goat, they will simply swallow it whole! It will take them about 15-20 minutes to swallow an animal this size even if they have to ram it against\u00a0 a tree to help it get it down.\u00a0 I know it is crazy to think that\u00a0 a lizard can swallow a goat sized animal whole, but they are capable of doing this since they have a loosely articulated jaw, flexible skull and an expandable stomach. As well, they have a small tube underneath their tongue that connects directly to their lungs.\u00a0 This allows the dragon to breath while trying to swallow it’s food. The komodo dragon has a very slow metabolism which means they could technically survive on 12 meals\/year.\u00a0 Imagine how much cheaper your grocery bill would be if we could survive on 12 meals\/year.<\/p>\n

This slow metabolism can cause problems for the komodo dragon since if the dinner they swallowed does not digest quick enough, it will become toxic and poison the dragon.\u00a0 Finally, when the dragon swallows its prey whole it will proceed by recurgitating a mass of horns, hair and teeth which is called the gastric pellet.\u00a0 As I mentioned earlier, the eating habits of the komodo dragon make it very difficult to keep as a nice pet!<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed today’s fact!\u00a0 Have a great day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now don’t get all excited because the title says today’s fact is about dragons.\u00a0 The Komodo Dragon does not breathe fire or guard princesses in a tall castle, at least I am not familiar with any that do. Don’t get me wrong, just because they don’t breathe fire doesn’t mean they are not an interesting animal. The komodo dragon is the largest member of the lizard family averaging around 6-10 feet long and weighing about 150 lbs.\u00a0 Obviously, not an ideal candidate to keep as a pet in a terrarium.\u00a0 Besides the size of this particular lizard, it’s eating habits <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024,52],"tags":[348,172,4026,170,171,4025],"yoast_head":"\n