Welcome to BeastlyFacts - Why We're Here

Hello and welcome.

My name is Michael Ryan. I go by Mike. If you are here, there is a good chance you have a bearded dragon, a gecko, a rabbit, or some other animal you are trying to do right by.

I started this because I got tired of the same bad advice. "Just feed them crickets and lettuce." "They only need a 20 gallon tank." A lot of that is outdated or wrong, and it ends up hurting animals.

I am not a veterinarian. I am a keeper who researches against papers, agencies, and good exotic vets, then checks it against the animals in front of me. I live with two rescued bearded dragons, Dex and Cera. I also watch my sister's rabbit, Otis, for weeks at a time. They have taught me a lot, sometimes the hard way.

The longer version of how this started is on the About page.

What started as a few guides got a little out of hand

When I first wrote this post, the site was a handful of care guides and some fun facts. It has grown, so here is the current tour:

• Care guides for over 100 species, split into the parts people actually search for: cost, handling, health, tank setup, and feeding
• The Critter Digest, with deep dives and comparisons, plus is it legal? pages for the exotic species people ask about most
• Checked animal facts, each with a photo in the gallery
• An encyclopedia of pet species and a Beastlypedia for the wild ones
• Quizzes built from real pages on this site
• The Chronicles of Dex, and the Chronicles of Otis, because one lizard and one visiting rabbit both demanded a series

Everything still gets researched the same way it did on day one. Sources on the page. Corrections when I learn more.

I am not here to sell you a pile of gear you do not need. I am here because I want people to find the answers in one place instead of ten tabs that disagree with each other.

If there is a topic you want covered, email me. I read everything.

Thanks for stopping by. I am glad you are here.

Mike

If you want a sense of how the research side works, the giraffe heart myth is a good place to start.