Oh No! He's eating her tail!!

I just found this forum; I'm hoping I can find some good info to help my little ones get along better! I know this is common, but when seen in action it seems ANYTHING but common! My poor little beardie just sat there while the larger dragon had her tail 2 inches down in throat munching away! I jumped in and removed him as gently a possible, but her tail was just hamburger meat and bone! My five year old daughter is screaming "Help her! He's the Ferocious Beast!" I cleaned her up with peroxide removed the dead tissue and put a thick layer of antibiotic ointment on her tail and divided their enclosure so he can't get to her. They are in a 55 gallon long, with two basking areas, one water source and many things to lay about on. They are aprox 6 months old and I think the larger is a male, the smaller victim being a female. They were purchased from a respected reptile handler together, they were very close to being the same size when they were bought, but the dominate one (male?) has grown about 15-20% larger than the submissive (female?). She seems to be faring well, she is eating, and moving about easily. He seems aloof, but who knows what he is thinking. I'm very concerned about reintroducing them, how long I should wait, what is causing this behavior and if I've unknowingly set her up for this. Please help! Thanks! Alicia

Beardies should never be housed together. Peroxide is a no no. Neosporin is good. You need to seperate them and keep them seperated. The male is probable dominating the female that is why she is smaller and probably stressed out.

alikiamay":16661 said:

They were purchased from a respected reptile handler together, they were very close to being the same size when they were bought, but the dominate one (male?) has grown about 15-20% larger than the submissive (female?). She seems to be faring well, she is eating, and moving about easily. He seems aloof, but who knows what he is thinking. I'm very concerned about reintroducing them, how long I should wait, what is causing this behavior and if I've unknowingly set her up for this. Please help! Thanks! Alicia

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Beardies are solitary and territorial creatures and should never be housed together.
Males + females especially shouldnt be housed together because they can overbreed.
When beardies are housed together one usually becomes dominant, as has happened in your case, causing the other beardie to not grow properly due to stress.
Beardies can and do attack eachother, and upon doing so once they should be seperated perminantly. Unfortunatly dragons are not like dogs, who can be taught about naughty aggressive behaviour. This can and will happen again.
I rescued my dragon from a viv with multiple beardies in. She is small for her age and is missing a bit of her tail, most of her right arm, most of her right foot and alot of her toes.

Im very sorry but reintroducing them would lead to more violence and a very unhappy and unhealthy female.

Try not to beat yourself up about what has happened. We put our trust in petstore workers who unfortunatly are not experts.
The best thing you can do now is keep them seperated until you can buy a new set up for your female as soon as possible.

Holly

Hello,

Definitely do not use hydrogen peroxide on the wounds. It is highly cytotoxic. Please use diluted betadine along with neosporin or polysporin daily to ward off any infection. She will lose the end of her tail, but you will need to watch for infection that area since it is from a bite.

Tracie

Thanks for all the helpful info! I will pick up some meds as advised ASAP. She has been doing well, eating, basking, and pooping. I will talk to my family about separating them permanently , I'm taking it that they won't get lonesome for each other? Sounds weird, but I feel bad for separating them, guess I'm mirroring human emotions on my beardies. I'm praying she doesn’t end up with a secondary infection from his bite. Thanks again for the quick responses.

Hi there,
Your beardies will thrive when they are separated. They are not like dogs or cats who grow fond of their companions.
Try not to worry x