Self Mutilation? Help please

Hi Everyone

Wasnt sure what to type in the subject but this seemed to be rather fitting. One of my beardies started hurting himself recently. Noticed that a few days ago but today it looks really bad. It started with my beardie trying to grab his rear foot and chew on his toes. Now it appears that two of his toes are half way gone.
Today it got worse as he has been chewing on his tail as well - it looks worse and worse. Nothing serious but it shows that his skin was fractured and I am afraid he might try to try to bite it off.

Has anyone seen similar behaviour? Was wondering if it was the diet or something along them lines - he has been with us for 2 months now and there were no problems at all. I feed him with variety of food with supplements and make sure he gets plenty of UV and sunshine when possible...

Please any ideas would be helpful at this point!

Is there any chance that there is some retained shed on his toes that he might be trying to remove?

The only other reason i know of for this behavior is a lack of some nutrient - calcium or otherwise.

You can use neosporin on her toes and maybe a nice soak will help in case there is some shed there.

What are you for feeders?

What are you feeding for salad?

Are you using calcium and muli-vits?

If so what brand and how often?

Hi there and thanks for a quick reply.

My first thought was calcium deficit or something along them lines.
Well we feed them mostly crickets (small to medium sizes) every second day they receive crickets dusted with a fair ammount of calcium and vitamin (sorry dont know the brand)
For their greens they dont want to eat that much of it so it is rather random but I have noticed that both beardies are very fond of mint leaves so they receive them quite oftem in small ammounts.

Also both beardies receive a bath every second day and so far managed to shed their skin a few times in the 8 weeks they have been with us.

When I come back hoem I will have a closer look and maybe snap a few pictures but to be honest I dont remember seeing anything there - especialy on the tail there was nothing there...

What are you using for UVB? UVB is very important - if you do not have the correct UVB he may not be processing the calcium.

Babies need their protein so they need live feeders everyday. Babies will typically eat between 75 -100 crickets per day (3 feedings daily, as much as they can eat in 15-20 min).

One of the 3 feedings each day should be dusted with calcium 6 days a week and one of the 3 feedings should be dusted with a multi-vit 1 day a week.

As far as greens, they can have as much as they want. Typically as babies they will not eat much salad but it should still be offered daily.

Also, it appears that you have more than one beardie - are they housed together?

Are you housing two beardies together?

Thnaks for that guys.

Well UVB seems to be correct - we have a specialist shop around the corner so they always provide us with some good info. We buy everythign in the leezard store so I would hope that everything is ok.
Anyways I will try dusting crickets every day - at least once in the morning before I go to work.
At first I was a bi worried about overfeeding them but now I see that they eat as much as they can eat and them leave rest of the crickets to roam around for a while. I only feed them again when they start eating the remaining crickets.

And regarding the housing, yes both of them are housed together. Both of them are females and there was no aggresive behaviour of any sort really. Tank is huge for them and they always have separate spots, spearate hiding places and eat at different times so I hope the problem is not there.
After two months I can say that both are exactly the same size so I dont think one is getting dominant.

I would check you light just incase - not all reptiles have the same requirements and i wouldn't expect a reptile store to have full knowledge of the husbandry of every reptile they have. :wink:

It also maybe not that she is biting her own tail & toes but her cage mate is biting them. This is one of many reasons why it is not recommended to house them together.

You should make sure you remove any crickets remaining after the 15-20 min other wise they may also bite your beardie.

Yeah at first I was very surprised and wanted to separate the beardies but it is definitely him - in last 24 hours it has been like 4-5 times we hadto pick him up casue he was biting his own foot or trying to turn around and put the tail in his mouth.

I will check the bulb - ahev a spare one so will check this out. Also I was gone for a week so maybe my friend didnt put any calcium on the crickets, will chekc with him after work although would that make any difference? It was also one week I was gone ;-(

wow i dont actually think ive ever heard of a beadie harming himself purposely, like stated above maybe for retained shed.
id like to see how you get on, is it possible to post any pics of your beardies or their home?

Wow, I ve never come across self harming before.

To be honest two things come to mind which have been listed already:
Itchy retained shed thats driving him crazy.
For this put him in a warm bath up to his armpits for at least 15 minutes and gentley rub his skin.


What I have come across however, is a beardie being bitten and then gnawing on thier own wound.
Your little one may have been bitten first before he started to gnaw. Toes and tails are classic spots to be nipped on.

The general belief on this matter is that beardies are solitary and territorial creatures and so should always be housed alone.
It drives us crazy that pet stores and local breeders often insist on it being fine.

Males + females especially shouldnt be housed together because they can overbreed.
Furthermore when beardies are housed together one usually becomes dominant causing the other beardie to not grow properly due to stress.
Beardies can and do attack eachother, unfortunatly dragons are not like dogs, who can be taught about naughty aggressive behaviour. Once it has happened once, like here, it will happen again and again.
Dragons will think nothing of nipping off a chunk or tail/toe in order to defend their basking spot.

In my time keeping dragons I have rescued two dragons who were living in a viv with other dragons.
Dexter was small for her age and was missing a bit of her tail, most of her right arm, most of her right foot and alot of her toes.

Ruben had his leg and arms ripped off at the joints by his clutchmates.


There are rare cases where dragons show no signs of agression towards eachother, and there isnt too much bullying but it is a risk that is simply not worth taking.

I would suggest you separate your beardies with a cardboard screen for now until you can figure out what is happening to your dragon who is gnawing on himself.

It may be something you look to do perminantly in the future. Your dragons will lead much happier healthier lives apart.

Holly

Are you using sand as a substrate by any chance. The reason I ask,it's possible maybe your beardie could have mites. That would make him bite, due to itching.

hey
hows the lil dragon doing?
any updates?

Hey guys sorry for keeping quiet - my broadband has been acting up. Leezard is well (kind of) divided the tank just in case but he chewd off a piece of his tail anyways. Looks clean now to be honest but it is a bit shorter. I will upload a few pictures when I get home in the afternoon!

ok great, look forward to seeing pics!