Juvenile Aggressive Behavior, drawing blood while biting.

I have a 5 month beardie, the vet wasn’t 100% sure but guessed it is a female. She has been sweet up until we went to the vet, she bit the vet. Since coming home she has displayed signs of aggression towards me and it has escalated to the point where I can’t put my hand in the tank without her lunging or jumping and trying to bite me. It’s been a month and a half since the vet and she is starting to draw blood at this point. The vet has been the only change, the setup/temps are fine. She has been eating and pooping fine. I have tried hand feeding and being as gentle as possible but nothing seems to work. The vet thinks it’s because I didn’t handle her enough but I’ve had her out a minimum of 10 minutes every day since I got her and she has never acted like this before including when others, other than the vet have handled her. Bath time and tank cleaning have become a nightmare. Any suggestions or advice would be great ?

have you been hand feeding her?

if so, she may have made the connection that hand=food.

hand feeding shouldn't be done untill they're about a year old

its also possible the vet did something that scared her pretty badly. you might need to grind and bear the bites so she learns that you aren't a threat

I hand feed, I get the occasional bite when they miss from that and they like to jump tongue first sometimes if they get excited thinking they are being feed but this was different. The vet definitely did something and she was letting me know, I have since switched vets and bribed her with some blueberries, peppers and hand fed all her veggies for a close to a week to change the behavior. There’s no more aggressive biting, just the occasional mistaken finger when feeding but I’m okay with mistakes.

Also, by hand feed I should mention that I only give a few pieces usually they mostly get all their food in a bowl.

SkyfangRauss":1rist9gz said:

have you been hand feeding her?

if so, she may have made the connection that hand=food.

hand feeding shouldn't be done untill they're about a year old <<<< nonsense …. it's perfectly OK to handfeed some the hatchling's / juvenile dragons greens and insects to them (each day) …. is a fabulous way to bond with the dragon too.


its also possible the vet did something that scared her pretty badly. you might need to grind and bear the bites so she learns that you aren't a threat

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I'd say she didn't like going poked and prodded or getting a needle poked into her and the vet deserved to be bitten .
She has been scared and lost her trust in humans, you need to take it slowly and try to regain her trust , handfeeding food treats every time she opens her mouth at you will help
>> she will either get so stuffed she dares not open the mouth for fear of more food being popped in there
or
>> she will learn you are giver of yummy stuff and half the battle will be won.

kingofnobbys":2wlm1oty said:

I'd say she didn't like going poked and prodded or getting a needle poked into her and the vet deserved to be bitten .
She has been scared and lost her trust in humans, you need to take it slowly and try to regain her trust , handfeeding food treats every time she opens her mouth at you will help
>> she will either get so stuffed she dares not open the mouth for fear of more food being popped in there
or
>> she will learn you are giver of yummy stuff and half the battle will be won.

Click to expand...

The vet bent her tail too far back when checking for gender, then took her into the back and I’m not sure what happened during that time but whatever it was she was extremely upset and I couldn’t touch her for days. The food bribes have worked, I started giving things I wouldn’t normally include in their regular diet so she felt spoiled. She she still shows her beard and opens her mouth like she wants to bite from time to time but for the most part things have gotten much better.

Her new thing is to beg for food every time I’m near the tank which is easy to give in to since the tanks are next to the kitchen. ?

Pravana":2xz91gw9 said:

kingofnobbys":2xz91gw9 said:

I'd say she didn't like going poked and prodded or getting a needle poked into her and the vet deserved to be bitten .
She has been scared and lost her trust in humans, you need to take it slowly and try to regain her trust , handfeeding food treats every time she opens her mouth at you will help
>> she will either get so stuffed she dares not open the mouth for fear of more food being popped in there
or
>> she will learn you are giver of yummy stuff and half the battle will be won.

Click to expand...

The vet bent her tail too far back when checking for gender, then took her into the back and I’m not sure what happened during that time but whatever it was she was extremely upset and I couldn’t touch her for days. The food bribes have worked, I started giving things I wouldn’t normally include in their regular diet so she felt spoiled. She she still shows her beard and opens her mouth like she wants to bite from time to time but for the most part things have gotten much better.

Her new thing is to beg for food every time I’m near the tank which is easy to give in to since the tanks are next to the kitchen. ?

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I'd be sacking that vet …. your dragon deserved /s gentler handling in a way that doesn't traumatize the lizard.

kingofnobbys":3gvcit7h said:

I'd be sacking that vet …. your dragon deserved /s gentler handling in a way that doesn't traumatize the lizard.

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I agree, we found a new vet fast. I’ve never been more angry in my life. We only had one visit there, my usual vet is 3,000 miles away unfortunately. I’m going to be making waves with whoever oversees their licenses since the main vet condoned all of their behavior. I might even sue them, they also broke the leg of my other beardie during his checkup the same day when they had him in the back. He has been a trooper through all of it and they both deserved so, so much better than that.