Angry or Scared?

As some of you may know from my first post here i own 2 beardies. One male one female. Things have certainly taken a strange turn lately!

My larger female seems very settled and good now. Eating fine, lets me stroke her head no problems, pick her up fine, bath her fine and is about to shed her first skin here!

My smaller male has attitude issues! every time i open his door his throat puffs. This is before i've even approached him. when my hand goes in ( i make sure it's to the side not over him ) his mouth opens and he puffs his neck at me!! Now is this because he's scared or because he is angry? Sometimes i can get a stroke on his head but then he's gone after the first one. and worries me because he runs into his viv glass and really climbs the glass like he desperately wants to get away.

So desperate to get him to be a good handled beardie like the other one is but it seems like he never will because he is so scatty. He has already shed his skin once and eats little but he is eating. I think he's about 4 months old he was weigh'd at 33 grams, where the female was weigh'd at 56 grams and i've had them about 3 weeks now. Little guy seems to get worse and i need advice. Also, how bad does it hurt when they bite, is it dangerous? Many say to jsut grab them and they're get used yet i don't wanna stress the chapy out.

Thanks Guys!

I adopted my male fred although he is alot older when i got him home he behaved like that, i presume it was cos he was scared and i cleaned is viv from top to bottom and changed his flooring to lino not the horrible grit his last owners had is, i think the changes worried him. I put a towel over him and took him out, very gently lifted it when he had calmed and talked to him and rubbed his back

Ive had him nearly a year and if i dont go in to get him the right way he will still puff and open his month but i still lift him and he has never bitten.Just keep tryin he will come around.

Are they housed together?

No. They were but been seperated at least 2 weeks now, although can see each other. They are on 2 seperate cabinets about 3 foot apart, one slightly higher than the other. I've uploaded a video I'll post later (as I'm out ATM. Love iPhone!!) and your see how bad he is

I have never been bitten by either on of mine. Louie is 14 months, and Mickey is probably about 2 months. Mickey nipped my husband the other. He said it didn't hurt at all, but is still a baby! A friend of ours got bit on the nose by his LOL. I don't think he was handled much though.

Heres a link to the video, all help is desperate! I don't wanna get rid of the little guy, but i need to know how to help him

Download Angry Beardie Movie!

Hi, firstly they shouldn't be able to see each other that could be upsetting him. Cover that side of his cage. how long have you had him again?

And please please git rid of the sand it's really bad and can affect the health of your lovley babies.

I would try and be patient, go in to him very slowly, my male freaks if it doesn't see me coming. Take it day by day, he couldn't really hurt you at that size just give you a nip. does he eat his veg? maybe trying feeding him the veg, but again just go in very slowly and down at his level not over his head which he might see and threatening. Stay low with your hand.

I'll get the side of his tank covered up today, see if it helps him any.

Any other ideas? As you can see by the movie, i can't even get near him...

Thanks

I've read that if you take a tshirt that you have been wearing all day and put it in the viv with him, that will help him get used to your smell... it cant hurt to try, also instead of handling right now maybe just put your hand in his viv for now... no movement, just set it in there, that way he can explore you :?: just some ideas to try ..
good luck
let us know how it works out

I found a "BVSc CertZooMed MRCVS" guy kind of locally, about an hour from me. Took them down and had them both checked out. Apparently both doing well and in great health. His words about the small boy were that "he see's you as a big bird coming to eat him" lol. Basically his advice was to force him out for 5-10 minutes daily and eventually he'll learn that i'm not a threat. Also thinks he's about 3-4 months old and it could also be down to hormones?

Seems to be getting better though, as he doesn't puff instantly. I can get at least with in 10cm's before he runs lol.

thats good that you know they are both heathly!

Keep with him don't give up, he will come round! x

Hope so. He does have character lol. Once out he has his mouth open always but isn't trying to bite. Yet when I go to put him back, that's when he attacks lol.

Still as you say I'll keep perservering!!

Hi, we have had our first beardie for 3 weeks and at first, he was fine at being handled, but for the last 10 days he has been acting like your beardie. As soon as we get close to him he runs away terrified, slaming into the wall and trying to get away. Am going to try hand feeding him a cricket or mealworm and just wait until he comes to me, but it is quite frustrating. Keep hearing that patience is the key. Would be good to hear how you get on.

shelley101":2fzsrmiz said:

Hi, we have had our first beardie for 3 weeks and at first, he was fine at being handled, but for the last 10 days he has been acting like your beardie. As soon as we get close to him he runs away terrified, slaming into the wall and trying to get away. Am going to try hand feeding him a cricket or mealworm and just wait until he comes to me, but it is quite frustrating. Keep hearing that patience is the key. Would be good to hear how you get on.

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Hi Shelley,

Exactly how mine happened. He lasted about a week before he started been like this. How old is your dragon? Mines about 3-4 months roughly. Everyone who's seen him and i've talked to said as you've been told, patience is the key! It's extremely frustrating i agree, as all i wanna do is hold him, stroke him and play with him. Even now he won't come to me. I was told by a zoo oligist to just get him out daily no matter what. I was really concerned because i didn't want to hurt him, but he assured me they're tougher than they look and it'll help the process, so get some garden gloves as i guarentee once you have him, he will bite!. Hold it tight( ISH ) so he can't get away / hurt himself, but not too tight he can't breathe and just stroke the back of it's head. It will calm down, mine does.

I've recently moved my tank higher up so when we approach the tank / him, were not towering over him and were more eye level. Whether that will help only time will tell. Also i've noticed that his beard is starting to come through, and a local breeder said that he's basically been a naughty teenager! He's just grumpy. My concerns are that he'll be like this still when he's older and his biting will just cause more damage, but apparantly 90% of beardies will grow out of this over time, very rare that many beardies don't grow out of it but not uncommon.

Don't fret though, just have to wait for them to get out of their teenage stroppy stage. Generally they are calm / great pets. My old female is great. When i got them a month ago, the angry male was 35g and the female was 39g. 2 weeks later the female was 75g and the male was still only 39g. Last night i weighd the female again and she's now 120g! Haven't had a chance to weigh the male as he's too skittish. Another thing to remember is to him, your hands like 3 times his size, as he gets older it won't be so big and shouldn't panic him so much. That's my theory anyway!!

One weak spot i've found with mine are baby locusts. i find that if i can get him to eat a couple of locusts, i can get near him as he thinks he's getting more!! Getting him to eat was also an issue. Mine's also very dark all the time, which is either a sign of agression or when they breed. He isn't breeding so it has to be anger. Is yours dark or light in color? Especially underneath? I've added you as a friend. It'll be interesting to see your findings and how yours gets on aswell as vice versa.

Hope to stay in touch, if there's any questions I can answer I will try my best. But many people find different things work for them, so there are a lot of things to try to see what suits your beardie best.

Steve

Hi Steve

Thanks for the reply. We think Peanut (not my choice of name lol) is a bit younger than yours nearer to the 3 months and not even sure whether he is a boy or a girl yet. We had another beardie which was really placid and easy to handle, but it died after a week and we don't know why, but we think that maybe he was ill as he was really slow. Peanut does have a light underbelly, but it goes really dark sometimes but not sure if it is when he is scared or just as a general rule, will have to keep an eye on that.

He has made no attempt to bite at all so far, but just runs away as soon as you get close to him which is such a nightmare when trying to clean out the viv.

My son really wants to be interactive with him so is keen to try anything we can. Will try to handle him with a glove. How do you hold him when you do manage to get hold of him? Does he try to get away the whole time?

Thanks for help, how do I add you as a friend?