Waving

Are there any tricks to get my beardie to wave at me? I find that behavior to be unique and was wondering if that was common in the species.

Haha, my dad tries to get Loki to do it all the time :lol:
It is a natural behavior of submission or peace, and they will either do it or they won't- I don't think you can train them like you could a bird or dog.

My girlfriend walks into the room and sees me waving at a lizard and rolls her eyes lol

They wont armwave at a human unless they think they are also humans , so if you have only one beardie who never sees another beardie , you''ll likely get some headnodding and armwaving.

I get headbobbing from my pet and resident wild skinks (bluetongues, water skinks, delicate brown garden skinks) very frequently, I interpret it as "hello nice human" , then tail wriggling starts (" I'm excitedly anticipating some of those yummy worms you give to me") , and the stare = begging for more yummy worms.

My beardies have headnodded at me (it's a different headnod to what I've seen given to other beardies). But not armwaved at me, at each other yes. I have been known to pretend to do beardie armwaves at my beardies when headnodding (at me), usually stops the headnodding and they respond with what I interpret as "what????" and the head cocked to one side.LOL .... my wife thinks I'm nuts too.

There are other lizards that do the arm waving. I cant recall what species, I'll see if I can find out more. I want to see if it's genus exclusive.

Rankins":3odhtwsc said:

There are other lizards that do the arm waving. I cant recall what species, I'll see if I can find out more. I want to see if it's genus exclusive.

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Most the dragons here ( in Australia ) do the armwaving thing , and I think some gecko species and skinks do it too.

Headnodding seems very common in skinks and dragons.

It's not genus exclusive...
Water dragons and painted dragons do it. There are a bunch more.

My beardie hardly ever waves. I saw him do it once in the first few weeks we had him. If I remember correctly, I think I took him out of his tank and cuddled him, although I wasn't really sure if that's what he wanted.

My husband saw him do it one other time. I wasn't looking at him; I was sitting in a chair by the terrarium reading a book, and my husband told my that Puff was trying to get my attention and that he had waved at me. He hadn't had his "good morning" cuddle yet that day, so we did that...

Almost the only time he head bobs is when he's having a testosterone fit. It usually goes with the black beard -- "What's up with the big bad macho dragon routine, Puff? Are you trying to intimidate me, or are you trying to impress me?" etc :roll:

I've never had a female beardie, but it's my understanding that they're more likely to do "the wave" than the males.

Well, right at this instant Peppa is on the floor under the floor UVB200 lamp stand she's armwaving and looking directly at my wife, and doing little headnods at her too.

My wife just did a beardie arm wave back and Peppa responded with a couple of tiny headnods and some more armwaves .... so I guess beardies do headnod and armwave at people.


Now she's at the window and doing the same - maybe she's spotted one of the wild skinks on the front porch and we misinterpreted. She's not waving at her reflection as there are lace curtains between her and the glass.

I've tried waving at my beardie with both my arm and my thumb (in case he has trouble relating to the size difference), but I'm not sure what he makes of it. :?

We're also not sure what he thinks of his reflection in the glass. He doesn't seem to want to pick a fight with it (usually -- see below) and he doesn't seem to be afraid of it, but he does seem to know it's there -- curiosity maybe? Sometimes when I put him back in his tank he runs over to the corner, apparently to make sure that his "little friend" (the "ghost dragon in the glass") is still there -- all three of him (one on each side and one down the middle in the corner).

My husband thinks he knows it's his reflection and he likes to play with it like a little kid. Well, who knows, really. :? :?: :? We used to think we humans were the only "animals" who were "self aware", but lately we're finding out that's not the case. So meanwhile I have these little conversations -- "Yes, Puff, your little friend is still there, but no need to pick a fight with him because you're outnumbered -- there's three of him and only one of you, and if you put your beard down he'll put his beard down too." (That was the other day when he went hormonal and started blackbearding and head bobbing at his reflection after he didn't get a satisfactory response from anything else in the room or out the window :roll: )

Yoda will occasionally do a full arm wave rotation....usually she just waves by holding one of her front feet up similar to how a human would give a casual greeting. She also occasionally does a head bob or two. Overall she is a pretty friendly girl..but she isnt too sure about being handled yet :lol:

Man, I so wished Loki would wave :lol: :lol: :lol:

Rex gets very animated , head bobs, then right arm wave , headbobs, then left arm wave ....

Peppa is just starting to armwave .... found out who she was armwaving at the other day, Cheakie (the resident wild water skink) was back inside and she was armwaving at her.

Sounds like Cheakie has definitely moved in and become one of the family.

My girl Thane used to arm wave at crickets and eventually stopped. I haven't seen her head bob at anything yet, but if she is annoyed she will puff out her beard or gape. Then again, I have trouble telling with the gaping because she does it when she's warm and happy, too. *shrug*