Hi fellow beardie lovers!
I was hoping for some help on an issue that has been ongoing for some time now with my male beardie, Joel. Joel is a little over a year old now, and I have had him for 8-9 months. For a long time he had been fine, but these past few months have been fairly painful to watch. I have done research about wall climbing and how beardies ultimately wall climb when they see their own reflection, or when their temperatures are off.
I have been keeping a close eye on his temperatures, his basking area is always at 90-100 depending on when the fan in my room is on, and his cool side is generally around 80-85. I figured this would be something he would grow out of, but it has gotten to the point where I can't stand sitting by waiting for him to just 'grow out of it.' My other beardie Vinny, whom I recently found out was a girl, used to have a similar issue to this, but she grew out of it. I think this issue started to get more and more out of hand once Joel realised there was a female beardie in the tank above his. Whenever I take Vinny out, he can tell that there is another beardie there, and starts to do the mating dance from in his tank. I think this has added onto the wall climbing issue, because now whenever he does it, his neck gets pitch black, and it goes from just racing along the side of the glass, to actually scratching at the glass for long periods of time throughout the day.
I have tried adding backgrounds to his tank, including one of those static attaching backgrounds that stick to the outside, but unfortunately this does not help with Joels issue. I am just really anxious now, especially since when he gets like this, the only thing I can do is wait for him to stop. I've tried taking him out but he sees Vinny and immediately tries to go after her. I have been looking at related forums here, but I am not quite sure what is best for my situation with Joel. He has gotten so bad that he will literally go to the right side of his tank, stand on one leg, and with all three other legs try to scratch at the glass. I'm not sure if this is due to his reflection or the urge to mate. I have heard that adding backgrounds inside the tank helps, but how should I go about doing that if that will help? Should I just use normal paper? Also, he does this to the front panel too, so I would have to cover that as well.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I hate seeing my big buddy stress like this, and it is so clear that it is very stressful to him. Thanks for your time!
I was hoping for some help on an issue that has been ongoing for some time now with my male beardie, Joel. Joel is a little over a year old now, and I have had him for 8-9 months. For a long time he had been fine, but these past few months have been fairly painful to watch. I have done research about wall climbing and how beardies ultimately wall climb when they see their own reflection, or when their temperatures are off.
I have been keeping a close eye on his temperatures, his basking area is always at 90-100 depending on when the fan in my room is on, and his cool side is generally around 80-85. I figured this would be something he would grow out of, but it has gotten to the point where I can't stand sitting by waiting for him to just 'grow out of it.' My other beardie Vinny, whom I recently found out was a girl, used to have a similar issue to this, but she grew out of it. I think this issue started to get more and more out of hand once Joel realised there was a female beardie in the tank above his. Whenever I take Vinny out, he can tell that there is another beardie there, and starts to do the mating dance from in his tank. I think this has added onto the wall climbing issue, because now whenever he does it, his neck gets pitch black, and it goes from just racing along the side of the glass, to actually scratching at the glass for long periods of time throughout the day.
I have tried adding backgrounds to his tank, including one of those static attaching backgrounds that stick to the outside, but unfortunately this does not help with Joels issue. I am just really anxious now, especially since when he gets like this, the only thing I can do is wait for him to stop. I've tried taking him out but he sees Vinny and immediately tries to go after her. I have been looking at related forums here, but I am not quite sure what is best for my situation with Joel. He has gotten so bad that he will literally go to the right side of his tank, stand on one leg, and with all three other legs try to scratch at the glass. I'm not sure if this is due to his reflection or the urge to mate. I have heard that adding backgrounds inside the tank helps, but how should I go about doing that if that will help? Should I just use normal paper? Also, he does this to the front panel too, so I would have to cover that as well.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I hate seeing my big buddy stress like this, and it is so clear that it is very stressful to him. Thanks for your time!
