Neck and scratches

Hi!

My name is Isabella and I am new to owning and becoming a owner of a Beardie. So far, having one is pretty easy. The hardest thing is giving my beardie a bath :-/

Anyway, I just wanted to know if a beardie crawling into your neck is a sign of them being affectionate or them just wanting body heat.

I am also wondering if there is anyway to avoid getting scratches from your beardie.


Thanks!




(Any other pointers would be highly appreciated)

In my opinion, them crawling into your neck is a bit of both. Yes, they obviously like heat and probably want to steal some of yours lol, but my beardie didn't crawl into my neck until he fully trusted me, so I think it is some sort of trust/affection thing in their own way.

As for the scratches, if his/her claws are extra long, you can find videos on the internet of how to safely clip them (just make sure your beardie is comfortable with you touching his feet!). Sometimes with short claws they can still scratch you, something easy I do is just put a shawl on and move it closer to my neck where Pancake likes to sit. He manages to hold on better and then I don't get scratches, win win situation! So you could use an artical of clothing if the scratches really bug you, as long as the fabric or material isn't something their claws can easily get caught in.

Probably best way to avoid scratches is this,

1. Keep nails trimmed all the time, either by having tile as the substrate rather than paper towels or shelf liner or trimming them yourself or both.

2. Wear some sort of gloves if needed, usually you only need to do this sort of thing with larger animals like monitors and tegus. However If you need to you can use gloves so they dont scratch your hands and arms.

4. Possibly wearing scarfs of sorts around your neck could help keep scratches away from that area.
My two adult beardies don't exactly like climbing up to my neck like they used to but my juvenile does it all the time. Mostly to feel more safe as she freaks out a bit and clings on for dear life when lifted up and on my chest.


In some cases theres honestly no way to escape scratches.. and eventually you sort of just learn to live with it and accept that your their reptile scratching post.
Which is sort of what Im doing currently, I have 7 scratches on my left hand/wrist, and 6 on my right hand/wrist, around 2 on my neck and somehow my tegu managed to give me a nice large scratch right on the leg.
Luckily most of these are from my tegu rather than the beardies because of leash training... Though my adult female did give me a scratch earlier on top of my hand as I was bathing her.