adopted beardie with agression question

Hello I am new to caring for a bearded dragon. I adopted a 5 to 6 month old bd (not sure of his age, his body is about as big as my hand). He/she has bit me twice (not sure of the sex). I have had em for 4 days now and he let me hold him 3 times but the last time he hunkered down in my hand and nudged it a few times with his head and then bit me, no warning, puffing or anything....it was shocking more than anything. My kids are scared to pick him up and I am scared that he will always act this way. The day before he let me handle him for about 30 mins in one setting then 30 min before I went to sleep, was good not aggression and almost fell asleep in my lap. the next day however he acted like he didn't know me and hissed at my daughter. please help I am a single mom who works a lot so the only interaction is a few min in the morning and mostly in the evening when we all get home.

Were you handling food before you got the little beardie out ?

Very hungry / food orientated lizards who smell / taste food on hands / fingers will try to eat the finger / hand …. especially if they are not used to being hand feed or handled.

I'm sure it wasn't aggression on the dragon's behalf, but confusion.

I have been hand feeding wild and captive bred pet skinks and dragons a long time (since retiring , and we discovered each other) , and yes I've been bitten many times, always by accident , sometimes through lizard confuse (ie wild skink smells food on by hand and thinks my finger / hand is the food).

The solutions are :
>>>> adopt a set routine feeding time , and if you are going to food by hand (that's OK) expect some accidential nips at the start while you and beardie learn and get a handle on the method),
>>>> no grabbing (especially squeezing the dragon) this will hurt the dragon and it will respond with a bite if it can't get away
>>>> wash hands to make sure no food-like smells / scents are lingering on them (else you risk being tried to be eaten ---- again LOL …. (I can assure you) you will look back on this and laugh
>>>> spend lot of time learning about each other
>>>> NEVER let the kids handle the dragon without mom or dad there to supervise.

I have a young grandson who I taught how to be gentle with our pet skinks and dragons from a very young age (3 or 4 year old) and before then , he was only allowed to drop wormy treats in front of them or pet them with pop's physical guidance (I held his hand so he was not able to be rough). He's was allowed to nurse the bluetongues and beardies from about 5 years old (though he was the bees' knees the first time).

So supervision is key to ensure your children don't hurt the pet lizard.

Your dragon will become a very good family pet , I'm let to meet a bearded dragon who is vicious to people (even wild ones I've handled were laid back and chill and calm when I've picked them up . A dragon will sooner run away than bite a person.

I did cut up an onion prior too handling him but I washed my hands. I do hand feed him veggies and he has never bit me while trying to feed him. I didn't put him down right away when he did bite me the 2nd time. I read that's not a good thing and will teach him its ok to bite. I was temped to give him away to a family member and start fresh with a baby dragon. my kids are older 15 and 7 yrs old so they know how to handle the bd they are just intimidated by him because they seen him bite me, and I wanted to get him used to me before they handle him a lot. I wanted to get him to the point where he don't mind being picked up, but as of now he runs away from me and hunkers down when I try to pet his back while in the cage. thanks for the advise kingofnobbys

BRIDGET1513":31vk6xau said:

I did cut up an onion prior too handling him but I washed my hands.
<<< there's your reason he smelt onion and though "food" but you didn't give any , so he thought you were holding out on him …. I've had wild water skinks climb onto my hand and try to eat it and try to prise my fingers apart under similar situations ….

I do hand feed him veggies and he has never bit me while trying to feed him. I didn't put him down right away when he did bite me the 2nd time. I read that's not a good thing and will teach him its ok to bite.

<<< a habitually bitey beardie is very rare , they are usually the result of humans being very cruel to them ( they start to fight back the only way they can ).

I was temped to give him away to a family member and start fresh with a baby dragon. my kids are older 15 and 7 yrs old so they know how to handle the bd they are just intimidated by him because they seen him bite me, and I wanted to get him used to me before they handle him a lot. I wanted to get him to the point where he don't mind being picked up, but as of now he runs away from me and hunkers down when I try to pet his back while in the cage. thanks for the advise kingofnobbys

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<<< give him more time to learn to trust you and your kids, take it slowly, I'm sure he'll end up a laid back chill beardie who's mega tame.