Not eating, weird behaviour - possibly mating or brumation?!

I have a young adult bearded dragon called Otto. He's around a year old and I am at a loss. His behaviour has been getting increasingly weird for weeks so it will take a bit of explaining I'm afraid.

First a few weeks ago he became a more fussy eater, turning his nose up at various foods and then showing interest in others but gradually he just started turning his nose up at everything. He's barely eaten in the last couple of weeks but hasn't dramatically lost any weight. He also started regularly making a fuss wanting to get out of his viv.

We took him to the reptile specialist shop and they thought it was probably brumation but he hasn't been sleeping more so I took him to the vets to check. The vet says he's looking really healthy and not showing any physical reason why he wouldn't want to eat so also concluded brumation but advised us to encourage him not to brumate (I guess because of his age and size).

A week on we have decided (with the vets permission) if he wants to brumate we'd better let him because he's very stubborn but I am now having doubts that's what it is. The past few days his behaviour has been increasingly weird. He's been head bobbing, waving and tried to attack my partner several times. This morning he attacked again and this time bit my partner's shoe whilst writhing about for several minutes, he says he was specifically rubbing the vent area. My partner was afraid there was something wrong with him and tried to inspect him but he wouldn't stop. Eventually he did and has been fine for the rest of the afternoon.

Now I'm wondering could this have anything to do with breeding behaviour? We don't have any other beardies, he lives alone so it seems unlikely but this is like nothing I can find described on the internet and the vet says he's healthy so I'm stumped. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I've measured his temperatures and they're all good, although we started to turn them down thinking he wanted to brumate. He's got the standard UV lighting and he was having his regular supplements although obviously much less since he stopped eating!

This sounds like the active/aggressive period after brumation. I've seen my guy go very hyper and more aggressive for a month or two after he wakes up from brumation. His appetite is less than normal during this time too. Based on what I saw last year it should go away and he will return to normal after a bit.

Hey thanks so much for getting back to me!

That's really interesting to know, I'm told by my partner he's been really sleepy today so hopefully things are calming down. We're going to keep his temperatures down to give him the option to brumate and hopefully he'll let us know if that's not what he wants. It's hard to know what to do when his behaviour is different one day to the next but I suppose if he's physically healthy we can give him time to figure out what he wants.

BlueParrot":183ek7ga said:

Hey thanks so much for getting back to me!

That's really interesting to know, I'm told by my partner he's been really sleepy today so hopefully things are calming down. We're going to keep his temperatures down to give him the option to brumate and hopefully he'll let us know if that's not what he wants. It's hard to know what to do when his behaviour is different one day to the next but I suppose if he's physically healthy we can give him time to figure out what he wants.

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Our beardie is named Otto also, and he's been acting funny this past month too! Coincidence? Probably :lol: Ours stopped eating and "went under" for a whole two days, then was back up again. Then he was lazing around, then he was in his hide 24x7 but with eyes open. Now he's settled into sleeping with his eyes shut, but who knows for how long. Lights on, lights off, UV off, feed, not feed, handle, leave be... Make up our minds Ot!

Weird update

So we're back to thinking he's interested in breeding? Yesterday he pretty explicitly bit and humped my partners foot twice, wiggling his butt enthusiastically on the floor afterwards.

Does this ever happen when female beardies aren't around? I can't find anything on the net about males doing this sort of thing when there are no other beardies in sight. And should we do anything or just let him get it out of his system? I don't really mind, whatever makes him happy, I just wish he'd eat.

Gosh, he's weird. Aaradimian, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in having a weird Otto.

Yes it does. My guy is alone too but is still running around like crazy and will sometimes flare his beard or show a black beard for no reason. Their hormones are just going nuts. Darwin even ran outside last night from the kitchen. It was dark and cold but he darted off toward a snow patch. Crazy little guys!