Lump on back of beardies head (appeared all of a sudden)

Aw, they both look sweet. He still looks very healthy and I hope he continues to do so ! Your girl Rex has the big blocky [ but beautiful ] head that reminds me of a male.

They were only 7g and 8g when we bought them and brought them home. Cute as !!!

His behaviour (very boyish) last spring and summer , and her behaviour (a little half hearted headnodding and lots of armwaving , and not going black beard nearly as much as him) convinced me Rex is a Jenny and Puff is a would be stallion.

In fact Rex hardly ever headnods or goes black beard. Where as Puff is the opposite.

Didn't let them get together last spring I thought they were both too young (only their second summer) and I don't have suitable facilities to incubate the eggs. Not sure if I am want to breed them , they are both companion pets and I've heard it's very hard on the females.

Hmmmm....well, some males will do the submissive actions like a female when they see another male, so that behavior would not be a determining factor. If you'd like to post a pic with his/her tail arched up I could probably tell you, or if you look at the right side of this page there is a thread under " behavior and anatomy" on sexing beardies with pics of what to look for.

AHBD":bniqvrj6 said:

Hmmmm....well, some males will do the submissive actions like a female when they see another male, so that behavior would not be a determining factor. If you'd like to post a pic with his/her tail arched up I could probably tell you, or if you look at the right side of this page there is a thread under " behavior and anatomy" on sexing beardies with pics of what to look for.

Click to expand...

Their never regions

Rex looks more girlish there than Puff. (To me.) If I've 2 boys , no problem , I originally though Rex was boy when she was little and a juvi. LOL . Puff convinced me otherwise last spring and summer.

Puff's lump face on to the camera.



Excuse the dirty face, he'd just tucked into some dusted crickets and superworms and he's a messy eater.

Messy face indeed ! They don't usually check to see if they have a smudge left from their meals. As for the pics, that one does seem like Rex would be female, but could you arch the tail up further ?

Just an update:

Puff still has his big soft lump on the back of his head. Seems to little bigger but I can't be sure.

It's bothering us and worrying up a lot more than it is him, he's still happy , eating nicely, pooing regular a clockwork (every day) and no change in his behaviour, attitude or his activity levels.

I don't think it's bothering him at all and he still seems very healthy.

Still wait and see for now I think .

PS : is now winter here but I've kept my enclosures warm and lights on summer daylight timing and my enclosures are in the warmest room in the house so my skinks and beardies are unaware it's winter and have not shown any desire to brumate (this is my beardies' 2nd winter , no brumation last winter either).

Latest : lump still there , Puff is still happy and still showing so signs that it's bothering him at all.

Latest pictures of it:

Lumo is still there .... still doesn't seem to be bothering him at all, bothers my wife and I every time we see it up close - seems about the same size , still soft , and if I touch it or gently press it this doesn't bother him (so not tender).

He's still behaving perfectly normally for him, hardly ever black beard except when he's trying to impress his girlfriend who seems a bit hormonal right now (spring is not far away and I think she know it somehow).
If anyone had been blackbearding a lot lately it's been her , been doing a lot of headbanging too, gets very jealous of him or the bluetongues or the water skink when I'm nursing then.

He and she have been demanding a lot of time out of the enclosures lately , he wants loads of cuddles or the sunny window, she wants to race about and bbeard and hbang (at her own enclosure (she's got the ground floor in the 2 bay beardie apartment)).

I'm so glad the bluetongues or the water skink aren't being so demanding.

Still think this is a pseudoanerism and he'll probably have it for life and will have little or no impact in his quality of life or longevity unless I decide to intervene , from what I've read it's not something the vet can do anything about without risking killing him in the operating table (if he can't stop blood leak if he opens it up to drain it and repair vascular leak) and I don't want to loose him that way..

I was wondering about this recently. I'm glad to hear that Puff is still doing well and I hope he does just live with it with no turn for the worse.

I was reading about a person who has a beardie who developed a tumour on is its head , was removed twice by surgery and came back, last time it involved removing the beardie's ability to smell and see with the right eye (so I guess that lump was was somewhere between the nose and eye). They are in Victoria somewhere - but I'm not a member of that board so I can't PM or email them to ask for more details. The people on that board have all advocated putting that beardie down - very easy to recommend this to a stranger when it's not your pet or just breeding stock I guess.

I imagine a tumour would be quiet firm / hard to the feel when pressing it and the animal / person suffering from it would be symptomatic / showing signs of being ill unless it was very small too.

I still don't think the lump is a tumour (but I'm not a vet) and I expect a tumour would make the beardie feel ill (and display as blackbeard and change behaviours - loose interest in eating, basking, and become lethargic none of these are happening with Puff).



He seems very happy and content and seems to be enjoying his normal activities , his snuggles, watching TV and I've noticed no change in his activity level (he's pretty laid back most the time anyway and is generally content to hang about on the floor in the sun coming through the window in the pm, or on the lounge next to me , or on the carpet (nearly always watching the TV). I expect his hormones will kick back in soon too as we move into spring and we'll have another torrid few months when he'll become totally obsessed with Rex.
Overall - I think his quality of life is rich and very good , he's also very spoilt. As are all our pet lizards.

Will of cause keep an eye on his lump and keep an eye open for signs discomfort / pain / illness that might be caused buy or attributeable to the lump.

Just an update.

Puff still has the lump, and still seems be behaving normally, hardly ever blackbearding unless he's trying to impress Rex (our girl) and this despite the lump looking like it's grown a little but still soft to the touch and not the least bit tender to him when I touch it and gently press it.

So apart from his tending to bump it when crawling under his log (not much clearance there even for Rex (same size hide and same sized beardie) , he's taken some skin of near the crest (where the crest spikes are) and formed a bit of a scab there which he's been scratching a bit) it still doesn't seem to be impacting in any significant way on Puff.
I've been applying some butadiene to the abrasions on the crest of the lump.

Have been taking his 1/2 log hide away for a couple off weeks now since he first took the skin off the crest of the lump , so he wont keep on scraping the crest if his lump and to give the abrasions he's inflicted on himself a chance to heal. He definitely misses his hide as when I return it he makes lots of use of it and frequently naps under it ,but he sleeps OK on his heat slab at night, and really been tending to sleep ontop the hide lately anyway.

Needs a bigger 1/2 log hide. He freaked me out the other day when he got stuck trying to do a U turn under the log, I had to help him, a few days later he managed to do a U turn under there but it was an effort and he looked really stuck a couple of times.




May also be scratching the lump and side of his face because a shed might about to happen, also rubbing his chin on stuff too. Usually does this prior to starting to shed on the face and head.

Still worried but still a wait and see thing , and a matter of monitoring Puff closely for any signs of illness, distress, or changes in behaviour and demeanure.

Thankfully our pets don't feel the same stress that we do when something like this happens but remain blissfully oblivious [ in the cases where no pain is felt ] I do hope that it is harmless and will not progress further or become painful. Even if he's scratched it accidentally it probably won't bother him much. I've had females that had mating bites on the back of their necks and they were not bothered . What I used was my favorite salve, that being raw honey. I think it's better than antiseptics because those can destroy tissue along with the bacteria whereas raw honey promotes healing + granulation of tissue while keeping the wound sterile + inhibiting bacteria growth.

At any rate, I know you're worried about your boy, I would be too but hopefully it won't get any worse and maybe even at some point might dissipate.

I happen to have a tube of medi-honey (Maluka honey) in the 1st aid kit , I'll start using that on the abrasions.

No longer itchy , he's stopped the obsessive scratching. Lifted some of the scab and dead skin in the process.

Will keep at it with the maluka honey though (can't hurt the situation).