Bearded Dragon Agression

So I've had my bearded dragon, Navi for about 9 months now and she's always so nice and calm. My friend brought over here leopard gecko and they were playmates for a day and she was very nice to it. Even shared a cage for like 20 minutes. My other beardie Link passed away awhile ago and she was very depressed about it so me and my mom bought a little baby for her. They seemed to be getting along very well. She would sleep in his cage for a night and she would love on him. So one night I put them in her cage which had sand in for like a second so I could change his lights out. I ran down stairs and when I came back up she had his whole head in her mouth. I managed to get him out and she had cracked his skull and possibly his neck and killed him. For awhile I suspected she was pregnant from Link but Link had mbd and neurological brain damage so he could barely even walk. I feel no eggs in her stomach and even checked her cage for some but didn't find any. I just don't understand why my sweet little girl would do that. Someone please help.

Your dragon wasn't being aggressive, she was acting on instinct. You and your friend are extremely lucky Navi didn't eat the leopard gecko. Reptiles do not have the same emotions that mammals do and get little to no comfort from other reptiles. Navi didn't see a friend, she saw a meal. Please, don't house bearded dragons with other reptiles, with other bearded dragons, and ESPECIALLY not with any reptiles smaller than it. Next time you purchase a pet or allow a friend to bring over their pet, please do research before endangering their lives. I am sorry for your losses, but please avoid doing something like this again.

Edit: I apologize for making my reply sound so aggressive. I was not having a good day at all yesterday, but thats no reason to let that frustration seep into this forum. I am sorry that you had to learn this lesson in the way you did, and I know you feel awful for it. But, like everything in life, you can learn and grow from this extremely unpleasant experience and make something good out of it. Best of luck to you and Navi!

Hello,

I am sorry that happened, but as already stated, it is their natural instinct to prey on smaller creatures such as a leopard gecko & even a baby beardie, too.
It is never a good idea to house them together.

Tracie

I know you already probably feel awful about this and I'm really sorry it happened. Reptiles don't really build friendly bonds with one another. The only time they should be placed together is for mating. Even that can cause serious injury and death. You also have to worry about disease transmission between the reptiles. I'm glad your friends leopard gecko didn't get injured. You learned a very, very sad lesson....and I'm sure it will never happen again.

I am truly sorry for such a loss and what you had to go through.
There is little else to add as what has been said is accurate, but I did want to give a personal example as well.

Around Christmas I was holding both my dragons who were both asleep while I opened stocking gifts late at night, around 11pm. My oldest is 17" and was about a year and a half old at that time. My youngest was only a few months old, 2 or 3 months, about 8". They are housed separately, but I figured I was safe to hold them both at the same time, especially while they were sleeping.

Shockingly, while they were both what I thought were sound asleep, my oldest bolted for my youngest and bit his head. It was so fast I had no time to react, but luckily my youngest did and escaped with just a scrape to the top of his head and his little chin. He just kept running til he was under a couch against a wall.

I can't blame my oldest, I could only blame myself. It truly showed me that their instinct is strong. Their lights had gone out at 7pm and it was hours after that this had occurred - they were well into their sleeping time. I was blindsided and unprepared, but most of all I was inexperienced.

I am fortunate that the only thing that came out of it was a scratch and not a harsh lesson learned.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss and any trauma it has caused you, but please use this warning and the responses here to guide you and not to scold you. As much as we'd love to make these reptiles socialize like mammals, they are a completely different species and very unpredictable. They could go months or even years as tank mates only to have a fatal turn and they wouldn't even think twice.

Thank you all for replying so quickly. I thought that was what it was but I only had them together for a second. He was a little bit of a surprise and so I had one of those light bulbs you get when you first get a beardie. Since I only had one spare at the time I had to wait for it to cool down. I thought they could be in the same cage for a minute while I ran down stairs to grab something. It happened so quick and I felt terrible for it. I definitely will not make this mistake in the future.