My Sweet Beardie is NOW the Devil!

Hey guys....We need some advice! We got our beardie as a baby in April of this year and he/she was so great. For over 3 1/2 months he was well behaved and like to be pet and held. All of a sudden, the last 2 weeks he has become more and more aggressive. He won't let us get near him without hissing and puffing up. I don't know what to do! We actually feed him in a separate tank other than his habitat so He don't get crickets unless he goes in there and every single day we would take him out his large habitat and put him in the other tank to eat. Well that has become harder and harder as he is now biting us! I don't know what happened to our sweet beardie but a stranger has come! Lol. Help us please if you have any information to give because I don't know what to do.

Have there been any changes like smells, his surroundings (new furnishings outside or inside his viv) or a new animal in the house?
Sometimes even a simple new candle can st them off, they don't like change at all!

We never changed anything inside but right outside his glass on one side was a white bookshelf and we moved into another room so he now looks at a tan wall. It has been 2-3 weeks ago that we did that. That's about all we can think of that has changed. Could that really make him that angry at us? Lol.

Hi. It could be hormones. Teen years :wink:

I have teenagers myself so I know that feeling all to well....but now my poor beardie as well! ? I sure hope we survive ? It seems every day he hisses louder and louder at us! He wasn't biting and now is! He was so sweet before and loved to lay on me and cuddle and now his evil twin has arrived ?

I think he's telling he wants no more moving to get fed .... I suggest feeding him in this enclosure, just a few insects at a time so he can keep track of them .

I'm betting he's smelling food on your hands when you are picking him up and he thinks you are holding out on him ....

how often are feeding him his insects each day ?

You say he's about 5 months old ?

destiny1998":2x5zeuep said:

Hi. It could be hormones. Teen years :wink:

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You aint seen nothing yet .... wait still he starts being uberhorny and doing unmentionable inappropriate naughty things to shoes, socks, carpet ridges, feet, soft toys (especially if they look sexy to him) .....LOL .....fear not , it'll be a torrid few months but I assure you , you'll survive.

Hey ya'll I have a little bit of an update and maybe the reason he's so upset. Hes still biting, puffs up with the black beard. Please see the photo. Do you think his foot/leg may be broken? And that this can be the reason he is so angry bc he is hurting?

Hi. It looks like it could be MBD. Do you have a uvb light? What brand? How close is it and do you dust his feeders with calcium?

Really? I was so hoping not he does have a UVB but he didn't have one at first. He didn't have it for the first month and a half. It's a 5.0 zoo Med Bulb I believe and it's in his cage. We did also recently start upping the calcium bc he wasn't getting any at all bc my husband was originally putting too much on the crickets and smothering them ? So I found out he just stopped adding the calcium but that has since changed and he's properly getting the calcium for awhile now. Is there any coming back from that? He doesn't always hold it like that bc sometimes he runs on it just fine but we just started noticing his foot like that at times throughout the day.
Edit: it is about 2 feet from him I would say. Also, idk if you can tell in the pic but his tail has a slight bump on it about midway down.

2 feet is to far a way you need to get a t5 reptisun 10.0 tube. Also if its nice where you live you can take him outside for some natural sun. Just don't put him in a glass container. All you can do is make sure it does not progress. Unfortunately MBD is not reversible.

MVB can be at least a little remedied if given proper calcium and UVB for long enough.

If you live in America, the ReptiSun 10.0 is necessary for proper UVB.

Your beardie has textbook symptoms of MVB, and the UVB light you are using is a 5.0, which does not emit enough light for bearded dragons (only a 10.0 does); the 5.0 is a light intended for tropical or nocturnal lizards, while beardies are constantly exposed to the desert sun in the wild.

I hope your beardie gets better! Continue dusting his crickets and take him outside for supervised sunshine as much as you can until you have your ReptiSun 10.0. Remember that UVB rays cannot penetrate glass or plastic.