LordFreezer
New member
So I have had my bearded dragon for a little while now. She's still a baby and I want to knock out her aggressive behavior before she can start doing real harm. After our first bath together she was a bit nippy and didn't think anything of it but she wasn't like that before (she was still new to the house and I'm kind of concerned I made her uncomfortable by rushing a bath) but I went back to clean her cage the same night. Picked her up and put her on my shoulder. And she... jumped off. She hit the floor and then proceeded to run around my room like a madwoman (who wouldn't after falling more than 5 feet at that size?) So I caught her and finished cleaning her cage with her in it (no chemicals or anything don't worry)
I started feeding her like normal and she bit me whenever I tried picking her up. Then she had a tail break. I treated it with a betadine solution every day and it was a struggle. She did NOT want to be a part of that and constantly tried to escape my hand and when she wasn't she was biting me. The tailpiece fell off and I finished the treatments (there's still a black stub there and I'm probably going to go to the vet to get it looked at).
It's been a few weeks now and... nothing has changed. I feed her with tongs right now because my index finger is F'ed up and don't want her to bite it. She looks at my hand first with her mouth open before she even notices the food. And when she does she LUNGES at it and will even start trying to bite the tongs after she ate the cricket or mealworm. I haven't handled her much since the betadine solutions because she's aggressive and I didn't have much time.
Any ideas on how to work on this behavior? I've tried the shirt in the tank thing, I've tried hand-feeding (shed rather bite my hand than the food), and everything else people normally recommend doing. Just not for extended times. Now however I have the time to sit with her and do all these things again. I was just wondering if there was anything else I should try doing or how many times I should handle her and everything else. It's difficult to pick her up because she runs around her enclosure and bites the hell out of me whenever I actually do catch her. Any tips or criticism is appreciated.
(Sorry for the long post and poor formatting)
I started feeding her like normal and she bit me whenever I tried picking her up. Then she had a tail break. I treated it with a betadine solution every day and it was a struggle. She did NOT want to be a part of that and constantly tried to escape my hand and when she wasn't she was biting me. The tailpiece fell off and I finished the treatments (there's still a black stub there and I'm probably going to go to the vet to get it looked at).
It's been a few weeks now and... nothing has changed. I feed her with tongs right now because my index finger is F'ed up and don't want her to bite it. She looks at my hand first with her mouth open before she even notices the food. And when she does she LUNGES at it and will even start trying to bite the tongs after she ate the cricket or mealworm. I haven't handled her much since the betadine solutions because she's aggressive and I didn't have much time.
Any ideas on how to work on this behavior? I've tried the shirt in the tank thing, I've tried hand-feeding (shed rather bite my hand than the food), and everything else people normally recommend doing. Just not for extended times. Now however I have the time to sit with her and do all these things again. I was just wondering if there was anything else I should try doing or how many times I should handle her and everything else. It's difficult to pick her up because she runs around her enclosure and bites the hell out of me whenever I actually do catch her. Any tips or criticism is appreciated.
(Sorry for the long post and poor formatting)