LilMizzPixieReptile
Member
I have three beardies. Two were for my son and then I got two of my own. We named them after the ninja turtles and unfortunately, Michaelangelo passed away very young. I brought him back to the store when he passed, I only had it two weeks. I explained how I felt I did everything correctly and how the others were prospering just fine. I was so distraught when he passed away, I even tried giving it CPR to revive it. The person at the pet shop said it happens often. It was probably just sick already when I got it they felt. The first two, the ones I got for my son, have their own 40 gallon tanks and the whole hot/cool side. I have the UV bulb, a black heat light so when it’s night time I can leave the blue bulb on with it and heat is still emitted when the main lamp is off. (At night time when my son goes to sleep.) We were told they could be kept together, boy were they wrong! The one, Nacho (a..k.a. Rafael) was very bold and aggressive right from the get go. He was quick to eat and ate well. He hunted with passion and fury. The other one, Nelly (a.k.a. Donnatello) was timid and shy and at first, when we just had the two, I felt like she wasn’t gonna make it. She stopped eating all together and seemed “sad” or “depressed” even. I researched it and asked around at the local pet shops I frequented. Someone suggested taking their water out of the tank, so long as I did this every day-and giving them a bath. The guy said beardeddragons are known for not drinking water but that if I bathed them, they would absorb the water through their skin and it would hydrate them better. That did the trick. It also helped with bowel movements. I now give all three baths, sometimes together, usually not. Nelly and Leo get along and Nelly and Nacho seem to do the mating dance. (They’re the same age while Leo is still about two months younger.) I assumed Nelly is a female and the other two are males. That was until last night. My beardie Leo will sleep with me after nightly bath time. He gets all sleepy and when I wrap him in the towel he often falls asleep in it on my bed under my heated blanket. He will spend the whole night there with me like that. When Nelly was depressed, the baths worked so well but during that time I also bonded with her a lot. She slept with me too. (I didn’t have Leo yet) Nacho is the only one who hasn’t spent the night in my room yet. Last night, I gave all three of them baths and brought them all into my room to see what they would do. Leo fell right asleep as usual. Nelly and Nacho layed under the blanket for a while and then began to stir. They came out from underneath around the same time and then proceeded to do their little mating dance. But they never mate. Nelly whom I always thought was the girl got on top of nacho and was far more aggressive this time. Usually nacho gets on top of her and they fool around without actually doing the nasty. She crawled on top of him and licked his head and almost pushed his face into the bedding. I gently moved her off him. He looked relived. Then he started to wander over to me. Like he wanted me to pet him. I was on the other side of the bed. As he began to walk towards me Nelly got upset and lunged at him as if she were trying to prevent him from being near me. (I’m a female.) When she did that to him, he looked startled and so I lightly pet him to reassure him all was okay. It was a very bad mistake on my part. When I touched him she lunged for me and bit the hell out of my hand. I screamed and she let go. I put it back in its cage as well as nacho. I didn’t punish anyone. I was more shocked at what has just happened more than anything. She did draw blood. My hand hurts a lot and Leo slept through the whole thing. Lol. Does this mean she is not a she? I still don’t know which is what sex. They demonstrate both male and female characteristics. I can’t tell by looking at the pictures online then looking at them. Is the one that bit me always going to be aggressive now? Is it just possessive over the other? I didn’t realize it at the time, otherwise I wouldn’t have touched him. It was only afterwards reflecting on how he did come towards me and she tried to stop him that I realize it was her trying to keep me away from him or him trying to keep me away from her -whatever they are. Leo is still young but not that much younger than them, does it mean that he’s gonna turn into a giant a hole like they are? Or is he going to continue to be as Sweet and cool, the way he is now? They other two are only two months older but have changed drastically-overnight it seems. I’m not miss treating them, I’m not handling them wrong, they get tons of attention, they’re held every day, they get fed daily, they get vegetables daily- if anything, they’re spoiled. I don’t understand the sudden aggression, overnight it seems, and how can I find out what sex they are?
