Beardie angry after seeing new rescue beardies in home

[lauranthalas]

Hey everyone,

I currently have a 1 year old, male beardie named Dracul. Normally he is very even-tempered and docile. He is going through a shed, which has him a little cranky (understandably). Last night my husband and I rescued two very young beardies that were near starved to death. To make a long story short, my husband had Dracul on his shoulder and went over to the new beardies despite my advice to the contrary. Dracul didn't immediately flare up, but he did display a full black beard after a few minutes. He kept it until lights out and then was fine. This morning he is fully black bearded again and doing some head bobbing, even though his tank is not really in eye sight of the new ones. I was hoping to get some feedback on whether I should be worried and if there is anything I can do to help calm him down. I hate seeing him so agitated. I really thought he would be fine come this morning. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!


Thanks!

 

[Beardednoob]

Move the rescues to another room. I often sit in my lizard room which has 4 dragons. When one of them acts up all the other lizards react to it. Even if they cannot see the dragon who is acting out. Kind of like they just know LOL. Perhaps they are clairvoyant? JK

Anyways yeah, bearded dragons especially the males are very territorial and will not back down to a new presence. The best thing to do is to have the rescues out of the room where Dracul is. Even after that if he for some reason smells the rescues on you, he may still be temperamental. I had one of my males attack a wooden hide cause it smelled like one of the other males.

I keep all my lizards in one room but, the difference is that this is how it has always been for them. It is more the norm then possibly your situation. :wink:

 

[MissT]

I have 2 males and 1 female in the same room. One of the males (Kazi) will black beard and bob if he directly sees either of the others. The other male (Huff) will go totally nuts if he so much as catches a glimpse of the others - some of his episodes have lasted 2 hours. Its just hormones. He knows something is different and wants to assert his authority... just make sure he doesnt see them directly! I rescued Huff when he was 2 years old and he lived in another part of the house for a year... its only recently that he has moved into the same room as the others and it has taken him some time to calm down about it - ultimeately tho, he is much calmer about it now than he was when he first came down here.

 

[EShell]

I find them to be mostly visually oriented and they don't tolerate seeing each other very well.

I have three mature males in the same room, with a 3' x 3' 'playpen' area on the floor where they can go to hang out and use the bathroom (none wish to go in their enclosures).

The pen is under heat lamps, with rocks & limbs as perches and hides, with the floor lined with newspaper. It offers them a safe place to be out of their enclosures, nearby but not underfoot, and me an(other) excuse to handle them.

I can bathe them in turn, put them down in the pen to roam around awhile and poop, return them to their enclosures, pull out a couple layers of newspaper and put the next one in. Doing this, I can rotate them in and out of the pen with no issues, they'll even occupy the same highest perch without seeming to notice the other was there 1/2 hour earlier.

I have to take care though, to mask off the others when one is on the floor. If one sees another, even a glimpse, furious head bobbing and blackbearding goes all around for hours.