Biting?

[hoopyscoop]

I tried holding my bearded dragon, Fred, but when I tried picking him out of his tank, he puffed out his beard and tried biting me! :shock: Is this normal? I don’t know what I did to scare him, and I actually feel kind of bad....

 

[BBTrucker]

i have a similar issue with my beardie but before i go on let me answer the above question and ill answer mine all together probably just opening for convoersation...

but ive had about 4 dragons in my time so far and have noticed when in the younger dragons will open there mouth and puff out beard or head bob when claiming territory, and this is also commen in tanks that house multiple beardies that have been together for awhile they will fight for UVB light, sooo that being said if u see your beardie head bobbing and trying desperatly to get as close to the UVB light as possible it might be time to change the bulb. UVB 18" florescent bulb from pet supplies plus was $21.00 great buy and they had the smaller bulbs for $17.00 so i purchased a spare, what bothered me was my dragon is a little over 2.5years old at 18.5" his name is Gator, now i just got him a new light but he seems to still be head bobbing alot he even lunged at my finger when i was trying to clean his cage,

i also want to add that cage size is not the issue in my situation i have a 3'x2'x2' wooden plexy glass cage nicely set up,
he cant complain about food he gets his greens regularly there might be a few days i cant offer him greens but he hardly ever eats them, maybe he will eat more greens i got him a new light? he eats a mix of LARGE juicy crickets and super plump dubai roaches, and i can hand feed him without him biting me but still he tried biting me after i gave him new light ... such an unforgiving lil ... anyway i wont go there i think i need to show him sum more personal 1v1 time to temper him more
thats the answer to the above post if you have done everything you can possibly do for your beardie health wise , meaning
*clean the cage
*fresh water
*fresh greens
*new lights
* full tummy
* temperature and hummidity is right

well lizard proof your room and let him out for a lil bit spend some personal time with it about 3 times a week for a month and he will come arround >-{[(DO NOT PUT BEARDIE ON BED OR HIGH SURFACE)]}-<
accidents do happen and dragons can get spooked and run and ... well your dragon seals its own fate.

 

[hoopyscoop]

Alright, thanks for your help. But I'm kind of scared of letting him in my room, I'm afraid he'll get lost. I know you said beardie proof, but he's so small and fast. :?

 

[BBTrucker]

well any form of handling will eventually form a bond between owner and dragon, repetition is key to train, youll just have to observe him/her regularly my previous dragon loved the water and loved to swim in the deep end of the tub the oldest dragon hates the water and hides during misting and will run when attempting to put him in tub.

what im saying is beardies have personalities of there own as long as you do all you can to keep them happy then u cant do anything else, the dragon i have now use to be supper chill and kewl when his old owner picked him up and held him now after a lack of handling for such a long period of time if i so much as come anywhere near his cage he goes onn the aggressive with head bobbing and trying to bite. now i no longer put his food in the cage for him to catch because i had sum escapees and all the food will go into hiding and he will end up missing a meal so now he pretty much gets a close quarters hand feeding out of the cricket keeper

idk how old your beardie is but if you have a smaller baby/juvi. make sure to keep them low to the floor cause they like to jump away, but to sit on the floor and keep him/her in your lap and listen to sum music,

 

[hoopyscoop]

Thanks for your help again!

Fred is very small,(Though he's growing like a weed!) that's why I'm nervous, I have some pictures here: http://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=49&p=1545710#p1545710 So you can see his size, and what I'm worried about.

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

Don't forget that (usually between six and nine months, but some dragons are weird) they go through a phase of beardie rebellion. They usually give over in a few days and wind back to being calm, happy dragons.

 

[BBTrucker]

Yeah his dragon is just a baby not even juvi stage yet. FYI .baby dragon require. ALOT of very close. Attention. And when I was 1st starting out with dragons my first baby I had died on me. We think it was due to trauma and his eyes where bulging. And stuff. But because I work alot if I wanted to continue my hobby. I would need a heartier. Stronger. Dragon, then I got a juve about 9" long this lil guy loved to run he was super active. He was all about him. And had to much energy. Got rid of him. Lol and got this old fart Gator whose is about 2.5years old. And lazy as can be. He doesn't have to many bright color patterns but. He's strong. And. Can go a few days with no attention. Don't get me wrong. I take good care of him but there's been a few times in his past where. Some things came up and I thought I was gonna lose. Him .and almost gave up on him. And if he was any younger. I think it would been tough. But luckily we are in the swing of things again. By the way I'm having trouble posting pics any help?