Cut/gouge on beardies head.

[Ferret]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here....and possibly only temporary as I am looking after my friends beardies for her - whilst she is out of the country for a year!

I've had them for seven months now and everything has been more or less fine. My friend had only had them for a year or so before she went away, so i'm guessing they are about a year and three quarters old. It has been a bit of a steep learning curve for me and after consulting this excellent site regularly for information I suspect that she was not particularly well advised when she bought them.........She has two females together and although they seem to be tolerating each other reasonably, there is definately some dominance behaviour going on. I started following all the advice she gave me, but as I suspect some of it is wrong I've been picking up tips from this site instead.

The reason for my post is that one of the beardies suddenly developed what looks like a deep cut or gouge on her head. It is only quite a short cut, but it does seem quite deep (I can see 'darkness' inside, but it didn't bleed). Just next to it I've noticed a similar shaped 'scar' where the scales seem to be missing - that almost looks like an earlier wound. I don't think it looks like she's been bitten by the other dragon. I've read that they can get bites from crickets, but they are fed small locusts - I'm not sure if they bite as well? I tend to hand feed them, so the insects are never really left in the vivarium with them. She is otherwise her normal self. Is there anything I can do/need to do? I'll try and attach a couple of pictures........OK, I'm not very good with computers and I don't understand how to post images here......I'll try and work on it!

Thanks......

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

A picture definitely would help a lot.

To do so you will need to upload the pictures you want to post, to a photo sharing site such as photobucket.

Once they are uploaded there, you can copy the IMG code they give you, and just paste that in your post and it will show up as the picture.

-Brandon

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

If you can separate them, that would be a great idea.
Boost us a picture, and we'll be able to identify it better - my concern is if the other female has been laying into her - some dragons are really aggressive and do go straight for the head. On the other hand, it could be a cricket bite, or it could just be where she's growing too fast for her scales to keep up...

 

[Ferret]

Thanks everyone......here are some pictures (hopefully!). That's about as close as I can get and still be in focus with my little camera.......You can see there is a sort of bald mark and some loose scale/skin.....then above that there is this deep cut (looks black on these pictures).

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

Ouch, that looks painful. You want to get some Neosporin on that.

 

[Myfirstbeardie]

It seems like she was attacked by the other beardie and therefore should probably be kept separate. Bearded Dragons can do a lot of damage to one another if they are not getting along.

 

[dangit12]

if your housing them together you might wanna seperate them. One male or another bearded dragon with another. can be dangerous with other bearded dragon. In the wild the only reason they would be together is for mating dats it. so you might wanna get a other tank.