Head Bobbing?!?

[Demonica1610]

Hello all,
So I've had my first Beardie (Lil Gunns) for quite some time now. He was an "only beardie" (Like an only child) for a good 8 months. However, I just rescued a new beardie (he doesn't have a name yet, I only brought him home 2 hours ago). The new beardie is a fully-grown adult (a big boy).

They are obviously in 2 seperate tanks and across the room from each other. Well within about 10 mins of the new one being in his new tank, Lil Gunns started head-bobbing and turning his beard black. :x I've read most of what thehead-bobbing means and such, however, what I wanted to know is if I should let them do it and communicate with each other? Will they eventually, with time, calm down. :shock:

 

[Spoony]

It's definitely a sign of dominance and Lil Guns is trying to show that this is his turf. If at all possible, try and make sure they can't see each other from their vivs whether that be moving the vivs around and/or taping brown paper bags to one side so they can't see out. As long as they can't see each other, Lil Guns should calm down.

 

[Demonica1610]

Okay, thank you. I wasn't sure if I should've just let Lil Gunns keep bobbing so that maybe he would stop and get along with the new one or not.The new one doesn't seem to care much. My boyfriend and I took them both out yesterday,we kept them arms length away and they were fine. Neither one tried to attack the other one. So maybe they will become friends?

 

[Spoony]

Beardies don't make friends with beardies... well there have been very select few beardies that had a special relationship, but at most, they will accept the dominance of one and stay out of each other's way. Just keep them supervised and you should be fine

 

[Demonica1610]

Thank you!! =]
I really don't want to block them off, defeats the purpose of open glass tanks lol

 

[Spoony]

If you don't block them off and one continues to head bob, that will cause stress to one or both your beardies and they could develop health issues. If the behavior doesn't calm down, I do strongly suggest making it so they can't see each other. Beardies are not social creatures (with other beardies).

 

[TickTock]

If they're across the room from each other then it's obvious they can see each other and Lil Gunns is just trying to show the new rescue who's boss around here.

I keep both my vivs on top of each other so that both my beardies don't see each other. Sometimes during feeding, one of them, Tick the dominating one, likes to run up the glass and look up at me to see who I am feeding the other crickets too. Just goes to show how demanding and dominating sometimes they can be :lol:

Just make sure they can't see each other and it should be fine. Will be less stressful for both of them too. The dominating shouldn't have to worry about his turf and the one shouldn't worry about getting beaten up

 

[Demonica1610]

Well I blocked off both of their tanks about half way up with background paper. They seem to have settled down a little bit but once in a while Lil Gunns will go at it again. They're both in 40 gallon breeder tanks so I wouldn't be able to put them on top of each other because I would constantly have to lift the heavy tank to get to the bottom one. I'm gonna see how this paper works for a little bit

 

[Spoony]

A lot of people buy metal "build-a-shelves" so they can have dual level beardies. Maybe that could be an investment in the future? Certainly saves space in the room, which is a huge plus. I hope the paper works for Lil Gunns' aggression