How to work with aggressive or scared beardies

[zandi202]

I've noticed a lot of post lately about owners having problems with aggressive/temperamental beardies. So here are some ideas/practices that have worked well for people in the past. If anyone else has any ideas as well, feel free to chime in. I hope these help.

1. Wear an item of clothing for a few days such as a shirt and then put it in your beardie's viv so that they can get used to your smell. You can either drape it over the basking spot which is what I did, or use it as a blanket at night. Both work.

2. If they hiss or make to bite at you, don't back off. If they think that they have gotten their way, they will only get worse to continue to fend you off. If you're uncomfortable with picking them up or petting them, you can put on some gloves and that way they're chomp on the glove, not you.

3. Find a quiet area to take your bearded dragon. Be it the bathroom or a playpen or your bedroom, whatever. Take the bathroom for example, put your beardie in the bathtub and sit in it with them. Let them get used to you.

4. Never approach your beardie from above, behind, or any blind spot as that will startle them. Approach them from the front.

5. Sometimes they feel too stressed. Take some paper and cover up all sides of the viv and then slowly, even if it is week by week, take down a section at a time until its all down. Sometimes it's just too big or there's too much commotion. If they are in a high traffic/commotion room, it might be best to move them somewhere quieter.

6. Check temperatures. Temps, especially higher than they should be temps can cause aggression.

7. Go over your entire set up with someone on here as well and include feeding. I'm sure some of you have seen that huge list of questions that is posted in different threads. Copy and paste those questions to your own thread and answer them and see if anyone has any suggestions.

8. Don't hand feed. Hand feeding might seem like a nice way to bond, but beardies will relate fingers to food and get even nippier when your hand comes at them. I've seen it happen to a few people.

I hope this helps. I'm sure I've forgotten a few things, so feel free to add more.

 

[Taterbug]

Zandi, you've got a great start to some handling tips. I have a few suggests as well.

I think it is important to discern between fear/defensive behaviors and aggression. Most of the posts lately sound like scared dragons not mean ones. We should strive to understand the behaviors of our animals, not just what we think them to be.

The same tricks that work on a scared dragon may not be appropriate for a mean one and visa versa, and may get someone injured. Forcing a scared dragon to interact is a little more terrorizing than being firm with an aggressive one and may only reinforce the fear. Many animals turn fear into aggression after too long.

A scared dragon will run away or back up, hiss, gape, beard, flatten and tilt or even puff up.
An aggressive dragon will generally beard, tilt and circle keeping its face towards the target. They may hiss, lunge, and bite and even chase at offenders. There is a YouTube video of a guy with an aggressive beardie and a follow up after he tamed her down. I'll share the videos tonight, phone is a bother.

Either way it's important to start slow and small. With snakes it's advised to interact with the enclosure first and "ignore" the animal for about a week. Change the water, spot clean and feeding. Then work up to touching, holding in the tank where they are free to escape without consequence and then handling outside the tank. I think its a pretty good strategy to encourage patience and work at the pace of the animal not the owner.

In addition to from the side, approach slowly. They are easily startled by movement.

Wall coverings can be permanent. Some animals prefer the security, some prefer a good view.

If you want to hand feed, you can use tongs. Reptiles are smart enough to recognize feeding tools and not only can they discern them from your hands, some get excited knowing they are about to get fed.

 

[zandi202]

Thanks, Tater and good point about mentioning the difference between with scared and aggressive.

 

[zandi202]

Bump

 

[Brezzy99]

Great tips!

 

[dynaMOna]

Thank you for posting this. As a new beardie owner, I am unfamiliar with the difference between aggression and fearful behaviours. I am hopeful that with a little time, my guy Rex and I will be interacting like pals!

 

[zandi202]

You're welcome! I'm glad people are finding this useful.

 

[burdhr]

I am going through something odd with my bearded dragon. He is two years old, nothing has changed in his Viv, temperature, lighting, food... I've checked everything and it is the same. He normally is such a sweet boy but for the past week or two he refuses to let me hold him. As soon as I try to pick him up or as soon as I pick him up, he flattens, turns his beard black and opens his mouth to hiss. I just read on your post I should continue to follow through with holding him but I haven't been. Honestly it was scary because the behavior is so unusual. I will definitely try some of your tips. Do you know why beardies turn aggressive like this suddenly? He has never bitten me. He has just "warned" me, which has really thrown me off.

 

[Taterbug]

I am not sure forcing him to accept handling would be a good idea till you figure out what's up. The black beard implies something is upsetting him.

Since the behavior change is sudden have you noticed anything at all that could be different? How is his behavior other than when you try to pick him up? Does he move around as much, eat and poop the same? Bask like usual? Does he only react when you touch him?

Sometimes animals get aggressive from pain or a bad experience. Was it possible he was dropped prior to the behavior change? I'm not sure if you can tell without inspecting him (or maybe a vet) but is it possible he has some sort of injury or illness that causes discomfort when being picked up? How are his colors?

 

[burdhr]

Thank you for your quick reply. Your questions help. He is not moving around as much at all. He seems generally distressed when he is in his viv. His color is dark. The only time he seems to be happy is when he is out of his viv. I was able to move him Sunday to a window so he could look out, smell the fresh air and explore. He stayed in the window all day and then moved to a sleeping spot in the room that night. His color was amazing, he was definitely happy. In the morning when I moved him back into his viv, as soon as I picked him up he flattened. His beard didn't turn black but he definitely puffed it a bit. He just had a yearly exam with blood work about 2 months ago. His exam and blood work came back good with the exception of coccidia. He has never been opposed to the treatments.

This new behavior has been just within the last two weeks, almost over night which is so confusing. He is eating well. He hasn't been dropped or mistreated. Bathing has been normal. diet normal (dubia's, supers, wax worms, horn worms, greens).

He seems to react at just my presence except when I am feeding him. If I try in any way to touch him or hold him, he reacts. We moved to a new house in December and his viv went from being in the living room to an upstairs bedroom. Do you think it is a consequence of not being in a busy part of the house? Could he be reacting a few months late to that? I really miss being able to interact with him. I don't want to stress him out more, so I don't know what to do.

 

[Taterbug]

I'm not sure what could be up, but it sounds like he may not be feeling well about something. It could be that he is upset about the location - is he getting significantly less interaction/attention? It's been quite a while, so I would think it would tend to be something more recent or something is not to his liking suddenly.

Can you give a run down of your setup? It might also help get more exposure if you start a new thread in the health or behavior forums. Maybe someone else may have an idea.

 

[burdhr]

He is in a 4ft viv. Two UV lights on the inside, basking light (non-coil), heat lamp (only if temps are not high enough), basking rock on one side and climbing branch. On cool side he has a hammock and a basket to climb on or under. I went home at lunch and moved his cage downstairs to the living room. Changed his UV lights and basking light (they were not ready to be changed but I thought maybe the lighting could be an issue). He let me hold him, feed him and his color was good. Thank you for your input. I am going to give him a couple days downstairs and see if that helps. I will let you know what happens. If he doesn't improve I will start a new thread because after this I am completely out of thoughts. Fingers crossed

 

[Taterbug]

His setup sounds good, hopefully moving him will bring him back to his old self!