Is Bearded Dragon Cohabitation A Good Plan?

[PumpkinJelly]

Hey Guys. Bearded Dragon Cohabitation is NOT a good plan...

You may already know my two baby Beardies were being housed together temporarily. They didn't even last two months.

Up until yesterday, I had no problems with Fiz & KD. They seemed to be as content as clams and weren't too bothered by eachother's presence. Well, unfortunately, KD felt the need to "act up" when Fiz was just laying happily on his basking rock.

KD lunged at Fiz and bit his tail.

That was the first and last time I had ever seen a conflict between them. There is now a duct tape enforced cardboard barrier seperating the two siblings.

Fiz suffered minimal damage. He already had a nub tail from when I got him. KD put one or two tooth marks in Fiz's tail. Luckily Fiz didn't bleed, although there are one or two red marks on his tail. He's being treated with warm Betadine baths, Neosporin, and isolation from KD.

It's completely my fault, but if I hadn't seperated them last night, who knows what KD could've done to Fiz!

Please take this as a warning. My situation is no where near as horrible as any of those in the pictures above and on the other previous pages, but it could've eventually developed into something more serious.

I learned my lesson, and I admit, I was wrong. Fiz paid the price for my mistake, and he's getting tons of crickets and love for the next month because I'm so sorry!

 

[diamc]

Thanks for clarifying what happened. Must have been very upsetting to see that. Thanks for sharing your story here.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

I put the pieces together and discovered that KD must've bit him twice. The first time I hadn't known where the marks came from. Then awhile later I was cutting cardboard to make a divider for the tank and I looked over to see KD bite him again! The wounds aren't serious, from what I can tell. I got the Betadine, and I have Neosporin. I think he can heal up, and I'm not too worried about him losing more of his tail like before, since it's not chewed up like before.

 

[CaptainVimes]

Is the cardboard & ductape construction a temporary divider?

Reason I'm asking is because, although ductape seems to be ultra strong, it won't hold up to higher than average room temperatures forever. (talking from experience)

If it were to suddenly become "unstuck", it could end up being stuck on either dragon, and believe me, when it DOES stick to something you DON'T want it to, it will stick hard and fast! (Sod's Law :lol: )

Obviously I'm only talking from experience, how you divide your tank, temporary or permanent, is completely up to you.

 

[Germ]

I learned my lesson, and I admit, I was wrong. Fiz paid the price for my mistake, and he's getting tons of crickets and love for the next month because I'm so sorry!

Thanks for having the guts to share the consequences of your mistake, solidifying the reason for this thread

.

On the flipside, it is so unfortunate that your Youngster had to suffer injury, because you had to test the waters , prior to understanding or believing the severity of this info & point trying to be brought more widely recognized, although it has always been out there.

The previous poster also poses a very relevant issue about Heat vs Duct Tape, 'Sod's' or 'Murphy's' Law will get us, almost every time. Good quality Packing Tape, applied to clean surfaces, seems to hold up reasonably well in my experience at < basking temps, but needs to be monitored closely.

Hope Fiz's injuries heal well & quickly.

Good Luck,
Germain

 

[BeardedAaliyah]

THANK YOU for posting this. Most people think they're the difference between fighting and not fighting. They don't realize how selfish they are by NOT separating their Beardies, then they're surprised when one of their Beardies is missing all it's limbs.

 

[chasndave]

thnaK YOU for showing me this link i now know not to put my beardies together and they should 100% post that in all pet stores cause obviously pet store people dont know what they are talking about they are just out to make a sale at least thats what happened when we bought our 1st dragon luckily we opted not to get 2 at that time... thanks again

 

[Germ]

This post in Picture\Video Format - CLICK ME!

More Pics of the results of Cohabitation ............

And People still want to try & beat the odds. Eventually, results similar to this or much worse, will inevitably occur.

This post in Picture\Video Format - CLICK ME!

 

[diamc]

Such devastating pictures. The poor beardies, they certainly don't request being housed together. Sure hope this thread makes a lot of owners "stop & think" before even considering it.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I can add my voice to injuries. I rescued two baby beardies from their tankmates. And both were under 3 mo old. Issy only had 1/2 a tail & Rubio was missing most of the digits on his right front & hind paws. They both healed & grew up strong.

I also have a story to tell abou two dragons that were out of their tanks at the same time, all my fault, too.

I put Didi out 1st to run around & went to do some chores. When I came back I couldn't find Didi so thought I'd already put him in his tank, talk about a mentalpause moment: I then put Leo out, turned my back for a second, heard a strange noise, looking back & Didi had found Leo & they had already fought. Didi had blood all over his tail, from the vent to about 2" above his tail. Leo had bite marks all down his tail & Didi had actually bitten part of his tail, about 2" from the bottom, almost off. I grabbed them both, Leo went into his tank so I could help Didi. So after the blood was off, Didi had claw marks all over his tail. What made it worse, was he was shedding that part of his tail, so had to remove the shed. Then betadine bath for 10 min & polysporin cream all over his tail. I kept that up for 4 days. I did the same with Leo, separately. He was also treated & didn't lose the end of his tail, but it was close. I keep checking their tails & so far no infection & complete healing.

So even though I don't house together, all my beardies have their own tanks, I'm much more careful about their out of tank times. Fights can happen in the blink of an eye & you're left with the damage or even a dead beardie. I also can't say loudly enough DON'T PUT BEARDIES TOGETHER, EVER.

 

[PumpkinJelly]

I learned my lesson, and I admit, I was wrong. Fiz paid the price for my mistake, and he's getting tons of crickets and love for the next month because I'm so sorry!

Thanks for having the guts to share the consequences of your mistake, solidifying the reason for this thread

.

On the flipside, it is so unfortunate that your Youngster had to suffer injury, because you had to test the waters , prior to understanding or believing the severity of this info & point trying to be brought more widely recognized, although it has always been out there.

The previous poster also poses a very relevant issue about Heat vs Duct Tape, 'Sod's' or 'Murphy's' Law will get us, almost every time. Good quality Packing Tape, applied to clean surfaces, seems to hold up reasonably well in my experience at < basking temps, but needs to be monitored closely.

Hope Fiz's injuries heal well & quickly.


Good Luck,
Germain

Seems like I must've skipped over this post, Germain. My apologies. Fiz really didn't suffer any substantial damage. He was bitten on the tail, just a small cut. He already had a nipped tail. Fortunately nothing dropped off & there were no infections, and he's shed since then and is coming along just great. When they were housed together, I couldn't really do much to separate them. I only had one basking light. But once I had a second light I used cardboard and duct tape to make a divider (as previously mentioned). The duct tape held up well as I had gone overboard with basically sealing ever corner and edge multiple times :lol: They have long since been separated and actually, the tank that they were previously housed in is now vacant. They now have their own custom tanks in separate rooms. Fiz is okay now, and has never been better Thank you for your concern.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Well, for anyone that just saw the thread "Help, please" - anyone see that one? It was just posted today with some very gruesome pictures of a bearded dragon whose head was bitten so severely that she lost teeth, has an obvious broken jaw, and her eye is 'lazy' in its socket. This issue is a no brainer and I am sick of the fools who keep saying cohabitation is okay. If it is so OKAY then why was this bearded dragon mauled by its 'friend'? And now the person who posted the pics and was asking for help removed those pics and is now quoting all the sources who said it was okay to put the dragons together.

I would like to believe that people are intelligent, and that they use their brains to think logically, but I'm not so sure now. I think people do whatever they want to do, without thinking, and then when things go wrong they will blame others or just say it was an isolated case.

What a terrible thing to do to your pet - to put it at the mercy of one of its kind that is bigger and stronger - and then just wait for aggression.

Anyone see the prison movies, where someone gets sent to prison and then they are put in a cell with a huge guy, and they know they are in trouble...? Imagine your beloved pet bearded dragon, stuck in its jail cell, just knowing it's being dominated and no one will help it.

 

[Germ]

Sounds like a bad one - Missed the Pics

 

[sweetiepie9]

I really like this thread & am glad you started it Germain, it's full of good common sense as well as pictures of what can happen when beardies, be they male or female are housed together. When breeders house their beardies together, they also have huge tanks with multiple basking spots & good UVB lighting. That's completely different than pets in people's homes. So I'm glad that this is on our forum & I hope that people will read it through before even thinking of having beardies share tanks. I have 4 males & they're all in their own tanks. I've never put any beardies together, especially when they're adults. So thanks again & I hope more people read this thread. If I see any more posts about co-habitation, I'll refer them to this thread so they can read & see what can & probably will happen.
Deb

 

[Germ]

Thank you! to all who have shown appreciation of the thread, the seriousness & intensity of it's message. Also a Huge thanks to all who have 'Directed' people to it & hope you and many more will continue to do so. As these beautiful creatures continue to grow ever more popular, more and more people are adding them to their collections & families. We need to give this message as much exposure as possible.

I have this thread Stickied on 5 forums (Including this one), posted on a 6th, as an article on a BD Club (5th) & had a member of this Forum PM me for permission to 'sticky' it on a 6th & 7th. I provided her with the 'Text Editor' version of the original post including the codes & links to all of the pictures. The only thing I asked, was 'Credit' for the original thread, posted in it's entirety, & be emailed a link to where it is posted. She complied & it is now 'stickied' on those 2 also. To my surprise, I just also found it posted as an article on The Dragon Spot, that I was unaware of, placed there by a fellow member of this forum.

I would be very glad to do the same for anyone wishing to spread the word on other forums, as this person did. Only slight changes may be necessary to post it on any forum, as some forums may use different coding for the sizes & colors of the fonts, in order for it to display properly.

Any one wishing to help make this as visible as possible & in some small way, help prevent more unfortunate incidents (like the Drastic one yesterday for example), that are so unnecessary, on other forums & are willing to agree to my small request, please feel free to PM me & we will make it happen. The more the better.


HELP SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

This Can Not Be Stressed Enough ...

14,203 views to date over all