Is it the start of puberty?

[BigD16]

Alright, So I have had 3 dragons and have a good bit of experience and knowledge on beardies. But, I do not know everything there is to know about beardies. So this is where everybody else comes in. My mom just acquired her first beardie earlier this year from repticon. She bought a baby sandfire beardie from Hernin at MightBiteReptiles. When my mom picked out her favorite beardie,held him, and decided to buy him, She told Hernin what one she wanted and he sexed it for her. He told us that it is a Male. He is approximately 8 or 9 months old and about 8 or 9 inches long. Right now we have him in a 20 to 30 gallon long and she is about to move her beardie into one of my old 40 gallons. He eats regularly. He eats size appropriate gutloaded crickets and over the past few months, I've had my mom start to slowly introduce veggies. He will accept veggies, But he would much rather crickets. Anyways... A couple weeks after she bought him and brought him home, We noticed that he had a severe case of MBD. We were able to quickly turn it around and he regained the function and use of his back legs. Anyways, Onto what I really want to know... He isnt the calmest beardie right now, But my moms got him to slowly warm up to her. He's still pretty jumpy and tries to intimidate and bite at anything that is bigger then him. Which I knew was something we'd have to deal with from the get go until he calmed down. But back on point, My mom went to give him his crickets and he completely ignored them and instead went nuts and started glass dancing and running all around his cage very furiously. He splashed his water everywhere and seemed to be fascinated with his reflection. I picked him up a few times and he jumped out of my hand once and back into his cage and resumed his rambonxious running. I put my hand on the ouside of his tank and covered the area he was looking at on that particular side of the cage and he seemed to calm down. Now my question is, Could he be starting to go through sexual maturity and that's why he's getting so hyper over his reflection? Could he be thinking its another dragon invading his home? He hasnt really ever been super calm since my mom bought him, But again, She's got him calming down and warming up to her slowly. But he has never been this hyper or rambonxious before since we've had him and it only seemed to be when he was looking at the glass sides of his tank and at his reflection. Is he old enough to be going through puberty? Is he just trying to protect his home from the "Unknown Dragon" that he see's in his reflection?

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any information anybody has for my mom.

Thanks again,
Matt

 

[reddragon087]

could possibly be that he sees his reflection and is being territorial. i've seen beardies
who have a statue in their cage and go after it. mine saw my snake from across the
room for the first time two weeks ago and went nuts so it could be he doesn't know what
he's looking at is really himself.

 

[Arawood]

It could be him seeing his own reflection, my boy does the same thing. He runs around, looks like he's doing some sort of dance on the glass every morning! I don't think it's anything too unusual

 

[BigD16]

Thank you for your responses. That's what my original thought was, Was that it was a territorial display. But I wasnt positive because I've always bought/owned older more mature/grown dragons. So I just wanted to get some opinions on it.

 

[NVBeardies]

I would personally paper 3 of the interior sides to stop him from seeing his reflection. Seeing his reflection in the glass will cause him to stress out and make him territorial. Which in turn will make for a miserable time trying to socialize him. Using some clear packing tape around the bottom will stop the crickets/insects from climbing the papered sides. Mine will usually only glass dance when they see feeders or want to come out and play.

When my male started puberty he would head bob so hard his front legs would pop off the floor. During his bobbing he would half black his beard, almost like he didn't know what was going on with himself.

Good luck

 

[BigD16]

Thanks for the advice. That's what I had done to keep my male and female from seeing each other and constantly head bobbing and arm waving at the other to get the other one going. But I never thought to do it for him. I'll have my mom tape some paper to his cage.