Is my dragon dim?

[19940Holly]

I have a 4 month old dragon who I love to bits but my husband and I are concerned that she might be retarded (sorry if that's not PC). She tries to eat everything, even if it's clearly not a food item. Paper towels, my fingernails (if they're painted a bright color she'll grab me, clamp on, and won't let go until I pry her mouth open). I have her crickets in a Kricket Keeper. When I shake the crickets into her enclosure she'll try to jump out to the Kricket Keeper instead of eating the crickets that are right in front of her. She won't grasp the fact that the fish tank is made of glass and no matter how many times she tries to eat the fish she cannot get to them. She has a pillow with all kinds of baby animals on it. She always tries to eat the lion, ONLY the lion, and the thing is made out of flannel so I'm sure it doesn't taste good. She eats her own shed skin. She's otherwise very active, alert, inquisitive, and has a voracious appetite. Like I said earlier, she'll only bite if she's going after bright colored fingernails and we've never seen her display her beard.

 

[onceblue]

Beardies, especially young ones, do like to taste/eat just about everything! It's why loose substrate is not recommended. Beardies are also attracted to brightly colored things — it's often recommended to add some colorful veggies to their salads to grab their attention/get them to eat, which is probably why she's going after your fingernails. And not understanding glass is very common too. I actually have some paper on the sides and back of my beardie's tank to keep him from glass dancing too much (and from seeing his reflection). As for the lion, for whatever reason it probably looks like either something edible or something that might pose a threat, which is why your beardie is trying to bite/eat it.

That all sounds like pretty standard behavior to me, so I don't think there's anything wrong with your beardie. To give you some perspective, just today my beardie was on the bathroom sink and saw his reflection in the metal handle and tried to bite it. Also, I have a trash can with a picture of a tree on it and my beardie always tries to climb it like the branches are real.

You can probably get her to stop doing some of this if do things like keep the Kricket Keeper away from the enclosure during feeding so she doesn't think she can get at the crickets in there, put some paper/cardboard on the sides of her tank, get her a different, plainer pillow, and just make sure you don't keep anything loose that she can/will want to try to eat.

As for the eating shed skin, this is a behavior that is seen from lizards sometimes. One of the theories is that it's an instinctual behavior to keep predators from finding the old skin and tracking the lizard down, but old skin also has a lot of calcium in it, so it could be a sign that she is in need of some calcium. Do you dust her crickets?