Hi. We have a male bearded dragon that is about 4-5 years old now. This winter, his behavior has changed quite a bit. This particular beardie brumates deeply every fall from about late August - early September, until just after New Year's. This year, he woke up and became active in early December, a good bit earlier than normal. When he wakes up for the season each year, he is normally VERY active for the first few weeks, and then settles down to a more normal activity level. This year, his behavior is quite different. He has still not settled down and it still very, very active. He runs back and forth across his tank all day, and also does a lot of glass surfing. He has also started head bobbing A LOT this year, which he never did before. His beard is also frequently jet black when he does this. There is only one change in his environment this year and I'm wondering whether that explains the changes in his behavior, or if it's age related as perhaps growing into more "adult" behaviors and less "adolescent" behaviors. We have normally always had a fake vine in his tank along the back glass (the tank also has a plant and rock background picture on the back, but it's always been there). The vine had gotten just too ratty this year and we decided to toss it and get him a new one. Then we decided to wait a bit to put the new one in as he normally poops daily or more for the first few weeks after brumating and then his GI tract calms down and he goes less frequently, and we thought the new vine would fair better if we let him settle down a bit and quit pooping so often.
The old vine did cover more of the glass, so there was less of his own reflection to see, but there was still plenty of places for him to see his reflection before, so I'm not sure if that is what is going on or not. He certainly seems very happy and healthy, I'm just curious why his activity level, head bobbing, and black beard are so high this year compared to previous years. I'm wondering if it is likely the absence of the vine in his tank, or whether this kind of behavior is more common at a certain age? Thanks.
The old vine did cover more of the glass, so there was less of his own reflection to see, but there was still plenty of places for him to see his reflection before, so I'm not sure if that is what is going on or not. He certainly seems very happy and healthy, I'm just curious why his activity level, head bobbing, and black beard are so high this year compared to previous years. I'm wondering if it is likely the absence of the vine in his tank, or whether this kind of behavior is more common at a certain age? Thanks.
