Little Foot Acting Up/Weird

[PumpkinCupcake]

Hi there! I just got a bearded dragon a few months ago, and I've posted about him before in a few other topics. But, I had a behavioral issue with him today.. I got home from school, and I picked him up, so I could put him in a different container for feeding(he's been fed this way since his previous owner had him, and I didn't want to switch things up too much for him) Anyway.. When I picked him up, his back feet were wrapped around his tail, and he wouldn't latch on to my hand like normal, he finally did that before I set him down. Then, when he was in his container, he wasn't moving, and I realized he had his tongue sticking out a little bit, I thought it was cute, so I went to take a picture. Well, I bent down to look closer, and he immediately flattened out, and opened his mouth at me. After about a minute he closed his mouth, but stayed flattened. He still wouldn't move, and wouldn't even follow my finger, just stayed in one spot and stared off into space(For a lack of better terms). After all this happened, I went to put him back in his enclouser, and he was fine, he didn't move until it was time to go in his hide away for bed.

Main question, is this something I should be concerned about, or it's no big deal? He's never done it before, and it just concerned me..

Thanks in advance!

 

[diamc]

Hi, sorry to hear that your beardies behavior is worrying you. I actually don't like the sound of his back feet being wrapped around his tail, that sounds like the beginnings of metabolic bone disease. When I first joined this forum MANY yrs ago, we had rescued a baby only 4 1/2 inches long and I noticed the same thing with his back legs, in fact, he had a hard time getting his legs free. I posted about this here and was told the importance of having a good UVB light. I went right out & bought a Repti-Sun 10.0 strip fluorescent and 2 days later, he wasn't having anymore symptoms. Have you noticed any twitching at all? Does he have any walking difficulties?

Could you fill us in on the brand & type of UVB you're using and what the distance is to him when he's in his basking spot? How often are you dusting his feeding with calcium & vitamins? How many feeders does he willingly eat in a day and what greens are you feeding?

Regarding him flattening out & opening his mouth, that sounds like he was reacting to you sitting or standing over him, perhaps your body made a shadow over him. They react that way because anything over their head, reminds them of a predator so they feel threatened and flatten out as much as possible to try to be invisible and because he was scared, he opened his mouth too. He will get used to you being around him as time goes on, takes them time to adjust to all the changes.

 

[PumpkinCupcake]

Hi, sorry to hear that your beardies behavior is worrying you. I actually don't like the sound of his back feet being wrapped around his tail, that sounds like the beginnings of metabolic bone disease. When I first joined this forum MANY yrs ago, we had rescued a baby only 4 1/2 inches long and I noticed the same thing with his back legs, in fact, he had a hard time getting his legs free. I posted about this here and was told the importance of having a good UVB light. I went right out & bought a Repti-Sun 10.0 strip fluorescent and 2 days later, he wasn't having anymore symptoms. Have you noticed any twitching at all? Does he have any walking difficulties?

Could you fill us in on the brand & type of UVB you're using and what the distance is to him when he's in his basking spot? How often are you dusting his feeding with calcium & vitamins? How many feeders does he willingly eat in a day and what greens are you feeding?

Regarding him flattening out & opening his mouth, that sounds like he was reacting to you sitting or standing over him, perhaps your body made a shadow over him. They react that way because anything over their head, reminds them of a predator so they feel threatened and flatten out as much as possible to try to be invisible and because he was scared, he opened his mouth too. He will get used to you being around him as time goes on, takes them time to adjust to all the changes.

He has a 150 watt basking spot, and it has a 13 watt UVB bulb. Can't remember the brands right off the top of my head. I'm looking into getting him a new UVB bulb.

He eats on average 18 Dubai roaches a day (9 2x a day) I'll dust the morning ones in calcium with D3, then his night ones I leave alone. He also gets collard greens, I've found they're the only greens besides parsley he'll eat.

He has no problem walking, in fact he loves to run around. After about 2 minutes he did let go of his tail with ease. I'm not sure if maybe I woke him up, and he was just trying to stretch his skin out(He's in the process of shedding), and he was kinda just stuck like that, or if maybe he got a little cold, and without his lights(off for maybe 10 minutes) froze him up, I didn't realize my husband had shut the heat off before he left for work.

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

Sounds to me like an "EEK!" moment, that you might have given him a little scare; Diamc is more experienced than I am though - did he stick his arms out forwards when you picked him up?

 

[PumpkinCupcake]

Nope, he grabbed on to my hand like normal with his front arms, his back legs were the only thing that wouldn't move, for about a minute.