Random Aggression?

[Jroid33]

Hey guys, this is a long one, so here I go. The past 3 nights, Bandit has been acting strange. First of all, I would like to point out he is shedding on his lips and his left eye, so I'm just giving a background. Anyways, the first night, he is barely asleep and I grab him a put him on my lap as I usually do. He is as cool as normal, then when i put him back in, he is as flat as a pancake, and has his bearded half-puffed up. Then after two seconds, he's back to normal. The next night, I take him out at night so I can cuddle with him, and as soon as put him down on the floor, he is puffed up again, with his mouth slightly open. Then, two seconds later, back to normal. So by now I've realized that I shouldn't bother him if he's shedding/sleeping. But last night, was something different. I was finished reading my book, and go to check on him. He is in the corner of his tank sleeping. I try whispering his name, and he doesn't open his eye. He is a light sleeper, and usually opens his eyes at me. I tap the glass a few times, and and is still out. And from where he's at,it's hard to see him breathing. I then open his cage, which creates a small vibration that has to wake him up, and it doesn't . Now I'm worried. So carefully, I touched his tail... THEN HE FREAKED OUT! As soon as I touched him he ran up his screen wall, jumped on his log, jumped so more, banging his tail around his cage, then JUMPED OUT his cage onto a roll of paper towels, fell over, and ran and hit the edge of my bed, than ran until he hit the wall. Then he sat there. Then puffed up, and didn't want to be touched. I had to calm him with a piece of salad. Then I carefully put him back in his cage, and close it it. Then he has a black beard for awhile, then eventually goes back to sleep.
So by then I'm shaking as it scared me so bad. For him to react so violently and be so scared, I've learned never touch a sleeping beardie. So this morning, I was able to handle him successfully and was able to stroke his beard, head, etc. So why is he like this? Is it because of his tiny shed, is it because he doesn't like me anymore? I don't know. I felt so bad for what I did last night, scaring him like that. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[Linziehonn]

I don't know if this is the same exact thing but since I had a similar experience, I thought I'd share. My 3 year old male, Mehka, did this twice when he was around 18 months to a year old. He's a pretty heavy sleeper and I've always touched him to wake him up, sound and sometimes even light, won't do it. One day I had gotten in after my timer cut their lights off and he fell asleep in an awkward position. I thought nothing of reaching in and picking him up to move him to his bed, but the second my hand landed on his back he went absolutely nuts. I thought he had surely broken a bone he rammed himself into the walls of his enclosure so hard trying to get away from me...over and over. When he finally stopped, he was staring at me completely puffed up, mouth open and very obviously angry and scared as if he didn't recognize me at all. I just sat there and talked to him until he calmed down, then picked him up and held him close for a while before putting him back to bed. He did this one other time a few weeks later but not nearly as bad. He's now over 3 years old and it's never happened again. No clue what it was, he was eating fine, he was great w/ me during the day and generally an extremely healthy bearded dragon. I never got an explanation, just happy it's never happened again. I don't know if they dream, but to me, it almost seemed like I woke him up mid-nightmare. :?

 

[Musicmeg]

This is going on with my Googlet right now. He is a little calmer today, but was puffing and gaping yesterday like he didn't know me. I couldn't see anything wrong with him so I decided it was due to moving to a new enclosure and being in an unfamiliar environment. Hoping he comes around fully.