Some times I wonder...

Remember I'm sad so I'm just talking about randomness although when I'm happy I do the same.

If our beardies miss their parents. I know it's best to separate them and I'm assuming in the wild they'll run off. But her are these hoomans speaking a language they don't know, the size of skyscrapers, in environments they don't know....


But when you literally shower the beardie with love, none of that matters.
Love meaning to ensure the happiest and healthiest conditions.

 

[xp29]

Remember I'm sad so I'm just talking about randomness although when I'm happy I do the same.

If our beardies miss their parents. I know it's best to separate them and I'm assuming in the wild they'll run off. But her are these hoomans speaking a language they don't know, the size of skyscrapers, in environments they don't know....


But when you literally shower the beardie with love, none of that matters.
Love meaning to ensure the happiest and healthiest conditions.

The mothers lay the eggs and leave, they never know them. So I don't think they miss them, but they sure to respond positively to being treated well

 

[Sue E.]

Bearded dragons in the wild abandon their hatchlings and sometimes even eat them! So on a scale of 1 to 10, you are definitely a 10 to them! It seems so cruel to us, but this is what they know-survival. Our beardies live the good life, just like dogs and cats, and Im sure they wouldnt trade it for their early life in a million years!

 

[ChileanTaco]

Remember I'm sad so I'm just talking about randomness although when I'm happy I do the same.

If our beardies miss their parents. I know it's best to separate them and I'm assuming in the wild they'll run off. But her are these hoomans speaking a language they don't know, the size of skyscrapers, in environments they don't know....


But when you literally shower the beardie with love, none of that matters.
Love meaning to ensure the happiest and healthiest conditions.

A beardie won't know their parents as the eggs are left in the sand to develop and hatch on their own.
With the beardies we talk here about (captive-bred), almost for sure our beardies hatched in a breeding machine.
Also, yes, beardies eat young beardies including their own babies.

Learning to trust a human thus is likely much harder.
If you get a kitten, a puppy (here I mean really young dog, not when you call your grown dog a puppy out of affection ), or raise a young bird, you're replacing the role of their parents/ mother. Works well for many animals to make them trust you: who feeds and cares is good.
I had, years before I got Taco, a cockatiel named Lori. I got Lori with only "pin feathers", sitting hunched down. He trusted me very early - just as I had to get into the role of a parent, fed him, preened him. Food from my hand? For sure he took it.
Looking at my Taco: When I got him, it took him months to take food from my hand. The way of "tame an animal with food" didn't work. He rather had to become somewhat tame first to take the insects. Why? I suspect he first had to trust me enough to know he is allowed to take away from me what might be my food. In nature, nobody shares with a bearded dragon - him daring to take the worm from a bigger lizard or any other animal would quite sure make a prey out of him too. In nature, at least the parents, sometimes also flock mates share with a bird.
As an animal capable of learning and outfitted with curiosity, however, with patience from both the human and the dragon, they can learn that the human is harmless, and then how they can benefit from their human, and for sure show affection.
My Taco knows very well in which way he can benefit from me and my husband (we have food, we will get the lamp running once it fails, we remove the poop, we can carry him around to other places where he can see something different, and of course, there is always something to watch with "these big ones doing weird things"), and for sure finds our and especially my presence (he still has some preference for me) great
And I know very well that Taco doesn't only like me for food (as some people, usually those not familiar with reptiles, often suspect*). Taco is not food motivated. He eats, of course, but when he's done he's done, he's not wolfing it down, he's not coming for food.

*Just this week, during breaks of my own event at the university (hackathon), I was talking with somebody from another institute that's running some kind of "desert awareness". So, geology and some biology, and there are also succulents, and a poster with local reptiles in a small exhibition used for school kids coming over. Saying that I have a reptile as a pet, I got asked some questions, where I clearly saw the interest and willing to learn more, paired with common misconceptions (like, whether my bearded dragon recognizes me, and whether he reacts to my presence). With this, I hope I made one person more understanding that reptiles are not "dumb machines".

 

[AHBD]

Interesting discussion ! They definitely have no yearning or need for their " parent " dragons in captivity or in the wild.

Having hatched + raised a couple 1,000 over the years my observation has been this for all of those years. They are flightly right after hatching but due to handling them from necessity -- cleaning cages, moving them from one enclosure to another, watching them during feeding to be sure all bugs are eaten and no one is biting their clutch mate, taking them in plastic totes outside to be in the sun to hang out in large kiddie pools full of decor [ with large, mottled areas of shade available at all times ] ----they are almost uniformly tame in a very short time. They tolerate being picked up and handled, and yes, some will want to jump but almost never attempt to bite. They are and always will be the most special lizards we could ever want.

 

[ChileanTaco]

@AHBD
As my Taco was very shy for quite a time and only overcame this slowly: I do not know how he was raised. I got him at 3 months age from a (good) pet store who is not breeding. I know in the pet store they handled him, and he was even shown me sitting on the store owner's hand. As he was in perfect health conditions when I got him - no toes or tail tip missing, good size - I would guess treatment at the breeder would not have been bad, but of course that does not tell about socializing.
Mine never bit me, but had for long this "walk around the branch to not be seen" behavior (if you looked where he went, he continued, until sliding around fully - many small wild animals do so), not eating when being watched, backing off when I attempted touching him, not taking food from the hand at all, just generally shy, reluctant and the thing with hand feeding or being picked up took me well until the end of the first half year, into the second half.

 

[xp29]

Interesting discussion ! They definitely have no yearning or need for their " parent " dragons in captivity or in the wild.

Having hatched + raised a couple 1,000 over the years my observation has been this for all of those years. They are flightly right after hatching but due to handling them from necessity -- cleaning cages, moving them from one enclosure to another, watching them during feeding to be sure all bugs are eaten and no one is biting their clutch mate, taking them in plastic totes outside to be in the sun to hang out in large kiddie pools full of decor [ with large, mottled areas of shade available at all times ] ----they are almost uniformly tame in a very short time. They tolerate being picked up and handled, and yes, some will want to jump but almost never attempt to bite. They are and always will be the most special lizards we could ever want.

Humongous personality in a tiny little package
Every single bite I've ever gotten from a beardie was from trying to grab a bug or because I scared them. Always my fault. I've never even seen a truly mean beardies let alone been bitten by one. They just simply are not mean!!! Heck if you scare me bad enough I might bite you lol.
But your absolute right, we couldn't ask for a better pet than a beardie

 

[ChileanTaco]

But your absolute right, we couldn't ask for a better pet than a beardie

I loved my cockatiel "Lori" very much, but for sure Taco is calmer and generally "nicer". Yes, it's just that such a bird has a more extrovert personality, and is much more spontaneous. Lori sometimes bit me while I was petting him, just to want to be pet at another body part now. Not just the gentle "closing the eye" like a beardie. Lori also sometimes hurt me a little out of curiosity, like trying to bite off moles from my face (likely he wanted to "clean" me from those), trying to rip out eyebrow hairs...
From Taco, I might get a scratch when he climbs over me (from nails and from spikes), but less often than I got a bird bite.

 

[AHBD]

@AHBD
As my Taco was very shy for quite a time and only overcame this slowly: I do not know how he was raised. I got him at 3 months age from a (good) pet store who is not breeding. I know in the pet store they handled him, and he was even shown me sitting on the store owner's hand. As he was in perfect health conditions when I got him - no toes or tail tip missing, good size - I would guess treatment at the breeder would not have been bad, but of course that does not tell about socializing.
Mine never bit me, but had for long this "walk around the branch to not be seen" behavior (if you looked where he went, he continued, until sliding around fully - many small wild animals do so), not eating when being watched, backing off when I attempted touching him, not taking food from the hand at all, just generally shy, reluctant and the thing with hand feeding or being picked up took me well until the end of the first half year, into the second half.

I never really hand fed either, it may or may not bond them to an owner but food is very often a motivating factor to come to you.
As for a beardie from a store seeming tame but then being shy in their new home that happens a good % of the time. You may read that you should let them take all the time they want to get " used " to you but I find that to actually stifle the progress of them getting used to the owner. I would generally wait no longer than a week to simply pick them up + handle them whether they were hiding/avoiding or even hissing . It can be a bit more complicated when they are put in a very large+ elaborate enclosure with the cool hiding areas + caves. Then that " let me hide" notion/instinct might kick in.

My suggestion to new owners would be to limit the hiding areas right from the start and the dragon becomes bolder + tamer naturallly. Also if they do hide too often for too long [ more than a week when brought home] just remove them from the hide/cave and handle them. Pick them up firmly but gently [ in a case like xp's C.J you may need gloves at first ] but usually not. Just pick them up and hold them in a cupped hand if it's a baby , if it's a larger dragon that is struggling just hold them to your chest for at least 10 minutes. They will calm down when they see no one's harming them and eventually will be easy to handle.

 

[Rocky2022]

The mothers lay the eggs and leave, they never know them. So I don't think they miss them, but they sure to respond positively to being treated well

Omg duh ..lol I'm embarrassed...not lol

 

[Rocky2022]

Bearded dragons in the wild abandon their hatchlings and sometimes even eat them! So on a scale of 1 to 10, you are definitely a 10 to them! It seems so cruel to us, but this is what they know-survival. Our beardies live the good life, just like dogs and cats, and Im sure they wouldnt trade it for their early life in a million years!

Omg whoa

 

[Rocky2022]

A beardie won't know their parents as the eggs are left in the sand to develop and hatch on their own.
With the beardies we talk here about (captive-bred), almost for sure our beardies hatched in a breeding machine.
Also, yes, beardies eat young beardies including their own babies.

Learning to trust a human thus is likely much harder.
If you get a kitten, a puppy (here I mean really young dog, not when you call your grown dog a puppy out of affection ), or raise a young bird, you're replacing the role of their parents/ mother. Works well for many animals to make them trust you: who feeds and cares is good.
I had, years before I got Taco, a cockatiel named Lori. I got Lori with only "pin feathers", sitting hunched down. He trusted me very early - just as I had to get into the role of a parent, fed him, preened him. Food from my hand? For sure he took it.
Looking at my Taco: When I got him, it took him months to take food from my hand. The way of "tame an animal with food" didn't work. He rather had to become somewhat tame first to take the insects. Why? I suspect he first had to trust me enough to know he is allowed to take away from me what might be my food. In nature, nobody shares with a bearded dragon - him daring to take the worm from a bigger lizard or any other animal would quite sure make a prey out of him too. In nature, at least the parents, sometimes also flock mates share with a bird.
As an animal capable of learning and outfitted with curiosity, however, with patience from both the human and the dragon, they can learn that the human is harmless, and then how they can benefit from their human, and for sure show affection.
My Taco knows very well in which way he can benefit from me and my husband (we have food, we will get the lamp running once it fails, we remove the poop, we can carry him around to other places where he can see something different, and of course, there is always something to watch with "these big ones doing weird things"), and for sure finds our and especially my presence (he still has some preference for me) great
And I know very well that Taco doesn't only like me for food (as some people, usually those not familiar with reptiles, often suspect*). Taco is not food motivated. He eats, of course, but when he's done he's done, he's not wolfing it down, he's not coming for food.

*Just this week, during breaks of my own event at the university (hackathon), I was talking with somebody from another institute that's running some kind of "desert awareness". So, geology and some biology, and there are also succulents, and a poster with local reptiles in a small exhibition used for school kids coming over. Saying that I have a reptile as a pet, I got asked some questions, where I clearly saw the interest and willing to learn more, paired with common misconceptions (like, whether my bearded dragon recognizes me, and whether he reacts to my presence). With this, I hope I made one person more understanding that reptiles are not "dumb machines".

Halfway reading this and I'm crying brb

 

[Rocky2022]

A beardie won't know their parents as the eggs are left in the sand to develop and hatch on their own.
With the beardies we talk here about (captive-bred), almost for sure our beardies hatched in a breeding machine.
Also, yes, beardies eat young beardies including their own babies.

Learning to trust a human thus is likely much harder.
If you get a kitten, a puppy (here I mean really young dog, not when you call your grown dog a puppy out of affection ), or raise a young bird, you're replacing the role of their parents/ mother. Works well for many animals to make them trust you: who feeds and cares is good.
I had, years before I got Taco, a cockatiel named Lori. I got Lori with only "pin feathers", sitting hunched down. He trusted me very early - just as I had to get into the role of a parent, fed him, preened him. Food from my hand? For sure he took it.
Looking at my Taco: When I got him, it took him months to take food from my hand. The way of "tame an animal with food" didn't work. He rather had to become somewhat tame first to take the insects. Why? I suspect he first had to trust me enough to know he is allowed to take away from me what might be my food. In nature, nobody shares with a bearded dragon - him daring to take the worm from a bigger lizard or any other animal would quite sure make a prey out of him too. In nature, at least the parents, sometimes also flock mates share with a bird.
As an animal capable of learning and outfitted with curiosity, however, with patience from both the human and the dragon, they can learn that the human is harmless, and then how they can benefit from their human, and for sure show affection.
My Taco knows very well in which way he can benefit from me and my husband (we have food, we will get the lamp running once it fails, we remove the poop, we can carry him around to other places where he can see something different, and of course, there is always something to watch with "these big ones doing weird things"), and for sure finds our and especially my presence (he still has some preference for me) great
And I know very well that Taco doesn't only like me for food (as some people, usually those not familiar with reptiles, often suspect*). Taco is not food motivated. He eats, of course, but when he's done he's done, he's not wolfing it down, he's not coming for food.

*Just this week, during breaks of my own event at the university (hackathon), I was talking with somebody from another institute that's running some kind of "desert awareness". So, geology and some biology, and there are also succulents, and a poster with local reptiles in a small exhibition used for school kids coming over. Saying that I have a reptile as a pet, I got asked some questions, where I clearly saw the interest and willing to learn more, paired with common misconceptions (like, whether my bearded dragon recognizes me, and whether he reacts to my presence). With this, I hope I made one person more understanding that reptiles are not "dumb machines".

So awesome, thanks for sharing all of this information

 

[Rocky2022]

Interesting discussion ! They definitely have no yearning or need for their " parent " dragons in captivity or in the wild.

Having hatched + raised a couple 1,000 over the years my observation has been this for all of those years. They are flightly right after hatching but due to handling them from necessity -- cleaning cages, moving them from one enclosure to another, watching them during feeding to be sure all bugs are eaten and no one is biting their clutch mate, taking them in plastic totes outside to be in the sun to hang out in large kiddie pools full of decor [ with large, mottled areas of shade available at all times ] ----they are almost uniformly tame in a very short time. They tolerate being picked up and handled, and yes, some will want to jump but almost never attempt to bite. They are and always will be the most special lizards we could ever want.

Awwwwwwwww. Why am I don't faint all of these responses

 

[Rocky2022]

@AHBD
As my Taco was very shy for quite a time and only overcame this slowly: I do not know how he was raised. I got him at 3 months age from a (good) pet store who is not breeding. I know in the pet store they handled him, and he was even shown me sitting on the store owner's hand. As he was in perfect health conditions when I got him - no toes or tail tip missing, good size - I would guess treatment at the breeder would not have been bad, but of course that does not tell about socializing.
Mine never bit me, but had for long this "walk around the branch to not be seen" behavior (if you looked where he went, he continued, until sliding around fully - many small wild animals do so), not eating when being watched, backing off when I attempted touching him, not taking food from the hand at all, just generally shy, reluctant and the thing with hand feeding or being picked up took me well until the end of the first half year, into the second half.

Awwwwwww. I remember some of those behaviors.