I am new to this forum and looking for some help. We have a 7 month old beardie who is of a really sweet nature, so we typically let him out in the lounge to run around.
Though today he was trying to get past my partner on the sofa and fell off (distance of about 30 cm), she went to pick him up and he puffed out his beard, hissed and ran underneath the sofa.
We left him for 10 mins to see if he would come out, so in the end i lifted up the sofa and he got very aggressive with me (beard, hissing and very defensive). So i had to throw a towel over him to pick him up and put him back in the viv. As soon as he was in the viv he ran straight into the corner and tried to hide.
This is out of character and i think he may have hurt himself or maybe associated us with his fall. I am really looking fot your feedback on this? If this does not approve over the next couple of days i will take him to the vets in case he has hurt himself.
Did he land on carpet, or a thick rug, or a hard surface of some kind ?
If he landed on a very hard unforgiving surface a 12in fall for an adult bearded dragon if he landed wrong is enough to serious injuries to him.
Keep an eye on how he moves until you get him to a vet , if he is limping or seems to have lost his mobility , or starts showing continuous blackbeard, or doesn't like being touched somewhere , it's a bad sign and I'd recommend at least a visit to a good reptile vet to have him examined and xrays taken.
Thanks for the information, he landed on a thick rug which is a lot better than the laminate flooring.
After a couple of hours he had stopped hiding in the viv. So i have checked his limbs and body and nothing is resulting in a black beard or any pain....... but i will keep an eye on it.
I think i had a bit of a panic this morning and completely unsure what to do. So thanks for your help
Hi there, that's very typical behavior when they've had a scare. Falling suddenly startles them, as they don't realize that it's about to happen, and then they may hide like he did + still be very frightened like a child can be inconsolable at times after a big scare.
Then the beardie settles down after a while being safe back in his tank and realizes that all is well.