Strange Behavior

[Venidara]

First off, I have two beardies. One is about six months old, 11.5 inches long, male, and basically everything I've been told is good in a bearded dragon. He's fantastic and seems perfectly healthy.

My friend gave me a three year old female, about 16 inches. She's definitely got a calcium problem, and rarely eats her fruits and veggies. Though, currently, it may be due to the shut down beardies are supposed to have during winter time, from what I've read, but my younger one isn't doing it.

This is about strange behavior I've noticed in her.
Due to her calcium problem (I want to take her to a vet when I have enough money for the closest one, but for now I'm doing my best to improve her health and she is seemingly getting better.) I don't want them to mate, and I keep them in separate terrariums. They are nearby on separate tables, and they tend to run at the glass towards each other, obviously wanting to get out and interact somehow. Combining that, his head bobbing, and her arm waving, they probably want to mate. My friend never mentioned this about her behavior, so I'm guessing it could be something that they do when they want to mate as well.

She tends to scuffle in her cage a lot and tear at her newspaper (I use newspaper as substrate, because I've yet to find a reliable form of loose substrate) and she tends to do that all night until about 3 or 4 in the morning, and then she'll finally go to sleep. She's also a light sleeper, and tends to wake up if I go in or out of the room. I only have to change the male's substrate when he poops, which is usually every day or two. However, the female will tear her newspaper to shreds and basically have it in pieces every where on her wood and rock, and walk around on glass. She also likes to sleep under newspaper. Often times during the day, she will shove her nose into a crease and just sit there scratching at the ground, whether there's newspaper there or not. And she has a rock that has a small opening, and is probably big enough for her to fit all the way in with her tail sticking out, but she'd be snug. I assumed she'd just play on it, but she likes to crawl in to right above her back legs and then scratch with them, even though she can get herself out easily, I've seen it. I tend to take her out when she does that, though.

If this is important, she has a red light on all day and night for heat, while my male has a white heat light during the day and a lower heat level black night light at night. Both have the exact same UV-B light, which is at a 10.0 emission level. And for some reason, my male's claws stay at a reasonable, normal length, while my female's have been really long and starting to curl under since before I got her. I'm assuming once I get her to a vet, they have tools to clip them, or is there something else I can do to fix that, and could it be part of why she scratches so much?

Has anyone had similar behavior? Have any idea why she does this or if it's something bad at all?

Oh, and I feel like when there are two beardies of different sexes, it's weird and confusing to describe things using their names, so I chose to refer to the as my male and my female. The male's name is Atreyu and the female's name is Butters. I'm still pretty new at caring for beardies, so I may have just not been told about this kind of behavior yet if it's normal, especially since most of the instruction I got was intended for the male I got initially, and when my friend gave me the female, she clearly didn't have as much information as she should, considering she went three years using the wrong UV-B and a calcium/phosphorus mix powder. :/

Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[sweetiepie9]

The digging behaviour is normal, as she probably was on sand before. Just change the newspaper, as that's part of her. Alot of dragons love to dig. As for basking, she should have abright white just like your male. And no lights at night, or if you do need lights, cover them up with soft towels, that will stop the digging on the female's part. The lights will bother them all night if kept in there. Are the 10.0 Reptisuns, as those are the best lights. You can trip your femals nails with a regular nail trimmer, but just the very top part or you'll make her bleed.

Care for male or female beardies are always the same, same lighting, same temps for basking, same UVB. Calcium on their bugs or veggies, nothing is different. I've raised both males & females and their care is always the same. So Please change her set up to the same as your males & you'll see a different dragon.

You might want to change the tanks so they can't see each other, as the behaviour you're stating is normal for both males and females & yes, the male will try to mate with the female if you put them out. So if you decide to give them "outside the tank" time, one at a time, please. If you can't change the tanks, then just leave them, it's fun to watch them interact that way, it's all normal.

So see what you can do about getting her set up correct. Her basking temps should be 100F to 102F, your younger male's basking should be 102F to 105F to help; with their digestion. And get rid of those red & black lights. If the room their in doesn't go under 65F at night, they don't need lights to heat their tanks. If it's very cold, under 65F, then get ceramic heat emitters, as they don't give off any light, only heat. Otherwise, if you feel you need those lights for nighttime heat, you'll need to cover your dragons. I cover all my dragons with fleece blankets I had made, because I live in a 1 bedroom & use the living room & bedroom at night. I have 5 male adult dragons and 2 geckos, I've had dragons for 6 years now, and got alot of my experience from people on this site. So try that first, see how she reacts.

Good luck & Happy New Year
Deb

 

[carlisv]

Beardies are naturally territorial and not at all social with other beardies, even of the other gender. It's possible that since their vivs are next to each other, one or both of them are stressing out. Can you do something to block their view of each other - put a piece of cardboard or fabric between their vivs so they can't see each other, or even put them in different rooms? You should do what you can to make each of them think they're the only beardie in the house.

Although the bobbing and waving looks social, it can also be competitive or aggressive. When Richard sees Dubs sitting on "his" spot on the couch, the beard gets black and the bob and wave show starts. If Dubs even gets a glimpse of Richard's tail (we have them on opposite sides of the room with furniture in between, so they hardly ever see each other) he practically levitates he glass dances so frantically. We've even gone so far as to raise Richard's viv on blocks so he'll be able to bask higher than Dubs - height is status with beardies, and the one who can reach a higher spot "wins". Richard is bigger and older, so that made sense to everyone but Dubs!

Another thing I noticed in your post is that you have a red night light. Even though the folks at the store say beardies can't see it, they can and it disturbs their sleep. If your house gets below 65 at night, get a heat emitter for night-time use. If it doesn't get below 65 you don't have to do anything.

 

[Venidara]

Thank you all so much! I will get a new heat light as soon as I can afford one, which should be later this month, I hope.
And as for night time, I will watch Atreyu's temperature tonight to see where his night light keeps it. It's not very hot, and it's not really bright at all, I can hardly see it. Also, he tends to sleep under his log, so I'm not sure if light will even bother him. Sometimes he sleeps next to it, but even with the light on, he falls right asleep and sleeps straight through the night. My room is very cold in the winter, though, so I worry about their heat. I have heating pads for both of them on the hot sides of their tanks. I don't know how much that helps the overall temp though. Atreyu sleeps on his, so he would probably be fine.
I definitely agree, though, that the light is likely bothering her at night. I noticed she almost never sleeps unless she is either under her newspaper or has her nose in the cool side's corner. And she's so easy to wake up. I don't know how accurate my temps are either, since I haven't been able to afford a nice thermometer, just a little stick on thermometer. Not the plain stickers, it's got an arm that shows the temperature, but I don't trust it too much for either. Normally their digestion seems fine, but the tanks tend to read between 90 and 100.

Thank you both so much! I hope this helps.