thegardengrrl
New member
I received a 3 year old female leatherback about 6 months ago. This beardie had come from a neglect situation. She grew up in a large enclosure with five of her clutchmates. When she came, she was very timid but grew to be what appeared to be friendlier with regular handling, a good, regular diet, and housing that gives her plenty of space.
Over the last several weeks, she has become very aggressive toward everyone who has formerly been totally ok with handling her. We are not new to reptiles - or beardies - in our house, and we're generally not fearful of any of them. However, my eldest daughter received a nasty bite, and a subsequent nasty infection, from this beardie.
It's not even a matter of putting your hand in her space. She will flare and gape at any living thing that walks past her space. She has bitten me twice, each of my daughters once, and another household member twice.
I have contacted the woman who rescued her, and her advice was "hold her more." This beardie flat out doesn't want interaction with us, and has become menacing. I would love to keep her since I feel committed to her well being. However, caring for her has become problematic. This is not our first beardie, and I've never, ever seen anything like this. I get that some of this behavior might not be entirely her fault, because of her prior neglectful situation. But she wasn't always like this with us.
I've had her to the vet (a herp specialist) and she's been given a clean bill of health. In fact, we were told she is acutally in superior condition. Her diet checked out, and we were told that we don't actually need to cater to her as much as we do. The vet was astounded that she receives pots of living plants that she can graze on at will. He said that we need not feed her anything but crickets, but we're still offering a varied diet of insects and such. Dubias, crickets, horn worms, phoenix worms. All kinds of fruits and veggies. Living herbs, collards, and more. She has good light, good UV that is replaced regularly, and proper supplements.
I'm completely at a loss right now. No one else in my house will have anything to do with her, and we've been advised to get rid of her.
Any reasonable advice would be very much appreciated.
Claire
Over the last several weeks, she has become very aggressive toward everyone who has formerly been totally ok with handling her. We are not new to reptiles - or beardies - in our house, and we're generally not fearful of any of them. However, my eldest daughter received a nasty bite, and a subsequent nasty infection, from this beardie.
It's not even a matter of putting your hand in her space. She will flare and gape at any living thing that walks past her space. She has bitten me twice, each of my daughters once, and another household member twice.
I have contacted the woman who rescued her, and her advice was "hold her more." This beardie flat out doesn't want interaction with us, and has become menacing. I would love to keep her since I feel committed to her well being. However, caring for her has become problematic. This is not our first beardie, and I've never, ever seen anything like this. I get that some of this behavior might not be entirely her fault, because of her prior neglectful situation. But she wasn't always like this with us.
I've had her to the vet (a herp specialist) and she's been given a clean bill of health. In fact, we were told she is acutally in superior condition. Her diet checked out, and we were told that we don't actually need to cater to her as much as we do. The vet was astounded that she receives pots of living plants that she can graze on at will. He said that we need not feed her anything but crickets, but we're still offering a varied diet of insects and such. Dubias, crickets, horn worms, phoenix worms. All kinds of fruits and veggies. Living herbs, collards, and more. She has good light, good UV that is replaced regularly, and proper supplements.
I'm completely at a loss right now. No one else in my house will have anything to do with her, and we've been advised to get rid of her.
Any reasonable advice would be very much appreciated.
Claire