Aggressive Bearded Dragon?

lnmarsh

lnmarsh

Love * Luck * Faith
Hi all. My juvenile bearded dragon (about 8-10" long head to tail) has recently become VERY aggressive. I used to be able to reach right into his terrarium and grab ahold of him, bring him out, hold him, feed him, etc etc etc., and he really just sat there. Well the other night he just bit me out of NO WHERE and now he wont stop. Luckily the little bugger dosnt have teeth cause if he did, my hand would be tore up right now! He bit me about 7 times last night - I was just trying to move him away from his water dish so that I could take it out and clean it. I cant even get him out of his tank to clean it right now because all he does is puff up, strike out, bite me, then haul ass either around his tank or across my room. Im afraid my cat will get him if this keeps up...

Any ideas on what could have suddenly brought this on and how I can get him to chill out?! Jeez I thought they were supposed to become quieter as they got older...
 
N

NatureCenter

New Member
lnmarsh said:
Hi all. My juvenile bearded dragon (about 8-10" long head to tail) has recently become VERY aggressive. I used to be able to reach right into his terrarium and grab ahold of him, bring him out, hold him, feed him, etc etc etc., and he really just sat there. Well the other night he just bit me out of NO WHERE and now he wont stop. Luckily the little bugger dosnt have teeth cause if he did, my hand would be tore up right now! He bit me about 7 times last night - I was just trying to move him away from his water dish so that I could take it out and clean it. I cant even get him out of his tank to clean it right now because all he does is puff up, strike out, bite me, then haul ass either around his tank or across my room. Im afraid my cat will get him if this keeps up...

Any ideas on what could have suddenly brought this on and how I can get him to chill out?! Jeez I thought they were supposed to become quieter as they got older...
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If your dragon has "no teeth" then something is very wrong with it. All beardies have very sharp teeth since they day they hatch. At 8-10" size, those teeth are certainly big enough to have sliced you up pretty good even from a minor nip and not an outright full on bite.

Beardies in general do to tend to be pretty docile, but you can't guarantee it for all animals all the time. 8-10" head to tail...assuming your dragon was sexed as a male, it's borderline, but probably still a little too small for outright alpha male breeding aggression type behavior. Males are usually of a mature size at 6-8" head to vent (i.e. do not count the tail length). Not all mature males exhibit "alpha male aggression", but some do exhibit that behavior and it can be made even worse if they can visibly see other male dragons (or even their own reflection in the glass of their tank).

Another possibility is that the dragon could be under-fed and already associates "the hand" with food and therefore is trying to get to the food because he is hungry.. kinda like how dogs sometimes get over-excited when you have a bowl of food and they jump on you trying to get the food dish before you can actually put it down for them.. the difference here is that the dragon may not be able to realize that you don't actually have any food at that particular time.. it's just associating food with hand and reacting. (I used to have a beardie that was actually able to recognize fedex trucks and associate the truck with the box of crickets that would be delivered each tuesday morning...kinda cute. His cage had a view of the street and he would get crazy when he'd see the truck).

Another thought... it's also possible the animal could be reacting in a defensive behavior due to repeated teasings by humans. It's not unusual for children (and even adults) to want to tease animals for their amusement. Some animals just don't handle that well and will retaliate in the only way they can.
 
Mongo53

Mongo53

New Member
lnmarsh said:
Wow... You're funny AND technically have a point LOL. Thanks!
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Yea, whether he inteded to or NOT, cold blooded creatures slow down and become less active when they are colder, lower the temperature in the tank may NOT solve the problem, but will at least allow you to clean the tank.

Animals will lash out or act different if they are hurt or sick, and maybe thats the culprit, all the more reason to clean the cage and water dish.
 
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