Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female Thor, 8 months. Is VERY agressive to other beardies. She is perfectly fine with people. She was hand fed since day four out of the egg. and is very tame in human hands, but when she even SEES another beardie, male or female she puffs up, lunges tries to bit, and chase. She is very mean to other dragons. She's never been housed with another dragon, ever. And I was wondering if that was hindering her socialization skills. She even goes after dragons much larger than her, and i'm worried about her hurting my friends animals or her being hurt herself. or possible future breeding mishaps. (Not sure yet if i plan on breeding her, I want to read up and be prepared first, and be sure i'll have a home for all the babies. but i have a lot of time yet, shes not even a year yet)

But back to her personality. She seems to be a bit protective of my mate and i. She seems a bit mellower when she is on neutral grounds with another beardie, but when she is on my lap or the other animal is on my lap, she gets mad...very mad. Are beardies usually this territorial?

That and she doesnt get that black beard you so often see. Her beard gets darker, maybe a bit greyish. but never the impressive black you see sometimes. Nor does she ever have those little darker lines on her chest of belly. I'm just wondering if that is a bad thing or not. She's always had a white belly that i've seen.

Bearded dragons are territorial. She obviously doesn't want any other dragons in her 'territory' which seems to include your lap. The only thing you can do is just keep her with you by herself, and in a separate cage. As she is too young to breed, there is no need to have her arround male dragons (actually it is best not to have her around any male dragons now).

The aggression could just be a passing phase, if it is new personality trait showing up or just in her nature and she will never change. Dragons are not naturally social animals so housing her alone has not hampered her social behaviour. She is acting completely normal. Though dragons can tolerate having other dragons nearby, they have need to be with other dragons other than to mate.

In the future, if you do decide to breed her you can start introducing her to a same size male on neutral ground. They may mate right away or wave/headbob at eachother etc. If she rushes into to attack, then separate, try again in a few more days to a week. Eventually when she is 'ready' she will allowe the male to breed her.

Your last concerns, it is normal not to have dark squiggles on the belly of the dragon. These squiggles may be linked to stress or youth (I see them more on baby dragons than on adults or close to adults, but have heard stress can bring them out). Her beard will never be as fully black as a male's, or as large. Also she is not fully sexually mature so that could be why her beard isn't going very dark. My female at that age had very little darkening of her beard when upset and being aggressive.
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PHLdyPayne

My male breadie is like that. He has some german giant mix in him (i think) so he has size and attitue. But like with your, fine with people but charges and attacks (or tries to) other beardies. And his beard can turn so dark, that the upper part of his chest darkens as well. The only main thing, is mine will try to charge at other dragons (usually adults and occasionally sub) that are at pet stores. I got a leash/harness for him. The "non-slip" iguana
i got for him, he figured out how to get out of it, drag himself. So i now use one of those small animal leashes(for rat, ferrets, ect.) Works better, yet to slip from it.

my females do the same thing, but only when they are in breeding season or gravid. otherwise they are the sweetest animals. once those hormones rage up it's fight time.

she might be looking to breed. i wouldn't let her if i was you, she is too young.
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a free range dragon is a happy dragon

I think if you spend alot of time with a particular beardie, they form attachments, or think of you as "theirs". My first beardie, an old male now, loves having the girls around, but if I'm giving one of them attention he has to run over and check it out. If I don't stop, he tries to join the other beardie (or lay across it) like, "Hey, I'm here, mom!". My daughter's beardie is the same, except she's more aggressive about it. We've actually used this to our advantage. I once took in a young male beardie who was given up because although adults could handle him, the beardie had discovered he could threaten a kid, and not be picked up. So every time a small hand came in his tank, he lunged at it. I housed him with big Sally (my daughter's pet). The first time my daughter reached in to pet Sally, this young dragon lunged at her hand, and Sally spun around and soundly thumped him. She stood on him a couple minutes to be sure he got the idea, then let him up. Sally's a very laid-back dragon, and doesn't throw her size around normally, so this really took him by surprise. He learned fairly quickly.
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