Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm wondering what could stress out a beardie??do other pets like dogs or anything stress it out if it sees them??also,if you tame them well enough,what are some positive ways they'll respond toward you??i know they are all different though,but people are always saying how much their beardies like them back..i've never really heard of any grumpy beardies too much and i really want to have a love/love relationship instead of a love/hate one..alot of people have problems taming chameleons,i somehow have tamed mine really well and he doesn't ever try to bite me and is friendly(i think hes so tame because i hand feed him around 7 bugs a day and from handling him)..also,any good ways to help tame my beardie as best as i can??thanks alot,sorry for so many questions..
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Jonny Blaze
1.0 Nosy Be Panther
1 Bearded Dragon--sex not determined yet
0.1 Yorkshire terrier Brandy,10 years old
1.0 Golden lab-Dusty R.I.P May 16,2007,14.5 years old
1.0 Black lab "wiggler",2 years old
s136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/jonnyblaze_04/?sc=3

--> What could stress out a beardie?
--> Do other pets like dogs or anything stress it out if it sees them??
--> If you tame them well enough, what are some positive ways they'll respond toward you??
--> Any good ways to help tame my beardie as best as I can?
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>>Jonny Blaze

1: Many things can stress a beardie, but usually it's other animals like cats and dogs, other reptiles bigger than it, even YOU.

2: See 1:.

3: Once a beardie gets acclimated to human contact, it'll sometimes approach you when it sees you, quite usually wanting food, sometimes the possibility of being let out of its tank for awhile. It'll also quite literally "nuzzle" against you for warmth, or sit patiently next to you or on you while you do things like homework, surfing the net, etc. It may also get so tame that it'll allow you to take him/her out in public, preferrably leashed, so that they can enjoy outdoor activities with you.

4: Taming takes patience. The first rule in taming a beardie or other lizards like that is get the dragon to associate you with something he likes, like food, water (bathing is a trip!!!), outside time, etc. The second rule is to keep handling your beardie 'til he's comfortable with being on you. And the third rule is minimize the level of stress your beardie may experience by keeping other pets away from him/her, and shielding up the sides of his tank so that he feels less vulnerable.

It doesn't take much to getting a beardie to warm up to you, but it does take persistance. Keep at it, and even the most cantankerous beardie will eventually soften up.
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Dl

1. I think stress and Beardies is exagerated and overly used as an excuse when it is more likely bad husbandry conditions. All mine are calm and relaxed regardless of what I do. I use power tools in the same room, do changes and repairs on their cages with them in it, change who they live with or where their enclosure is located, etc, etc, etc, and have never seen any ill effects. But, I'm sure it just depends on the dragon. Mine are probably used to all my constant adjustments and changes. lol.

2. My neighbor has a 80lb. dog that spends a lot of time here. My dragons could care less about him and ignore him. He is curious about them though so I generally put them away when he shows up.

3. I lay on the couch and watch TV at the end of the evening before bed. Each night a dragon stays with me. All have learned to stay on the couch at this time. If they go on the floor I put them in their enclosure, so none go on the floor at night anymore. After a little while they generally snuggle up under my chin and go to sleep.

4. I think consistant interaction is the best plan. If they associate you with positive things then they will alweays want to interact. When I have babies, I remove everything from their cage prior to feeding them. I then put in the crickets, whatever they don't eat in 20-30 mins. I take out and then put all their furniture stuff back in. This means I have to pick them up at least 2 times a day (I feed 2x a day) and it has the positive reinforcement of the food.

My cat walks by Napoleon's tank and lays down beside it. It doesn't bother him a bit. He gets squirmy when I am holding him and he sees the dogs...but that is because they are noisy and hyper dachshunds. Big vacuum doesn't bother him. 5 obnoxious 11 year olds in his room playing video games doesn't phase him. I am a teacher and he will sit through visits to 3-4 classrooms of little kids, each getting to gently touch him. Through vet visits and giving him oral meds. he has never shown any aggressive behaviors. Annoyed yes, aggressive no. The only damage he has caused is scratches to my hand when he is trying to get down and a bruised ego to my son when he pooped on his shirt

yea i have to argue the thought of other animals stressing out dragons. all of my dragons are in view of all of the cats in the house, and they can also see my sugar glider cage. in my opinion they arent stressed out by them, they are almost stimulated by seeing them. my cats play games with the dragons, and my dragons never seem stressed. and things such as children, vaccum, and other busy and loud things never bother them. they have always been around a busy and fast household with other animals with no problems
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Beach Beardies

2.2. bearded dragons
1.1. Sugar Gliders
0.2. Felines *queen athena and missy*

Stress is part of every dragon's life, anything that makes it nervous etc, will cause stress. How long that stress last when it occurs and how often stress comes up, can cause health issues.

For the most part, a dragon isn't stressed if all its base needs are satisfied, such as proper basking temps, UVB light, etc.

Dragons under a year old can stress easy. They instinctively see anything bigger than them as a potential predator. Thus any cat, dog, person, bird, large moving shadows (like a spinning ceiling fan) can stress a dragon easily. However, dragons will adjust to sources they are not sure of in time. Thus regular handling and interaction will reduce causes of stress and accustom your dragon to you being something other than a potential predator.

The real danger with stress is prolonged stress can cause secondary issues, which lead to health problems. It doesn't mean having the neighbors dog over for a weekend while you petsit for them and it spends all its time staring at your dragon once in awhile before wondering off is going to cause your dragon to drop dead. Of course, if the dog tries to get at your dragon, barking and jumping at the cage till it either breaks through a screen or knocks it off the table..stands a high risk of killing your dragon (due to physical trauma).

Taming a dragon does take persistence and patience, as already mentioned. Dragons under a year old are in some ways very easy and very difficult. They often act very calm and tame for months then go into a 'don't touch me' phase full of hissing, bluffing, false attempts to bite and even real attempts to bite. Not to mention severe twisting and clawing when finally in hand. This tends to freak people out as they wonder why little 'dragon-poo' was just a darling a couple weeks go and suddenly is this little terror. Its called puberty. Not all dragons are this extreme though but brought up the extreme case to show the better contrast of behaviors.

Bearded dragons are not dogs, who can quickly warm up to people, even strangers within a very short period (anywhere from 1 min to several weeks). Bearded dragons do not associate humans as 'friends' like dogs as bearded dragons have not been pets for 1000's of years, as dogs have (and cats as well) and bearded dragons are not pack animals like dogs. It is a reptile.

Thus it takes much longer to get dragons used to being handled or being around humans. Hand feeding certainly helps, talking gently and making sure the experience with you is pleasant and rewarding (using baths is good, unless your dragon hates it..in which case I don't recommend trying to make it the 'happy time' for your dragon). Good news though, is most dragons can be conditioned to not fear humans and enjoy your company. However some dragons won't tame down completely but these are relatively rare and most often come up with older dragons that were not held by humans at all or very much (or worse, abused by previous owners).

Last note. Keep other household pets away from your dragon. Though it is possible dogs and cats will just ignore your dragon, it only takes a second for your cat or dog to decide the bearded dragon is no longer something to ignore and take a bite out of it. Cat bites or scratches can cause death due to secondary infections easily and often the wounds are so small they go unnoticed till too late. Big dogs could swallow a dragon whole or in a few quick chomps. At the very least, don't leave a cat or dog alone with your dragon, in or outside its cage (too many times have cats gone through screens and fell inside cages, maybe not actually trying to get your dragon, it could simply have jumped there to enjoy the warmth and its weight ripped through the screen). Knocked over heat lamps can also be a fire hazzard so safer to keep cats and dogs outside the room bearded dragons are kept in when you are not around. (even at night I suggest keeping dogs and cats locked out of the room reptiles are kept in while you are sleeping).

I cringe when I see photos of a cat or dog with a lizard or snake lying on them or sleeping on them...I just hope the owner whisked the reptile to safety after taking the 'cute' picture. Too many times I Read on this forum and others of the cat or dog that broke into a reptiles cage and now the animal is either injured (from bites, or just having the cage fall over) or worse, missing, fate unknown. (ie eaten or just escaped)
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PHLdyPayne

hey everyone,
thanks so much for all the replies..they've helped me to understand my beardie more..hand feeding is a key to help tame pet reptiles i think and glad to know some of you suggested that too..i acually took my beardie out one day and put a phoenix worm on my hand too and he ate it off my hand..i think its probably uncommon for most reptiles to be outside of their cage and to still take food from your hand,but with my beardie,i kinda felt he is more laid back and didn't care as much..i really appreciate all the new info. you guys gave me..also,if any of you guys could send me some pics of your beardies or setups,i'd really want to see..is there any body language i should watch for??good or bad..they've got really big personalities so the more i know,the better off he'll be since i'll be able to understand him more..thanks again
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Jonny Blaze
1.0 Nosy Be Panther
1 Bearded Dragon--sex not determined yet
0.1 Yorkshire terrier Brandy,10 years old
1.0 Golden lab-Dusty R.I.P May 16,2007,14.5 years old
1.0 Black lab "wiggler",2 years old
s136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/jonnyblaze_04/?sc=3

Hey!
I don't have much time but wanted to share my thought on stress. Different dragons will react differently. Some have nerves of steel while some can become a basket case over the least thing.

In general, I tend to believe that many other factors play a part in how easily one is stressed. Environment conditions, relationship with keeper, health, genetics, etc...

Take BDlvr's dragons for instance. I get the impression that they probably have learned to trust him due to the way he takes care of them & the time he spends with them. I feel that could be the main difference between them and one that stresses easily. Would they react the same way under an inexperienced keeper's care? Your guess is as good as mine.

Acutal Event:
A week or so ago I let my adult male down on the floor for awhile while I watched over him. He discovered two baby dragons I have and started bobbing and putting on quite a display. He was proud of who he was, king of the hill.

Within minutes of putting him back in his cage I let my German Shepherd in the house. He only walked by the male dragon's cage, without even looking at it & the dragon hunkered down in a submissive gesture and froze. Th dragon's cage was even higher than my dog's head or back was so it wasn't as if he was looking up at him. The dog is the dominant one of my dogs. It made me wonder if the dragon could sense it's dominance. I don't know.

There may be some people that use or abuse the thought or possibility of stress. I for one always consider it a possibility because it is so very real. I've seen too many dragons that I know were stressed not to consider it.

Stress in lizards, in general, is very real. It's not limited to beardies. As hardy as beardies are I'd say that they're in the middle to low range of the scale of stressable lizards. But it should be ruled out and not left out.

Ya'll take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

My dragon likes when you sing to her, I have always done this when I held her and I would pet her. I would take a tune and change the words to suit a beardie, she sits on me and turns her head while I sing to her and looks up at me with her eye. We also bought them (have 5 beardies) a swimming pool, plastic of course. We use this when we take them outside, we have rocks in so they can stand on them, make a shady part in case the sun is to hot. Of course we always stay and watch them to protect them from danger.We would only take them out a little at a time till they got use to being outside, a lot of new noises. Each dragon was different, some took longer to warm up to us but they eventually did. Our dragons are kept in a room where our cats and dog are not allowed in at all, we have had prior incident where the dog got a hold of the iguana. This required emergency surgery(costly)she survived for three months and passed away.