Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a bearded dragon for 2 years now. At the begenning she was sweet, when I was taking her out of her cage and putting her on my stomach she was falling a sleep while I watched movies. After a month or 2 she bacame VERY agressive, I hand fed her, and decided to stop, she was going for my fongers so I figured she thought I was food, so I was using non-scented gloves to feed her, didn't work either. So I just left her with her food. I can't even put my hand in her cage anymore, I only do so so that I can clean her. I feed her daily with fresh fruits cut in tiny pieces and some bio baby food and small crickets with vitamine and calcium powder. I have a 75 galon cage for her with a piece of wood near the lamp on the hot side of the cage (not to close so she doesnlt burn her self) she has a small pool also. Part of her cage is cooler and the other one is hotter, in the hot part she has a spot where she can hide from the heat. I use scentless (not sure how that's spelled) clothing and towels (clean of course) and not calcium sand or pieces of wood. On one of my days off I took a clean t-shirt, wore it without perfume or deodorant (unpleasant) so my smell would be on it and I put it in her cage, she loved the shirt, was sleeping on it but I still couldn't approach her. I always wash my hands wiht perfume-free soap before going in the cage. I'm really doing my best for her, I love her, but I have NO idea what else to do. She was so sweet and gentle and now she wants to eat me. She hisses at me, gives me the beard, flattens, opens her mouth wide, snaps her jaw... She even bit me once, pretty bad (I had her "teeth" indentations in my nail, lucky it wasn't somewhere else, the nail stopped it). I have an Australian rat (Degu) and 2 cats, but they don't go near her and have no interest in her. I never dropped her, never hurt her and I was ALWAYS careful with her, I love her so much PLEASEEEE SOMEONE HELP ME!

I have 2 aggressive males. Neither has ever bitten me but they don't like interacting with me. I am patient with them but their attitude doesn't seem to improve.

I also have a rescue that was given to be because he was a biter at his previous home. He is the sweetest dragon now. I did nothing fancy but think that he was angry because of the conditions at his prior home.

My best suggestion is to micro manage her environment. Make sure temps. are within proper parameters. 105 basking site. 85-90 high side ambient, 75-80 cool side ambient. I'd also pick better food choices. Here's a good link.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html

you could try the hamster ball theory, put her in there, hold her in that for a while, then gradually hold her without it.

Thank you SO much for your replies! I'm new here and I'm suprised with the fast responses, thank you all!

I feed her better than I feed myself hahaa (seriously, my animals eat better than me hahaa). The temp in the cage is perfect on both end, I have 2 lamps, 3 thermometers and timers on the lamp (go technology!) so I doubt this might be the problem.

What kind of thermometer?
Stick on thermometers can be very inaccurate.
Also what kind of UVB does she have, how long has she had it and how close can she get to it?
How many live feeders is she going through? Is she having any trouble hunting them?
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1.1.0 beardies
1.0.0 bloodred corn
0.1.0 leopard gecko
0.1.0 golden gecko
0.2.0 mourning geckos
1.1.0 cats

soon to be:
0.1.0 amel motley corn
BRB!!!!!

It's not a stick on thermometer it's like the ermmm, not sure of the name it's digital... (Digital censor??) and I have 2 which are at each end of the cage monitoring both of the lights with timers that go off if too hot and that whole thing (Like thermostats at home kind of thing). The temp is fine that I'm sure off, she has NO problem hunting any food at all (she's VERY active) she eats from 6 to 12 crickets a day -sometimes she only eats 3-4- (small ones, the size of the space between her eyes) and has fresh fruits vut in small piece and biological baby food daily.(all of it is powdered with calcium and vitamins). She is 8 inches from the lamp from her wood (it's like a tunel she can hide under it, and she can lie on it when she wants to bask. When she's on the wood the temperature ON the surface is 33-35 degres at all time and is in the hot part of the cage(not sure in farenheit) and the cool part of the cage is 25-26 degres at night and 26-27 degres in the day, the hot part is 31-32 degres at night and 32-33 in the day. Her water bassin is heated to 22 degres (before I didn't heat it and she never used it) and her drinking water is the temp of the cool part of the cage. The cage has very good ventilation also.

I'm not sure if this is clear (english isn't my first language, but it's pretty good but it might not be as clear as it could be sometimes).

PS. I also use a carpet between the cage and the floor because we got winter here and the floor is cooler. And in summer I take it off.

One thing I noticed is it seems like you are heating the enclosure at night. The enclosure should be allowed to cool at night so that the beardies metabolism will slow down and he/she can rest properly. Arid regions are known for hot days and cool nights. I am American and don't have the time right now to find a conversion table to check your temps. Perhaps one of the Canadian posters can chime in.

Your 35C(95F) hot spot can be bought up to between 40-44C (104-111F),the 32C(89F) is OK for hot side and 26-27C (78-80F) is OK for cool side. Probably turning off the basking light at night will bring the night time temps to a descent all round night time drop. Just my thoughts on this. Hope it helps.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

Thank you so much, didn't help much, she spends all her time in the water now and still completely wants to kill/eat me

Mine does too. My female is about 9 months old. I got her when she was about 3 months and she was always a little bit more aggressive than others i've read about. I've tried calming her down but to no avail. I tried just holding her while she was still in the cage and holding her for 10 minutes a day and nothing seems to work. I guess she is just one of the few evil dragons out there. She has calmed down a little, i can actually get her out now and hold her for about 15 minutes before she goes crazy, but she seems to like me more when i put her in the bath tub, you might could try that.

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coheed196
1.1 raptor leos (gordo, sunshine)
0.1 beardie (scarlet)
1.1 veiled chameleon (e-yore, trixie)
1.1 panther chameleon (apollo, polly)
0.1 jackon's chameleon
0.1 albino burmese (peaches)
1.0 pit bull (ajax)

Thank you for the quick replies! Well, I did try to give her baths, made her go psycho, she really diesn't like it, and when I take her out of the cage to go anywhere she throws a mad fit. Yesterday I wrapped her up like a baby in a sweater and held her for 15-30 minutes, she didn't hiss or anything, so that's progress! I doubt I will get her to be like she used to, but I still love her.