Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a gorgeous beardie for my breeding program, but he is a little snot (hisses, flattens, beards, threatens to bite)! The breeder said he received little handling, and he has not been handled a lot here. But I have had clutches of plain looking dragons that were easily handled in any situation. Ideally, I would like a dragon with this intense red, but with the laid back temperament of the other line (Sandfire/normal cross) that I have.

I'd love to hear other's thoughts on this in general. In the meantime, I will work on handling my little scaredy cat. He's sitting with me now with HUGE eyeballs!

A little over a year ago I took in a pretty rescue. He's a tangerine pastel hypomelanistic but bites and is ultra skittish. A year later he just tolerates me. He is going to mate another hypomelanistic dragon I have next spring. So I'll find out if high stress is genetic too.

Thanks, I'd be really interested to see. That is, if we remember this conversation, LOL! It's a topic that comes up in breeding other animals, so I was curious if anyone thought much about it with beardies.