Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We bought a bearded dragon from a friend and it is really mean. When it sees you outside it's tank it opens it's mouth, hisses, and when you try to pick him up she doesn't hesitate to bite. She's about a year old and apparently she's always been like this.

Any suggestions on taming?? I've never seen one this mean before.

This is very unusual for a beardie to act like this. Are you sure that it has never been mistreated, teased, or abused? I am told that you can tame a mean dragon. It takes a while, but it can be done. Check in the past couple of weeks in this forum. Someone asked the same question and was provided a link to a care sheet on the subject.

Good Luck,
Dawn

I don't know if he was ever mistreated, but I don't think he was handled much as a tyke. The first thing to do is figure out how to pick him up without being bitten. Come in low and from the back, they can't turn their heads around very far. Then keep handling him out of his tank and I think he'll get used to it. I've made some sort of headway with mine. He'll at least sit on my knee for a while and submit to petting. Being picked up is the scariest thing.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

I was told just the opposite....if you come in from behind it will startle them and make them bite or puff up. But if you use a gloved hand and put one finger between his/her front legs and kind of ease them up on your hand, it is less threatening to them. I also notice that if mine is puffing up when he is on my hand, I will put my other hand on his back giving him a sense of security.

Might also be a good idea to always try to keep their feet on something, as if they were standing on something, such as your hand.... helps them not to freak out quite as much Hope this helps

Angie

here is the link to that information i told you about.

http://vandivers.com/bdt.html

again, good luck!!