Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone! I am new here and I have a couple questions. I just had to get rid of one of my beardies because he was fighting with his cagemate and with me. I was wondering if anyone else has ever had a beardie thats just plain mean. Usually beardies are nice and docile and enjoy being handled but this guy was always picking on his cagemate and trying to bite me. I wish I could've tamed him somehow but I was afraid he'd hurt his cagemate who is really tame and beautiful. The beardies are only about 5 months old and I know that babies can nip at each other and fight over food sometimes but he'd jump on her and bite her head and all sorts of stuff for no apparent reason. So after rambling for awhile I guess my questions are; has anyone else every dealt with a really agressive beardie and I'm wondering if it was mean of me to give him away or if I made the right decision. Thanks!

It can be difficult to house more than one beardie in the same enclosure--especially if they are of different sexes. Beardies are solitary animals and do not mind being alone--yes there are always exceptions but this is generally the rule.

You were right to seperate them--I hope he found a good home.

It is also possible for him to become tamer--but it may take some time if he is very aggressive. Hopefully when he is alone in his own enclosure he will mellow out.

DM

My guess is that one of the dragons was reaching sexual maturity and if the other is a male or female the more dominant one will try to establish a heirarchy. Shortly after that if the submissive dragon is a female than the dominant male will began to try to mate her and this is also an aggressive act. He will circle the female get in position and bite the nape of the females neck and and physically lay on her back as she drags him or he drags her.
The displays that you saw are most likely one of the two situations that I described earlier. At that age it is probably more territorial, but you did the best thing by separating them. My guess is that you attempted to handle the more agrresive animal before,during or shortly after his displays. This is not a great idea b/c the male is like a pubecent young man trying establish how bad he is so he will display even possibly bite when he is disturbed while trying to do his thing.
Most likely if you did get him back from your friend and if you separated him and handled him for a month or so you would have no problems. There are mean dragons but they are pretty rare and most of the time they can be made to be docile but this situation sounds like a coming of age thing.

Good to have you here and if you have a chance I really recommend buying The Bearded Dragon Manual and reading it from front to back it is only like 9-15 dollars.

-Randy
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AlphaDragonZ
www.AlphaDragonZ.com