Normal behavior?

Well it isn't docile at all when I'm over there and nothing is working. I have figured it out though (I guess), she is shedding. I am worried about it though because its been taking so long and she isn't shedding it one piece.

I don't think they ever shed in one peice. As long as all the peices of dead skin are coming off that's okay. The female I had would take anywhere from a couple days to over a week to fully shed depending on how much she rubbed and scratched. My problem with her attitude wasn't from shedding though. I'm not saying yours isn't though, that could be a factor. Good luck with him!

They won't shed in one piece like a snake does....the difference being mainly that Beardies have all of those pesky arms and legs type appendages that get in the way. LOL. A couple of mine get "attitudes" when it's shedding time...I don't know if that's part of your problem or not. I know my juvenile male has a SERIOUS studly attitude right now, assuming it's "puberty hitting".....but then as soon as I pick him up and I convince him I'm not scared of him, he gives up.

I swear something is wrong with this ones attitude. It is so so so hard to catch him to pick him up. I just had my hand in the cage wiping up some water yesterday and go bit.. he was already in a defensive position, but I still tried to wipe it up.

I didn't know if it was coming off bad or not, but thanks for the info. Are some beardies just hateful?

Beardies can take up to two months to do a complete shed of their entire body thats with each section thats not a time frame for the shedding skin to come off lol. I would recommend keeping a bottle of Zoo Med Repti Shedding Aid around though because I never had a problem with my beardies shedding until my girl started shedding during the winter and it never came off her foot so she almost lost her foot until I used the shedding aid on it. Every beardie won't have problems shedding but her son also lost the tip of his tail due to a bad shed so since then I always keep it on hand to be safe rather than sorry.

As for the attitude if your beardie's still young it'll more than likely grow out of it but every beardie's different. My girl would bite me on purpose when she was younger when I'd hand feed her so she could try new things but I did the same thing with my older boy, he bit me by accident after that he wouldn't accept food by hand for about a month and he's still very careful about taking food from my hand. The more time you spend with your beardie the more it will come to trust you as well so just give it a little time.

I almost forgot about the bath. All beardies don't like bath's my girl loves them and her son loves them once in a great while so he can swim, if your beardie doesn't like bath's you can mist it in its tank about once a week depending on age which is what I do with my other boy since he hates bath's. My beardies that like bath's love to swim so I fill the tub with enough water so they can swim but I keep my hand in the water so they have someplace to go to get out of the water, if you've never given your beardie a bath I wouldn't make the water any higher than shoulder deep. Sorry about it being so long but I tried to cover everything that I could think of and sometimes I tend to ramble. I had to learn almost everything on my own so I try to let other people know before they make the same mistakes that I did in the begining.

Originally Posted by Chris Steele

Are some beardies just hateful?

Occasionally you will find a beardie with a BAD attitude. There is hope though.

I have a juvie female here that I picked up about a month ago. She arrived and right out of the box she was a demon. She thought she was the boss. It took less than a week to bring her down a few pegs. After dealing with Meanie these past 2 years she was a piece of cake to train. Now shes an angel

Here is another post I made from a thread late last year.

Originally Posted by Rebel Dragons

It sounds as if he has you trained and not the other way around. I have a dragon here that is named Meanie. He got his name for a damn good reason. He has bit several people and has drew blood.

It took over a year but here is how we kicked him of his "habits". At first we waited for the lights to go out and then once he was cool and almost asleep we would handle him. Since he was cool enough to be docile we let him get used to being held. Of course once the heat from our hands warmed him up he would get aggressive again. We did this for a few months. And as the weeks went by he slowly started to calm down while being held. Once we saw significant signs of improvement we started to (while wearing a leather glove) pick him up during the day. I forced him to be held. He flipped out non stop but we stuck with it. Again for a few months. The improvements came slow but we got to the point where we showed HIM who was boss.


We eventually got to the point where we could pick him up bare handed during the day. We got a lot of bluffing and the occasional bite but we stuck with it. If he got too out of hand with the biting and tail whipping we would flick him on his nose. Nothing to cause serious pain or injury but hard enough to get his attention. After several more months of his "therapy" we now have a nicely behaved dragon. He still isn't big on being held for long periods of time and does occasionally try to show off but it is a world of difference. It's a great feeling not to be scared of him.


Meanie has actually had quite a few of my friends work with him over the last year and a half as well. All of us played a part in his "recovery".

Well worth all the work!!!