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whytepizza

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I have a young bearded dragon, about 4 or 5 months old, maybe younger. I got him with another baby. Conciquently, the other dragon died due to impactation he had aquired before my recieving him. He lost all bloodflow to his rear half and after a long struggle and losing one foot he died. Right before he died his brother/sister (the one i still have) started acting very aggressive. Any time i put my hand anywhere near the cage he opens his mouth and tries to bite it! i have to pick him up with gloves which he tries to tear apart with his little teeth and then squigles and squirms to the point where he's going to hurt himself. I keep trying to hand feed him and holding onto it so he realizes my hand is not a threat, but after few weeks of doing that it's not working.
I have recently found out that the breeder (private) i aquired them from had problems with other babies as well. One lost both back feet, the other lost its tail, one got so scared when being picked up it twisted itself and hit it's head on a wall causing internal bleeding (which apparently killed it), and a few other shedding/personality problems.
Any advice on calming down a dragon, or doing something that might help him to be handled more often would be greatly appreciated! If my fiance picks him up and it bites her he will be snakefood within the minute, and i don't want that to happen.
Please, any advice would be awesome!
 
Seems like the breeder was not too bright. Docile personalities can be breed through proper selection. You just have too deal with pain for a while until the dragon comes around. How often are you handling the dragon?
 
right now i'm not handling him too ofter because he bit through my glove. He was fine when i first got him. He's handled maybe once a week before i feed my snakes. i pick him up with a glove and set him in a bare hand. A few times he bit my bare hand. Or, he'll sit there and then bolt away
 
Boy , this is indeed unfortunate. I don't know what to tell you but to say good luck. I know I have always been told that frequent handling helps. And that do not try to pick him up from above-to move in from the side and scoop him up this way. I know my Leo was a very obstinate dragon, especially during puberty. He was so ferocious I was scared to death of him. But I finally just made it my mission to calm him down and I just went for it. I wore gardening gloves on both hands for a week and then took off one glove the following week. The 3rd week I was free of gloves but still very scared of his antics. I hope the best for you and him. Take care Beth
 
Just out of curiosity, who did you purchase them from? My friend experienced something very similar with his satan dragon and I was just curious as to if it was the same breeder.
 
Hey Kite- He is a petstore dragon who is 6 years old now...if you have complaints on this breeder please post on the BOI...I have to say that my subsequent dragons were bought from some reputable breeders who stated that their care of their dragons included frequent handling...I know its hard...I really do know...but Leo has not opened his mouth, been wild, escaped the sliding doors etc for a long while. He finally, after about a year, learned to trust me. PM me. Take care B
 
Thank you, Beardiepal, i will continue to give that a shot. I wasn't sure if what iw as doing was correct, but i was doing it regardless.
Yes, the breeder i aquired them from did not seem to bright. She reminded me of someone from the Soprano's (keep in mind she was from Jersey). anyway, she walked into a pet store i was working at in PA and was just unloading them. There were maybe 30 in a tupperware container, and none of them looked in good health. I took the one who was most alert (the one i have now), the one that seemed sweetest, and one that was nice but not overly sweet.
Guess my instinct about dragon personalities is off a little, lol.
Anyway, i hope he'll come around soon, i absolutely love dragons!
 
I wish you all the luck in the world...I love dragons too...Leo is now almost 6 years old and he is so much much better...perhaps yours, like you said has not been cared for prior to you getting him...and he will learn who loves him. Take good care and let us know how things are going....Beth
 
I am having the same problem with my beardie, I have had him since July 4th and bought him as a baby. Everytime I try to touch him he runs and hisses at me, opens his mouth like he is going to bite me. I just want to get his trust because if he is acting this way as baby, what will he do as an adult if he doesnt get used to me now.
 
We've run across a couple of dragons with this extreme "fight or flight" response
and found that persistence and patience can calm the animal down. We try to handle, not catch, the dragon for as long as it will remain on our hand then it can jump away as it sees fit. The idea being to hold the dragon in the cage where it is comfortable with the option to flee. This will take a while. Grabbing it forcefully, or by the tail, will set efforts back so be gentle.

Getting the dragon to associate good things with being handled is the key. Warm baths with every handling, maybe an idea. Hand feeding (with gloves of course) can establish a good reaction over time also.

It seems that this kind of personality becomes visible in the first 2-3 months and can take just as long to mellow.

I'm sorry to hear about the 6 yr old grumpy dragon, it seems he's wired a little differently and has developed an instinct that he sees as needed.

Best of luck with the little biter, the last biter we had bit my wife and it took her longer than the dragon to get over it.

Jeff
 
Well, some sad news. I had to put the dragon down. since he was so aggressive i did not get to examine him right away when he had a wet stool, i waited one day. I took him to the vet and he had coccidia. Sadly, the vet put him down. On the upside, i have a rescued dragon sub adult who was from the same breeder. Also had Coccidia but the vet treated it in time. It lost its back legs, but healthy as a horse! There is one other i migth be aquiring who also had coccidia and lost a few toes, but nothing too major.
So far, they are great!
 
Just out of curiosity, how bad was the coccidia that he could not be treated?
 
Well, lets see. I took him to one vet who said everythign was fine. "It just takes a while for them to start shedding" were his exact words. I didn't like that vet, but i was in NJ at the time.
So, i moved, he was pretty good. I started to notice his tail was getting a little skinny but then he shed! I had a party. Well, about three days after he shed his front foot started to swell. I took him to a vet and the vet said he seemed okay, but didn't run any feces tests (stupid doctors). If i only had my own microscope.
Anyway, He started to have trouble with the skin by his mouth so i went to, yet, another doctor. This doctor ran tests and found it. So, he flushed his entire system and hand fed him, but the dragon bit the heck out of the dr's aid.
The dragon was good for about two days and then crashed. No bacteria in its intestines and started having extensive diarreah. So, the doctor put him on some of the good bacteria diet thingy. Everything the dragon ate it threw back up. Lost about 15g (it was small to begin with). This went on for about a month and then the doctor said no treatment was working well and that the dragon might have some damage due to genetics. So, he recommended to put the dragon down and that he could do no more.
I called a friend who bought a few from the same woman and he said his vet did not kill all the becteria but used a different oral treatment and it worked well. Downside was, his dragons lost a few appendanges because this treatment worked slower and he couldn't give them specialized time.
Well, i loooove dragons, so i took them in. One with no back legs (but she has stumps) and one with a few missing toes. Both are great and have amazing personalities! The one with no legs is bossy, too. I keep telling her to 'kick the other one around!' :reddevil:
Anyway, they are doing well. If it wasn't for that first vet i would probably still have the other little guy! :( I actually kind of miss him and his moody self. I was very surprised, the new dragons (hatched around the same time) are around 10-12", the one i had was 6". So far so good, i just have to switch out their substrate soon. I only had crushed walnut shell around and i did not want to use the sand the previous dragon was in, so tomorrow i'm switching to filtered play sand. I'm moving today and i am just waiting to move them into the new home, then switch their bedding.
 
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