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Otter_23

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Everyone talks about how gentle and friendly their bearded dragons are. Ours sucks he hisses and tries to bite. He doesn't want to be held at all and tries with every ounce he has to get away. He will eat from our hands but all hell breaks loose if you try to pick him up. I kind of like the attitude but wish he would also mellow out every once in awhile. I saw people sitting at shows with their dragons sitting so calmly. Ours would have lept off that table long ago. Is there any chance for rehabilitation for him? I would guess he is about 5 months or more older.
Mark Westberg
 
I have 2 dragons (brothers from the same clutch). One is as placid and laid back as you please. He is great with anyone, strangers, kids, etc. His brother is not violent (no hissing, biting, or scratching) but has no interest in being held/handled and only wants to get away.

Hopefully, with patience and love, you can tame your little demon.
 
My male was like that when i first got him, and he behaved like that for the breeder, got him half price cause he drew blood :hehe: , but i was up for the challenge and how he is placid as can be. except for a few little outbursts when he sees my dog. No biting, just bluffing. What i did was just let him sit on my handabove his cage for small amounts of time until he got used to me. At first some days were good and some were bad. Now he is always well behaved
 
Try to put him in the bath tub once in a while like every day, I knwo this sounds corny but its true the warm water will have a calmign effect, my iguana used to be sooo bad at hissing and slapping his tail at us and biting out at us that my mind kicked in to a Yoga mood and figured that if i was "P'd"off as he was a long bath would relaxe me so why not him? Well after about a month it worked. Just put him in there and accasionally drip water on his head gently and stroke his back and hold him, he might freak out a swim crazy in the tub but let him go, let him decide when he is going to figure out the water is not going to do anything to him. If you want put like a log in there for him to climb on just in case he decides he wants to climb on something. Heck my dragons love when we put their boat in the tub w/ them, they climb on it and ride it around the tub when we turn the little "AA" batterie motor on! LOL
 
Thank you very much for the replys. It gives me hope that he may be salvagable. Maybe we won't have to do group therapy but I'm pretty sure he is going to need individual therapy. Definate anger management.
Mark Westberg
 
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!!! :)
 
Thats good to hear! Drako is starting to make faces at Scorch from across the room and its starting to P Scorch off really bad! LOL its so funny becauae he thinks he is so much bigger compared to him than he really is!
 
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