Examining Bearded Dragon Behavior

March 5, 2013 by  
Filed under Bearded Dragon Info

Bearded dragon behavior is important to take note of since it greatly affects the considerations that you have to make once you have a bearded dragon as a pet. There are several general observations associated with the bearded dragon that we know.  Studying the behavior of bearded dragons would help you learn what conditions and factors would be better for your pet bearded dragon and which setups would be detrimental to your pet bearded dragon. The following observations and information regarding the behavior of bearded dragons would be discussed.  Bearded dragon behavior, when compared to that of other lizards, is generally very tame and easy going.  Bearded dragons make great pets.

Firstly, adult bearded dragons have a tendency to be territorial. As a bearded dragon develops, they start of initiate social hierarchies. Most of the time bearded dragons turn out to be somewhat quiet and even aggressive.  Normally, the social relationships that they tend to create come in an appeasement manner. In terms of the sexes of bearded dragons, both sexes possess beards; however males have a tendency to exhibit theirs more repeatedly, particularly in rituals linked with courtship. The beard has a tendency to turn into dark to jet-black. Aside from this, at this particular time, the beard would blow up at some point in the exhibition. The beards could also open their mouths and even further blow up the beard to come out as even more daunting. At this point, there are many behaviors to take note particular in male bearded dragon behavior.

The male would display a speedy bobbing of its head, going up and down. Most of the time males exhibit this action with a dark beard. Basically the male bearded dragon would do this kind of display in order to present its authority over males who are smaller as well as to female bearded dragons he wished to mate with. In this case, it should taken note of that such movements that are observed from a male bearded dragon could be attributed to two facts. One is to show power and the other to show desire.  As you can see, bearded dragon behavior is not that different from human behavior.  The only difference in bearded dragon behavior, is their inability to rationalize decisions, whereas humans CHOOSE not to rationalize decisions!

Another important behavior to take note regarding bearded dragon behavior is the manner in which they stand. Beardies, as they could also be pertained to, stand on 3 legs. In addition to this it also waves one of its forelimbs in an unhurried spherical pattern. Bearded dragons particularly do this for species recognition purposes. Apart from this, bearded dragons exhibit this kind of behavior to indicate submission. For instance a smaller bearded dragon would display this behavior upon meeting a bearded dragon which is larger that its size or less dominant bearded dragon would exhibit this behavior when confronted with a more dominant one. In the case of female bearded dragons, they do this particular act to keep away from male bearded dragon aggression, particularly when male bearded dragons are bobbing their head as it was mentioned earlier.

Taking note of the behavior of your pet bearded dragon helps you to determine which stage they are and what conditions do the actions of bearded dragons entail. It also helps you understand why your pet acts in a particular manner.

Comments

4 Comments on "Examining Bearded Dragon Behavior"

  1. Sugel on Tue, 9th Aug 2011 5:33 pm 

    Bearded dragon can be great pet for lizard beginners and experienced reptile hobbyists but they do require some specialized care. Bearded dragon care is a website that is dedicated to provide as much as possible care dragon information to the pet lizard owner..Pet lizard bearded dragons are very docile reptile that breed well in captivity.

  2. Kitty Erasmus on Thu, 30th Jan 2014 7:15 am 

    Hi there!

    My bearded dragon is still young, but lately she’s got a orange coulor around her eyes and in her neck, why is that?

    it worries me, is it before she needs to get a new skin? she doesn’t want to eat either, that’s why i think it’s time again for the skin to peal?

    thanks

  3. Karin W on Sun, 4th May 2014 9:17 am 

    I don’t know what to say. I have a male 2 1/2 yrs old and female 2. I had beautiful pludges 7 sets. We kept one of the females. All was going great. Yesterday to our surprise, our male chewed our girl’s tails off and kept on going I don’t know what to say. . Why the change? He was a very good boy. Will he keep this behavior or was this a bluke? Please answer me.

  4. Emily on Wed, 18th Nov 2015 3:41 am 

    This comment is for your “secret manual”. Most bearded dragon owners do there research, but you are right, some are stupid enough to just buy it and not know anything about it. Also bearded dragons live on hard sand ( I know a lot about bearded dragons and more animals ). They live on hard sand with some rocks and some loose sand, that’s why I recommend you get a tile with some loose sand, rocks and sand glued to the tile. I see them all the time running in the yard ( I live in Australia, in the dessert ).

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