# Bitten by beardie!



## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

How could this sweet, innocent faced creature bite me? 
I took her out for some taming down handling. She was resting comfortably in my hand until I stroked the top of her head...then...she puffed out her neck, the mouth went agape, and she sprang from my hand and landed on the floor 3 feet down. I quickly grabbed her up and she gaped again, all the while thrashing. Then, she got ahold of my index finger and clamped down. I was surprised by her jaw strength! My eyeballs popped out!








Beardies aren't supposed to act this way, WTF?


----------



## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Would have loved to see it...

Sorry to hear it though


----------



## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

my sister had a beardie it bit me too. she held it all the time but if i wanted to hold him, nope mother f'er would bite me! haha i dunno maybe he wasnt used to me but in your case maybe he's not that used to being handled quite yet.


----------



## TimmyTeam (Jun 20, 2003)

I used to grab huge beardies i didnt know without fear (because most you see are so friendly) than one day i watched my buddies huuge beardie, crush a mouses whole body in one bite, you could literally hear tons of bones breaking. After that i make sure their friendly first, maaaddd bite strength


----------



## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

dont know too much about them. what's the recommended tank size for them etc.? can you tell us a little bit of info about them? i know i can google but im sure we got some people that are interested in some more details without having to go through a bunch of websites. my sister had hers in a 20gallon with a special kind of heat rock and a piece of wood he climbed on. oh and a bowl with some water in it


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Here's a link to a fantastic caresheet on bearded dragons from one of the best sites on the net for them: http://www.beardeddragon.org/articles/caresheet/

The folks at the site are a bit insane and go a bit _too_ far in my opinion on babying their animals. They kind of treat them like they're these fragile things that could break at any second. But at the end of the day they do have a lot of awesome info. You just have to sometimes ignore the crazies.

No0dles - It sounds like your sister was housing her beardie extremely poorly. Did it die? I wouldn't be surprised. First of all heatrocks are a horrible invention and should never be used with any reptile. They emit an uncrolled amount of heat and can inflict severe burns to the animals. They're a pet industry invention and something that we have long since moved past. But unsuspecting newbs buy 'em so they keep making 'em. Beardies also need special lighting in the form of uvb. This light is emitted naturally from the sun (but does not penetrate glass) and is what helps them with the creation of vitamin D3, a necessary element needed to absorb calcium. Otherwise the animal will suffer from metabolic bone disease which is a calcium defficiency that causes their bones to be weak, brittle and it will untimately kill the animal if left unchecked. When a beardie is a baby a 20 gal will be just fun but the minimum size for an adult is a 40 gallon breeder (36x18 footprint)... There's tons of other good info on that care sheet - including very important things about their diet - if you're curious.

As for a beardie being mean... I've seen several mean ones. It mostly comes from them having little to no human contact from birth. These beardies are far more "wild". Especially if they were in a home and were mistreated or neglected... Their jaw strength is definitely surprising. I've seen someone get their fingernail cracked from the bite of a beardie. Not so fun! Think of it more like a bird's beak. Lots of crushing power there. Some welding gloves for handling will curb any issues there though.


----------



## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

no it didnt die. my dad ended up giving it up to a LFS because my sister didnt take too much care of it. she had it for about 6 months and that was it. im not too big into housing reptiles etc. i love fish so i definitely didnt know about the heat rocks being bad thanks for all the great info though and i will definitely check out the site for the bearded dragons as i think they are very very cool looking and interesting and dont know crap about them haha

aww


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I love my beardie. He's such a cool dude. If I had to get rid of all my reptiles but one I think he's probably the one I would end up keeping at the end of the day. His name is Amigo and he's just so cool...


----------



## dark FrOsT (Sep 23, 2006)

my beardie bit me once while i was hand feeding it strawbarries... my bad


----------



## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

AKSkirmish said:


> Would have loved to see it...
> 
> Sorry to hear it though


I bet. Ya sadistic bastard!











> First of all heatrocks are a horrible invention and should never be used with any reptile.


So true. Back in the early 90's I had one litterally explode! Thank god, at the time my iguana wasn't on it.



> As for a beardie being mean... I've seen several mean ones. It mostly comes from them having little to no human contact from birth.


I think that's what I'm dealing with here. While she was always well fed and with proper lighting and all, the teenaged kid I bought her from had better things to do and never or rarely handled her. She was stuck in a 15g tank in an enclosed shelving unit with only one way to look outside her tank. And, all she could see was the kid's bed! This was from baby on. I know this because I was with him when he bought her. 
She's in a 30g now that's in direct traffic. She gets to see everything. I love how those eyes and that head are always moving and checking things out. I think she's a happy lil' camper now. As long as I don't pick her up...but, we're working on that.







How ironic though, I have a Tegu, a beardie, and a tarantula...and it's the beardie that nails me.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Haha. Well, I guess you're a bit unconventional?


----------



## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

Mettle said:


> Haha. Well, I guess you're a bit unconventional?


No, but I guess my pets are.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Never a bad thing.

I love my super calm super handleable etb.







Totally the opposite of what anyone would tell you this species of snake is like.


----------



## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

my adult female has bit me multipel times, and it never hurts (well she isnt trashing so its not anything painful). She doesnt bite on purpose, just when i hand feed her and once in a while, she gets my finger instead of the food, funny think is she tries to swallow it. Thats odd about your beardie, especially for a female, they are usually very gentile, but i guess all living things have their moments


----------

