Bearded Dragon has hurt nose from banging nose on metal lid

[Christina Sutton]

My sons dragon started banging his nose against the lid of the tank which is a thick hard metal. His nost has a small wound and is red. Any ideas why he would be banging like that all of a sudden? He is in a 65 gallon or so tank. The dragon is about 10 months old. Tank is kept clean.

Recent changes:
1. my son has skipped feedings here and there. No more than a day at a time. I am making sure he doesn't skip feeding him anymore but this was over a period of a 3 weeks skipping one or two days a week of feedings.
2. He has not been taken out of his tank as much
3. We relocated his tank into a different area of the house

Can these things cause this behavior?
Should I worry about his nose? It started getting better then he made it worse again. What can I put on it? What can I do to prevent him from doing this? Do I need to get a softer lid??

Thanks!

 

[Christina Sutton]

 

[PatsyB]

Sounds like he's getting bored and just wants out of his tank to explore and play. As far as the wound on the nose goes, take some Betadine and dilute it with water until it looks like weak tea and with a q-tip dab it on his nose to clean it. At night when the lights go out, you can put some Curad Silver Solution on the nose and that will help heal it. You want to do it at night though because you don't want the lights to burn it.

As far as feeding, depending on how old the dragon is, missing a few meals isn't a bad thing. Adults should only eat a few times a week but juvie's should eat at least once a day. If anything a fresh healthy salad should be given every day. The other thing that your son needs to do is clean the food bits up off the carpet every day and clean the poop out. Not only can it start to smell, but the dragon can get a bacterial or fungal infection from being on a dirty carpet. I use carpet and the easiest way I found to clean it is pick up what I can daily and then once a week I take it out and vacuum all the loose bits off then put it in the tub and spray it with vinegar and water and scrub any stuck on stains. Rinse real good with hot water and then roll in a towel to get the excess water off, then hang to dry. You can also put it in your washer on hot.

 

[Mom2Dovakiin]

Patsy has excellent suggestions, I think I'd add, if he can reach the top, lower his climbing items. That way he's unable to climb to the top and hurt himself on the lid.

 

[PatsyB]

Patsy has excellent suggestions, I think I'd add, if he can reach the top, lower his climbing items. That way he's unable to climb to the top and hurt himself on the lid.

That's a good idea too!

All he needs to do is get the lid up just a little bit and figure out how to get under it and he can escape.