UH OH discouraged yet again, hard aggressive bites today from baby!

[Jaime]

oh boy did I get some agressive bites today. I placed my fingers in like normal with the collards on the tips and he chomped and wouldnt let go! OUCH! I didnt want to back down so I kept my fingers in the tank but he wouldnt stop biting and by the 4th bite almost broke skin! still discouraged with this little guy...why couldnt I have gotten a friendly happy little stinker that wasnt always stressed and worried. I know I havent had him long but a month and a half of almost every day handling I feel like we should be a little father. I deffinitely hope this isnt his life long grumpy personality ...im using latex gloves now which seemed to really deter the biting as it tasted pretty nasty. Hmmph...oh well such is life.

 

[Jp]

It's really not a good idea 2 hand feed your dragon 2 much, they start to relate your hands 2 feeding & will sometimes bite, even when u just go 2 get your dragon out of it's enclosure. Limit the hand feeding.

 

[Jaime]

The problem is Jeffo that this isnt a food associated bite..I could tell and it hurt. I havent been only handling him with food everytime either, just every other couple of days maybe. Yesterday I took him out and held him for the time out of the cage (normally I hold him in the cage) he let me pick him up well and he hung out on my lap for about 8 mins before puffing and trying to run. I held him firmly but gently and he puffed his beard up double time. I waited til the puff went away and set him down gently in his tank and patted him, everything went fine asside from puffing. Today he didnt even give me the chance to feed him, he lunged from his rock 1" to grab my finger, almost like he has planned it out and was waiting all day for it to happen lol. It wasnt food related it was very aggessive and harsh and I didnt like it, he actually looked mad and angry.

 

[Jp]

The problem is Jeffo that this isnt a food associated bite..I could tell and it hurt. I havent been only handling him with food everytime either, just every other couple of days maybe. Yesterday I took him out and held him for the time out of the cage (normally I hold him in the cage) he let me pick him up well and he hung out on my lap for about 8 mins before puffing and trying to run. I held him firmly but gently and he puffed his beard up double time. I waited til the puff went away and set him down gently in his tank and patted him, everything went fine asside from puffing. Today he didnt even give me the chance to feed him, he lunged from his rock 1" to grab my finger, almost like he has planned it out and was waiting all day for it to happen lol. It wasnt food related it was very aggessive and harsh and I didnt like it, he actually looked mad and angry.

I placed my fingers in like normal with the collards on the tips and he chomped and wouldnt let go! OUCH!

Read more: http://www.beardeddragonforum.com/index.php?threads/uh-oh-discouraged-yet-again-hard-aggressive-bites-today-from-baby.4445/#ixzz1WpAqC1Z6

 

[Jp]

Some dragons are aggressive eaters, that's y u can find feeding tongs at the pet store. With an aggressive eater u CAN NOT hand feed at all or you will end up with bites. I have an adult that I still have issues with because I hand fed him allot when he was young. He has broken the skin & left a row of holes across my fingernail but I still have allot of love 4 the little punk. Just be careful when he gets older.

 

[tdrost]

so glad I don't have issues like you guys are describing. Sampson won't even take food from our hand! Actually, he doesn't even like to eat when we are watching. If I put the food in and stick around he just stares at me. Walk away for a few minutes though, and he will eat it!
????
I figure he is just self-conscious!!

 

[Jaime]

Ugh its so frustrating. He doesnt like anything to do with people lol. We're thinking of moving his tank from our hallway to our kitchen so he can be around ppl constantly. Will this help?

 

[Jp]

Ugh its so frustrating. He doesnt like anything to do with people lol. We're thinking of moving his tank from our hallway to our kitchen so he can be around ppl constantly. Will this help?

I think if the dragon can see you more often it will get familiar with everyone & see that u pose no threat.

 

[tdrost]

I find that the dragons (the ones i have anyway) are very social when they are fed and warm.
to the point even that the female runs back and forth in her tank as people walk by.
The kids thought i was making it up, so they would walk past her tank very slowly, and she would follow. then someone else would come into the room and she'd run back to the other end and follow them as they walked by.
I let her out of the tank (onto the floor) and she follows me around the house as I am cleaning. When I am standing at the sink doing dishes, she just climbs onto a box to watch the world go by.
Unless the dogs are running around....then she tries to keep up with them!
Just for the record;
I am very careful of what I wash my floors with! No bleach, lysol etc.

 

[Jaime]

I hope mine gets that way tdrost but i'm starting to lose hope :/ ive been very good with him and gentle. He has all the right temps and although his eating habits are a tad strange (he should really eat more than he choses to at his age) he's always fed crickets and collards (im trying other veggies without much success)....your dragon is what I imagined when I got this guy, best friends forever lol, but its not turning out so dreamy. Maybe hes just having a grumpy spell but even when you look in his tank as we speak he just looks angry. He used to look so afraid, now he just looks p'd off at life. He just shed about a 15 days ago but hes starting to look a bit grey again...maybe hes going through a shed mood swing again? How often do they shed?

 

[tdrost]

to

I hope mine gets that way tdrost but i'm starting to lose hope :/ ive been very good with him and gentle. He has all the right temps and although his eating habits are a tad strange (he should really eat more than he choses to at his age) he's always fed crickets and collards (im trying other veggies without much success)....your dragon is what I imagined when I got this guy, best friends forever lol, but its not turning out so dreamy. Maybe hes just having a grumpy spell but even when you look in his tank as we speak he just looks angry. He used to look so afraid, now he just looks p'd off at life. He just shed about a 15 days ago but hes starting to look a bit grey again...maybe hes going through a shed mood swing again? How often do they shed?

I often wonder if Turtle (yes, that's what hubby & the kids chose for a name!LOL) isn't just very unique. She has been through so much, she should HATE people. But she adapted to our house very quickly!
I don't know much about shedding, but
Mine both liked it in a warm tub~ i got a soft bristled toothbrush and would just use that to drip water onto the spots that didnt want to come off. Sampson leans into the toothbrush when i brush the back of his neck.
Both the dragons i have, I set up their tanks in the front room where they would see everyone all day.
The only contact we had for about the first week was to put food in every day. Once they seemed interested in us, that's when I started interacting with them.
Not saying it's right; I didn't know what I was "supposed to do" so did what made sense to me. Seemed to have worked. Turtle was checking us out after only a few days, and Sampson was about 10 days. (Even now, he is more interested in my hubby than the rest of us.)
If I were in your shoes, that's what I would try.
No matter how you choose to carry forward, don't give up on him. Dragons aren't so different than puppies or people in the sense that we all need different times to adjust!!
I am sure you'll be BFF's before you know it!! Good Luck!

 

[Dragonsx6]

Our Dragons are kept in the sitting room with us so they see us all the time and they are all very friendly except for Daku. He had some major handling issues when we rescued him. He was in a large aquarium and the only way to put in food or try to handle him was from above which he hated. He was only in this type of enclosure as that is what his previous owner had him in and they would not handle him at all as he was grumpy and agressive getting handled and treated in this way, they also had the wrong type of bulb for his basking lamp and a 5% uv so he was also cold too. We got him a proper wooden vivarium with front sliding doors, proper heating & uv and he is a different boy altogether. He still has his skittish moments but we are now able to handle him and go in and out of his viv without fear of attack.
Hope your wee guy comes round soon

 

[ajandj]

Jaime, don't get down and it was probably a food related bite.
Yoda has not showed any signs of being agressive except once when our puppy scared him. His beard was big and black. Anyway, every couple of days l would scoop a little food onto the end of my finger and put it near Yoda's mouth to try and encourage him to eat. Even tho Yoda isn't "huge" his bite was painful, took maybe 4 bites on my finger before l actually thought about putting the food in the palm of my hand. Since then, no problems..