Bearded Dragon? HELP!!??

Question

Ok so my little sister owns this bearded dragon. He's in excellent health, he eats well, poops well, and drinks well. But lately he's become obbsessed with his reflection. All he does in run up and down the cage trying to get at it. I don't know what to do..and I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself! How do I keep him from either seeing it or chasing after it?

Answer 1

I've had the same bearded dragon for about ten years. He just loves to do this! It's like his sport. Like we enjoy being here on Y!A, he enjoys attacking his reflection (less now, since he's getting to be a such an old man). Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. Let him run around somewhere away from his cage. Bearded Dragons enjoy exploring new places as well.

Answer 2

If he isn't running into the cage walls or hurting himself, then it may be best just to leave him be.  If you're worried that he is going to hurt himself however, you could line the outside walls of the cage with pictures so that he sees those instead of his reflection in the glass.

Answer 3

You may be able to shine a light on that area of the glass, the glare may help to lessen the reflection. If that doesn't work, you may be able to put some kind of background on the inside of the tank where his reflection will not show. You could use one of those backgrounds that you put on the outside of a fishtank. I am not sure if any of this will make any sense to you because I think of things better than I explain them, but good luck!

Answer 4

It's pretty normal behavior for a beardie but if the tank is an appropriate size then it can pick up enough speed to injure itself so covering three of the sides with paper would help.  I've known spme people that have had to put the paper completely around the tank because they had an overly hormonal male.

Beardies need a tank that is 70+ gallons or a 40 gallon *breeder* which is 36x18x16 as they are the only options that have enough space as EVERY dimension needs to be at least the full length of the beardie if not more.  Even 40 long/tall or a 55 is inappropriate as they are too narrow front to back for a beardie to comfortably turn around.

Answer 5

Bearded Dragons are awesome. My brother has one. Dont worry about it. They are really playful animals. My brothers bumps his head off the glass loads, its funny lol.

Answer 6

put plain white paper against the walls of his cage if u think its wrong. thouhg i dont think it could harm im at all.

Answer 7

I know how you feel, personally I'm one of those new owners; absolutely paranoid about everything. First day he ate a bit, second he didn't, but now he's back to eating his crickets.. So scare one was over.

Mid-feeding today, he's doing exactly what your sister's is doing.. Running up the glass, looking at the reflection, or even taking a step back, and looking like he's 'kissing' the reflection.

He's about 8-9 weeks old, and I just have that over-protective parenting thing going for him, but since there are answers here that say dragons are playful and like to explore, etc etc, it makes me feel a whole let better.

The only thing I'm worried about now is a tiny bit of redness here and there on his body; I tried to look it up, but found nothing. So I started looking on google to find pics of baby dragons, and a few also had the same little bits of redness here and there.. Nothing big or stripes, just a little bit where he still needs to grow... If anyone knows that it's NOT normal for them to look this way though, mind sending me an e-mail at [e-mail] with a reason? (A pic would help too, since I don't want to get worried about him over nothing.. already heard the stories of red scales and scale rot, or patches of scales falling off..)

He's healty, active, and finally happily eating in his new home, my final concerns were him running up the glass (which you people put to rest) and now just if the bit of redness is normal..

Hope your bearie doesn't hurt himself though, I'm sure he's just curious; like when dogs see themselves in the mirror.. Only difference is a dog is smart enough to realize - after time x.x - that it's not really the dog!

Answer 8

dont kill him, he just likes his reflection like a parrot they are amused by it and this might mean that he is lonely so get a friend and see if that works if not pray for him xD

Answer 9

he may be mentally retarded they have found many cases where they do tings like that

Answer 10

I would say buy him a different  cage where his reflection doesn't show if you can afford it.

option 2: Just watch him carefully and take him out when he starts

option 3: Buy him a friend so he doesn't run himself into the wall