Thor - Scratching on Glass

Hey guys, I'm new around here. I found this place when Googling for info on my beardie, and it looks great.

I just moved my 6-8 month old BD (named Thor) to a new 15 gallon tank day before yesterday (upgraded space), however ever since he was put in there, he's been trying to dig in the back left corner, scratching on the glass. He's been doing this for hours and hours, and I'm starting to get a little worried.

I found another recent thread that was similar to this, but he's still eating well, and I've taken him out, but he gets really antsy and keeps darting off.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

You probably need a bigger enclosure. An 8 month old bearded dragon should be reaching at least 12-16" inches TL and needs to be in a 40 gallon breeder size enclosure (36"x18" base). Also make sure you are providing places for the beardie to hide if it wants to have shelter.

What type of substrate are you keeping it on?

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

You probably need a bigger enclosure. An 8 month old bearded dragon should be reaching at least 12-16" inches TL and needs to be in a 40 gallon breeder size enclosure (36"x18" base). Also make sure you are providing places for the beardie to hide if it wants to have shelter.

What type of substrate are you keeping it on?

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First, thank you for the quick reply.

Maybe he's not quite that old then (bought at a petstore, and they were clueless). He's about 7-8 inches long, nose to tail. He looks tiny compared to how much room he has, and he only leaves that corner if I drop crickets in the other side, which he runs over, eats, and returns to his corner to keep scratching. I've never even seen him explore 90% of the tank. I've picked him up and put him different places, and he goes right back to his corner. :(

Edit: And you asked about substrate. I'm using very, very fine grain sand (the bag said it was made for beadies).

Do you have places for it to hide? Scratching at corners is a sign of insecurity.

How are you heating the enclosure?

Sand is not a good substrate for young bearded dragons(dispite what the packaging may say).....so you should probably take that out and put in either newspaper or paper towels until it gets larger.

The more you describe how you are keeping the animal, the easier it will be to help out ;)

greetings,

daniel is right. sand is not a good substrate for a young dragon. they eat it and get impacted... esp the calcium sand - horrid stuff!

i have a website which has some great links to information on it... all of which can probably assist you to some degree.

http:www.timelessspirit.com/enclosure.html

Hum, his old habitat had the same kind of sand, and it was no problem.

He has a hollowed out log to hide under, but he never goes under there. I think you might be right about the insecurity part, since it's a new cage. I just rearranged a few things to try and give him a little more privacy. Later tonight I'll run out and get some new batteries for my camera, and I'll post picture of him and his setup.

Thanks for all your help so far though. :)

Edit: This is the kind of hollowed-log I'm talking about:
http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/dragons/1.jpg

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Originally Posted by komodo9

Edit: This is the kind of hollowed-log I'm talking about:
http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/dragons/1.jpg

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Warning, be very careful with those half logs. They are made of pine, when put under hot lights such as the type you use for a desert lizard, they can and usually do put off pine fumes... you may not be able to smell it, but I can gaurantee your dragon can. I had one of these logs and the dragon who was using it had neuro issues until we took this log out and replaced it with something not made of pine. Her neuro issues showed within about 4 months of using that log, and took about 2 plus months to clear up after removing that log. I personally do not reccomend the use of these with desert lizards if you intend to put them under the lights to be basked on...

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Originally Posted by komodo9

Hum, his old habitat had the same kind of sand, and it was no problem.

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becoming impacted is a gradual thing. they eat the crickets... take a piece of sand in with them. eat more crickets... eat more sand and then one day... they have this lump of cement in their belly.

i ALWAYS fed my dragons on their loft... or in a bucket. i had them trained... they saw the bucket come to the enclosure and they just climbed right in and pigged out... and then climbed back out again LOL

silkworms... i'd put up on their loft... in with their greens or sometimes i'd set them around the enclosure on the driftwood... but most times... their food was up on the loft.

and my dragons were full grown before they were on sand. i purchased playsand at the hardware store.

the sand - no sand issue is a dispute which will never be decided one way or another... but everyone agrees... sand for young beardies is a no no. ;)

Okay, I'm convinced. :) Newspaper is okay, right? Or what do you recommend that's easy to clean?

Also, this doesn't explain his perpetual obsession with scratching his way out of that back left corner? He's doing it nonstop for hours... no matter what I do, he keeps going back there.

he's just doing what dragons like to do... leave him alone... perhaps cover the cage and turn off the lights for the rest of the night and let him calm down. he's just stressing cause he wants to come out and play...

but let him settle before you start bringing him out.

and yup, newspaper is perfect!

might also be a reflection issue? sometimes if they see a reflection on the glass they get a little weird!


vaughn

I have a Uro that did the same thing until I put up fish tank background on 3 sides of the tank. He would scratch constantly at the reflection.

i dont get why sand is such a big deal or bd's i mean hell they are desert animals and the babies r on sand when they r in the desert so i just dont get it i mean yea i work at a pet store and we have our beardies on the sand and i make sure there is a bucket with food so they dont get impacted but still in the wild they are born and raised on sand. can someone explain to me further why young beardies shouldnt be on sand. besides the impaction fact. and the fact that i just stated above as they r desert animals

Punctuation is awesome... Yep.

And no, Beardeds do not live on sand in their natural habitat. They live on hard compacted clay and rocky areas, no sand.

Beardies, ideally, should be kept on ceramic tiles, paper towels, newspaper, etc while they are younger, and then when they are older(18mos-2 years) you can switch them to a particulate substrate such as the finely sifted playsand from Home Depot/Lowe's. It's made for children's sandboxes and is much finer grain than anything you'll find at the pet store.

I, myself, find that the slate tiles look very professional and are easy to keep clean.

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Originally Posted by Monty

i dont get why sand is such a big deal or bd's i mean hell they are desert animals and the babies r on sand when they r in the desert so i just dont get it i mean yea i work at a pet store and we have our beardies on the sand and i make sure there is a bucket with food so they dont get impacted but still in the wild they are born and raised on sand. can someone explain to me further why young beardies shouldnt be on sand. besides the impaction fact. and the fact that i just stated above as they r desert animals

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As far as I am aware, Bearded Dragons are from Australia. They do not live on sand there but rather dirt and rocks. Sand can cause impaction. Read care sheets written by the experts. They know because they have spent years working with and breeding these animals.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Punctuation is awesome... Yep.

And no, Beardeds do not live on sand in their natural habitat. They live on hard compacted clay and rocky areas, no sand.

Beardies, ideally, should be kept on ceramic tiles, paper towels, newspaper, etc while they are younger, and then when they are older(18mos-2 years) you can switch them to a particulate substrate such as the finely sifted playsand from Home Depot/Lowe's. It's made for children's sandboxes and is much finer grain than anything you'll find at the pet store.

I, myself, find that the slate tiles look very professional and are easy to keep clean.

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I think I'll just follow you around and agree! :rockon::D

lol, sorry about the no puncuation thing. i just start typin and forget to add all the periods, and comas. ok well thank you for clearing the beardie substrate up for me ill have to switch it over in the store now since thats how they were kept before i started there and since ive been there im the only one who does anything for the animals so they told me to take care of them and get the habitates as close to real as i can