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how does your BD react to being outside?

does he get mad when you take him outside

  • yes

    Votes: 4 28.6%
  • no

    Votes: 10 71.4%

  • Total voters
    14

ThDude

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Messages
487
Location
Virginia
i have taken my bearded dragon outside twice just to see if he would do anything or try and bask while i held him in the sun.

both times he freaks the hell out, puffs up his beard and tries to bite me. i mean im just holding him in my hand and he goes nuts. he can puff up huge!

so does your do anything weird or just chill?
 

Noella

Bearded Dragon Veteran
3 Year Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
2,802
Location
Georgia
Alley loves going outside. I hold him and walk around the fenced in backyard. I recently found a snake-might be a rattler. I'm not sure, he hasn't hurt the dogs yet. So I'm going to let him live. Doesn't bother me, doesn't bother the dogs, he can live to keep the critters and mice out of my crawlspace. Plenty of crickets and enough to eat. :) By and by, Alley wants to go run around, and look around. He doesn't beard up or do anything. He flattens himself out on my hand and basks in the sun. He even goes to the bathroom outside. :)
 

Em Lynch

Juvenile Dragon
Messages
347
Location
Gunnislake, Cornwall, G.B
i have taken my bearded dragon outside twice just to see if he would do anything or try and bask while i held him in the sun.

both times he freaks the hell out, puffs up his beard and tries to bite me. i mean im just holding him in my hand and he goes nuts. he can puff up huge!

so does your do anything weird or just chill?

My dragon does the same thing! (minus the biting) she's 14 months old but as far as i'm aware her previous owner didn't take her outside, ever. I've had her since January. She goes dark (like really dark to the point she looks like a piece of coal) and her head spins around like crazy watching the skies for birds. A lot of dragons have a natural instinct that being exposed outside is dangerous and they will struggle to find cover somewhere, my dragon also doesn't understand the concept of "wind" and every time she feels air rushing against her she freaks out.

I've been told she will eventually settle if i take her outside often enough but for me its not worth it seeing her freak out every time and take hours to get her normal colours back, but if your dragon is a baby you might have time to engrain some positive reinforcement :D good luck!
 

Aleena

Bearded Dragon Veteran
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
1,996
Location
Utah
Castiel gets a little nervous, not too bad, but Cleo absolutely adores it.
 

ThDude

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Messages
487
Location
Virginia
My dragon does the same thing! (minus the biting) she's 14 months old but as far as i'm aware her previous owner didn't take her outside, ever. I've had her since January. She goes dark (like really dark to the point she looks like a piece of coal) and her head spins around like crazy watching the skies for birds. A lot of dragons have a natural instinct that being exposed outside is dangerous and they will struggle to find cover somewhere, my dragon also doesn't understand the concept of "wind" and every time she feels air rushing against her she freaks out.

I've been told she will eventually settle if i take her outside often enough but for me its not worth it seeing her freak out every time and take hours to get her normal colours back, but if your dragon is a baby you might have time to engrain some positive reinforcement :D good luck!

yea, i dont wanna have Kyuubi bite me so i may not take him out much, though it will be easy to get a pic of him all puffed up if i want one :)
 

Dubya11

Hatchling Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
102
Location
Ketchikan Alaska
my bearded dragon tried to run away when i took her outside..i live in Alaska so its not too often that its warm enough for her to be outside.
 

Schwartz

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
1
My bearded dragon freaks out too. This is the second time it has been outside and it puffed up real big and was threatening to bite me. My dragon is not happy being in my little makeshift enclosure I built in my backyard. It's always trying to escape
 

BeardedHippy

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Messages
672
Location
Scarborough UK
If I lived in a place that was hot I'd want to take advantage of it too. A lot of small animals have an instinctive fear of open spaces and birds, so it doesn't suprise me that they freak out if they arent used to it. From what I understand, persistence is key in training, however I would imagine that in some the instictive fear response may be hard to overcome if strong enough. Maybe if they had a way to hide when they feel too exposed, offer them a hide or cover them with a cloth and expose them gradually. I am still a dragon noob though so dont take my word for it, but as far as i can see you train dragons the same as a lot of other animals.
 

Hdrydr31

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Staff member
3 Year Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
5,574
If they are young it takes a bit for them to get used to being outside because it's all of a sudden a huge world to them.. Filled with things that are way taller, planes, trees, birds overhead..
Please use a harness when you take them out as they are crazy fast.. you can also get zippered tents that you can place them in while outside..
I found my female adjusted to being outside really really fast and she LOVES going outside.. my male not so much he is very very tense and super alert so I had to go really slow with him.. harness and just held him while outside until he didn't struggle soo much to hide.. then I used the tent deal for short times.. Now he will stay in the tent for a good time then he wants to explore, so I put the harness on then let him walk around with the other end of the harness on my wrist lol
Just be very aware of whats around them as you don't want them eating anything that may have pesticides on them or plants that are poisonous, and bugs that may carry parasites or are poisonous. And well then there is the items like pebbles and rocks...
 

Honeybadger

Hatchling Dragon
Messages
57
The key is getting them gradually used to being outdoors. We started gently with letting her sit by the open door but still inside, and gradually moving on to the hammock but inside my shirt and eventually outside my shirt and even on the grass, she even seems comfortable outside now and will relax on my chest while I read instead of watching the skies and seeming skittish.
 

Hdrydr31

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Staff member
3 Year Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
5,574
Yep I started mine with just letting them be by the windows, then I'd hold them with a harness on in my hand until they relaxed, then let them have time in a tent enclosure, then to letting them run in the grass while on harness.
 

Dwaggie

Bearded Dragon Egg
Messages
21
mine is pretty much indifferent to being outside.
i mean, i think she LIKES it, but she'll just chill whereever i put her
i've only had her for about two months, but her former owners had her out in the yard every summer :)
i only had her out on the balcony,
she'll just sit on the warm tiles or shuffle over to a more shaded place, depending on how warm it is
oftentimes, i'll tie her leash to the table so she can't run off, and go back inside (i'm never out of earshot or sight, but i'm not good in the sun myself. i'll check on her every 5-10 minutes, but so far, she's not reacted badly to anything, birds, planes, anything. she tried eating an ant, but the leash was in the way XD )
 

BrookeE

Juvenile Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
199
Mine definitely seems to enjoy it. I let her out as often as possible. Lucky for us, Texas has a lot of warm days.
She sits wherever i put her for about 10 minutes and looks around, scoping out the area. And then when she's ready -she's off running around and exploring. I sit outside with her or right inside keeping an eye on her through the windows.
Without fail, when i walk up to her to bring her inside, she shows me the beard and the teeth. But I just approach her slowly and pick her up and she instantly calms down. Its always a bluff and i think just her trying to tell me she wants to stay outside.

I also feed mine before going outside, because it makes her need to "go" and id much prefer her do it outside where i don't need to clean it up, but it also helps with her being full and less likely to eat something out there.
 

LCfrogs

Hatchling Dragon
Messages
30
I have a 2 month old. So far I say "she", but may turn out to be a "he". She wasn't eating so the vet suggested trying to feed her out in natural light. It worked! I put her in a small tank and set it outside, and then dump in the crickets (that's the only thing she's willing to eat right now). She eats a lot! I only give her maybe even less than 10 minutes. She'll look up at the sky at first but mostly looks at me and the crickets. This is how I feed her each time now. I can only do twice a day because of my busy schedule so I make sure she loads up. Anyway, she seems to do fine outside. I've never seen her puff up at all yet. So that might freak me out the first time I see it happen. She's insanely chill and will let me move her around, catch her and hold her when she sees something and tries to bolt, etc...she is very sweet and we've already bonded. I hope she stays this way. Do the bites hurt?
 

LCfrogs

Hatchling Dragon
Messages
30
I have a 2 month old. So far I say "she", but may turn out to be a "he". She wasn't eating so the vet suggested trying to feed her out in natural light. It worked! I put her in a small tank and set it outside, and then dump in the crickets (that's the only thing she's willing to eat right now). She eats a lot! I only give her maybe even less than 10 minutes. She'll look up at the sky at first but mostly looks at me and the crickets. This is how I feed her each time now. I can only do twice a day because of my busy schedule so I make sure she loads up. Anyway, she seems to do fine outside. I've never seen her puff up at all yet. So that might freak me out the first time I see it happen. She's insanely chill and will let me move her around, catch her and hold her when she sees something and tries to bolt, etc...she is very sweet and we've already bonded. I hope she stays this way. Do the bites hurt?

Okay, I take that back. She's been puffing up all morning! I thought maybe she was just hungry, so I fed her and she ate a lot. But later she puffed up again!
 

Hdrydr31

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Staff member
3 Year Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
5,574
It's possible that your little one is puffing up in prep of another shed so stretching their skin.. As babies their bites are like scratches from cat claws.. As adults they can break the skin however they don't typically bite unless they are scared or feel threatened it usually will be a bluff.
 
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