One of the essential parts of caring for your bearded dragon is monitoring its behavior. Familiarizing yourself with your lizard’s behavior lets you notice when something is amiss.
While beardies have a lot of weird behaviors, there’s one that worries pet keepers the most; the bearded dragon shaking its head.
Also known as head bobbing, head twitching indicates various things depending on how it’s done. If it’s slowly and calculated, it’s a show of dominance.
However, if it’s vibrant and done repetitively in days, it may indicate that your bearded dragon suffers from calcium deficiency or metabolic bone disease (MBD).
Keep reading to understand why bearded dragons shake and twitch comprehensively.
3 Reasons Why Your Bearded Dragon Is Shaking Its Head
Beardies shake their heads because of various reasons. Therefore, it can be daunting to pinpoint what is causing the beardie to twitch its head. However, here are some of the primary reasons for head bobbing in bearded dragons:
Displaying Dominance and Trying to Intimidate Other Animals
As you have heard countless times, beardies are territorial creatures that love to guard and stay in their own space. If another animal is introduced into the bearded dragon’s cage, they’ll try everything to establish dominance.
Head shaking is one of the techniques that bearded dragons use to show how mighty they are and establish dominance.
Bearded dragons in the wild have to defend their territories from external threats. This behavior doesn’t stop even when the creatures are brought into captivity.
Before beardies fight any animal trying to encroach on their territory, they’ll instinctively shake their heads to try and intimidate them to submission.
This aggressive head bobbing behavior is commonly observed in male beardies since they’re known to be inherently territorial.
Shows that Beardies Might Be Interested in Mating
In humans, flowers and romantic dates are exciting ways males show affection to ladies. Similarly, male bearded dragons show females their intention to mate by vigorously shaking their heads.
During the mating season, the male beardie will signal the female lizard that he’s ready to mate by bobbing its head.
Some herpetologists even claim that the head shaking makes the male bearded dragons desirable in the eyes of the females.
In response, the female beardie responds by bobbing its head but in a somewhat slower fashion. This means that they are submitting to the male and accepting their advances.
Acknowledging the Presence of Another Bearded Dragon
When multiple beardies are housed in the same cage, they will try to establish a hierarchy that follows size and age.
Larger beardies will do intimidating things to the smaller/weaker lizards. One of the ways that the older beardies confront and intimidate smaller lizards is through aggressive head bobbing.
When the smaller beardies get scared and want to avoid confrontations, they’ll show submission by shaking their heads. A funky arm-waving motion follows this gesture.
This is why keeping multiple beardies in the same cage is not a good idea. The dominance and submission situation can make the weaker bearded dragon live in constant fear and get stressed.
Why Is My Bearded Dragon Shaking and Twitching?
While head bobbing may be due to other reasons, shaking and twitching may also indicate that your bearded dragon is sick.
Your bearded dragon may start twitching and shaking various body parts, including its head and legs, due to Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD).
MBD is a severe health condition that affects beardies of all ages due to a lack of enough calcium in the diet, a lack of vitamin D, and an imbalance in the calcium-phosphorus ratio.
MBD is the most common disease that will likely affect your bearded dragons. So, bearded dragon owners must learn about metabolic bone disease to stay prepared.
Most bearded dragons start to shake and twitch when they have a calcium deficiency. Calcium helps in the development and growth of strong and healthy bones.
When the lizard’s body doesn’t have enough calcium, it starts to use the one stored in the skeletal structure, making bones soft and weak.
Other Signs of MBD Besides Twitching
Bearded dragon twitching and shaking is not the only symptom your beardie suffers from metabolic bone disease. Other signs and symptoms include:
- Deformed bones, arched spine, or lumps on the spine bones
- Soft and swollen jaws
- Bow legs, swollen joints
- Weak appendages and partial paralysis
- Jerky movements, muscles tremors, head shaking, and twitching of muscles in the toes and legs
- Lethargy
- Constipation
- Loss of appetite
- Complete paralysis and lameness
- If the disease is left untreated, the symptoms can progress to seizures and even death.
Therefore, if you notice twitching accompanied by the symptoms discussed above in your bearded dragon, this is an indication that your beardie might be suffering from MBD.
What Causes MDB in Bearded Dragons?
Calcium Deficiency
Calcium is an essential element in the growth and development of your scaly friend. It helps the beardie have a solid skeletal structure. Calcium deficiency arises when your bearded dragon isn’t eating the right food.
If you feed your bearded dragons with insects that are not rich in calcium, they’re likely to have a deficiency. More importantly, insects with less calcium tend to have high phosphorus content. Too much phosphorus in the body affects the metabolization and absorption of calcium into the bloodstream.
Prolonged calcium deficiency makes bones soft and weak, leading to shaking, deformities, and even paralysis.
To ensure that your beardie has enough calcium inside the body, bearded dragon owners should provide insect feeders that are gut loaded. More importantly, they should supplement the bearded dragon’s diet with calcium powder.
Lack of Adequate UVB Light
UVB light provides beardies with vitamin D3, crucial in the absorption of calcium from the digestive system into the bloodstream. When the UVB light hits the skin, it’s transformed into vitamin D. The liver turns this vitamin D into D3, which is stored in the body to facilitate calcium absorption. Beardies should have 12 hours of sunshine to get enough vitamin D3.
Can you Stop Your Bearded Dragon from Twitching?
Metabolic bone disease can be corrected if it’s detected early. However, if the condition is at an advanced stage, you’ll need to seek the guidance of a reptile vet.
If your bearded dragon is experiencing constant twitching due to MBD, you can reverse the situation by changing the diet and improving the living conditions.
However, in most cases, twitching means that the disease is at an advanced stage. Therefore, if your lizard is experiencing twitching, you’ll have to visit a reptile vet for examination.
To prevent metabolic bone disease progression, you should provide your scaly friend with:
Calcium
A reptile vet will advise you on the proper diet to give your scaly friend and conditions ideal for a bearded dragon’s tank. You’ll need to feed your beardie with highly nutritious insect feeders such as crickets and ensure that you offer calcium and vitamin supplements.
UVB Light
Additionally, you’ll need to check your lighting and ensure it’s functional. Ensure that you’re using the recommended light bulbs and that blown or broken lights are replaced. Lastly, you must provide your beardie with at least 11-12 hours of UVB light daily.
Heat
Bearded dragons need optimal heat for digestion. Without heat, beardies won’t be able to digest nutrients and facilitate their absorption. A bearded dragon’s enclosure should have two zones; a basking zone with temperatures of around 95-105 degrees Fahrenheit and a cool spot with 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Once your beardie gets enough calcium, UVA, and UVB lights, it will gain strength, and the symptoms of metabolic bone disease, such as twitching, will slowly disappear.
What Does It Mean When a Beardie Shakes its Head When It Sees You?
Sometimes, you might notice your bearded dragon head bobbing when you approach its tank. Head shaking is one of the ways that bearded dragons communicate what they feel.
If a bearded dragon is new to your household and starts to head bobs when you go closer to its cage, it might mean that it’s trying to show you that it’s not scared of you and it’s ready to guard its territory.
On the other hand, the beardie can bob its head to acknowledge that you’re the dominant figure and they’re offering their submission. It might also indicate that the lizard is scared and stressed.
As the bearded dragon gets familiar with its new territory, it’ll learn to trust you and lessen the head-shaking behavior.