Morphology
The name bearded dragon comes from there spiky scales around the neck area. During the bearded dragons mating season the males beard will turn Grey, black, or dark blue. The male may also puff the beard out to warn other males. The bearded dragon has small spiky scales throughout their bodies giving them a rough appearance, but if ever had handles a dragon it’s not so bad. The bearded dragons are soft and a lot of fun to play with; the spikes are for show to warn there enemies. When they bask in the sun the dragon will raise the front half of his body and leave there Hind legs sprawled out. These bearded dragons have incredible eye sight, they will wait for there hobbyist to enter the room and beg to be taken out, played with, or fed some juicy crickets, worms or a nice salad.
Arm Waving
Both baby and hatchings are known for their arm waiving. Sometimes when they are sitting on the substrate or basking, for no apparent reason they might start to raise an arm up off the ground, and slowly bring it back down to the substrate. It might seem like the bearded dragon is trying to say hello to you. In the wild, bearded dragons are semi-social animals that use low level forms of communication to communicate to the other bearded dragons. The juveniles and females may also wave their arms as a sign of submissiveness or non-threatening to other dragons nearby.
Head Bobbing
If you have ever seen your bearded dragon rapidly bob its head. If so, your bearded dragon is sending a challenge or warning to any nearby bearded dragons. For an example lets say you have two bearded dragons in the same tank and one is basking atop of a perch and the other bearded dragon want that same perch, then the bearded dragon may bob its head to issue a challenge to take the perch. If the bearded dragon doesn’t want to give up his perch, then he may respond with rapid head bobbing, although rare among inland bearded dragons, territorial combat between the males may happen. These kind of dominant/submissive gestures and behaviors are not uncommon in the reptile world, the are very much prevalent in igaunid and agamid lizards, as well as alligators and crocodiles. When a larger male bobbing his head to a smaller male bearded dragon, then the smaller male will respond with an arm waving and giving the sign that he doesn’t want any trouble. In the mating season the male bearded dragon will use this kind of method towards the female as well. The male will bob his head towards the female and then the female will respond with arm wave and then the male has the green light to mate. These kinds of behaviors are known to happen in both the wild and in captivity when there are multiple bearded dragons together.
Stacking
If you have ever housed more than one bearded dragon together then you have notices them stacking on top of each other. While this is a cute behavior its important that both bearded dragon get the same amount of exposure the heat and UV light radiation. Also the breathing of the bearded dragon on the bottom may become a bit impaired. Another thing is there are a lot of bearded dragon images out there where it will show multiple sized dragons stacked. Its not a good idea to house multiple sized bearded dragons together because of the possibility of the smaller bearded dragons of becoming injured and bullied.
Billowing Beard
Billowing beard is probably among the most common behavior characteristic. When a bearded dragon is confronted by a threat or some sort of a predator, it will billow its beard out and make a hissing sound. The beard will become many time larger than its original size and will turn a black or a dark blue color. This will scare off its predators. The bearded dragons will also use this same method for rival males, territorial disputes are often solved without having to fight. In captivity most bearded dragons will often abandon this natural survival tool, and may live there lives without ever billowing there bearded out of aggression or defense.