Bearded Dragon Waving : Why Do Bearded Dragons Wave? 4 Common Misconceptions To Avoid

One of the coolest things about having a bearded dragon as a pet is that you can often see them waving their arms at things. It may sound weird, but a good way to determine how long a particular dragon will be attached to you is by how frequently you’ll be able to pet it. Understanding that bearded dragons can be waving was exciting to see.

We will see a bearded dragon waving like a human greeting someone by raising one of its front legs and moving it in a circular fashion as humans do. Bearded dragons will approach the tank glass and wave at you, if they are in their tank.

But do you know when bearded dragons make these movements? Let’s read about this to the end.

Why Do Bearded Dragons Wave?

If you see a bearded dragon waving arm, do they do it randomly? Or do they point to something? We know that they give a signal, and we want us to know what they want to convey.

Understanding bearded dragon behavior can help you understand what they need. For example, if they feel threatened or hungry, we can handle it without bearded dragon stress because we don’t know what they want to say.

Many signs can be seen when a bearded dragon waving their arm, and we must know what they want.

What Does It Mean When A Bearded Dragon Waves?

Generally speaking about bearded dragon waving meaning, most bearded dragons will do this when greeting other beardies. It’s actually an important part of their social behavior.

Other times, they might wave their tails when indicating submission. Of course, there are many other reasons they might do this behavior, such as trying to impress others and displaying some sort of pet display.

If you are a new owner or even an experienced bearded dragon enthusiast, it is very easy for you to fall into the trap of trying to understand what does it mean when the bearded dragon waving his arm.

The first step in learning to recognize this behavior is to take care of yourself. After you know some signs, you can memorize them and make sure which signs match.

How To Differentiate Bearded Dragon Hand Waving?

Most of the bearded dragon waving hand is done slowly and indicates something until we notice it. Some things like indicating submission, fear, seeing a reflection, mating, or acknowledging others are some of the things that bearded dragons do most often.

It’s hard to differentiate the bearded dragon waving because bearded dragons do it differently. They raised their front legs and waved slowly like humans who were greeting people from a distance.

You have to understand what makes them the way they are. Do bearded dragons live where there are other reptiles? or are there bearded dragons he is teasing, or do they see themselves in the mirror.

If some things are suitable, you must solve the problem until they stop doing that behavior. If the bearded dragon is no longer waving their hands, then the problem is solved, and you can only distinguish the signs from them after that.

Baby Bearded Dragon Waving

If we look at baby bearded dragons, of course, we will know if they are still small and need to adapt to their environment. When they are in the tank alone, it will be interesting to see every behavior that is done.

Baby bearded dragons also do bearded dragon waving, and this is often indicated if they are frightened by something. Their bodies are still small, and they still do not understand how they hide from predators and make them continue to feel afraid.

You can put other bearded dragons of the same age as them so that they have tank mates and enjoy their day together until they reach adulthood.

When the bearded dragons meet, they are also waving their hands, like recognizing the presence of other animals in their territory.

Do Juvenile Bearded Dragons Also Waving Their Arms?

Bearded dragon waving behavior is carried out by bearded dragons starting from babies, juveniles, and even adults. If you look at the juvenile bearded dragons doing waves, you can see that they indicate submission.

If you put their siblings in the same tank, and the sibling has bigger and more aggressive, then the juvenile bearded dragon will be waving their hands to show they are in threat.

Juveniles want to show that they are harmless and not violent, so they are waving their hands. This is interesting to see because bearded dragons exhibit this behavior to prevent aggressive actions from others.

Although putting more than one bearded dragon in a tank is not recommended, but you can do it if you can supervise them.

Bearded Dragon Waving At Nothing

When you see your bearded dragon waving but nothing around them, not even reflections, then you have to look for the cause of them waving their arms. If they are afraid of something, check to see if something in their tank scares them.

If you don’t find anything that might frighten them, hold them for a while, if possible, until they calm down.

When you watch a waving bearded dragon video, you can find out what happened during the recording and troubleshoot any possible issues.

Although this behavior is not dangerous, if it is carried out continuously by bearded dragons, it indicates that they are not comfortable. If it continues like this, the bearded dragon can stress, leading to disease, which we don’t want to happen.

Take it to the vet immediately if your bearded dragon keeps doing this behavior when you feel something suspicious in their tank, but your bearded dragon keeps doing that.

Bearded Dragon Waving At Reflection

If you see bearded dragon waving gif on the internet, you may wonder what bearded dragons do. Put a mirror near their tank, and let the bearded dragon see the mirror.

If they are waving their hands, that’s a sign they saw their reflection and thought there was another bearded dragon on the other side that they wanted to greet.

Even though waving their arm is not a form of greeting, it’s one of their behaviors that indicates submission, and they do it slowly and steadily as if to indicate that they mean no harm.

Bearded dragons will not know past reflections because they are living in a new place from their natural habitat, or they have only seen mirrors before, so they will show curiosity, fear, or threats with their own shadows.

There are several types of tanks with thick glass and can give off a faint reflection. If your bearded dragon sees this, it will also start waving behavior like when they die or things related to their surroundings.

Bearded Dragon Waving And Head Bobbing

Bearded dragons will sometimes exhibit arm waving without head bobbing associated with submission. If the bearded dragon feels it is bigger and more dominant, they will do head bobbing. For bearded dragons who feel smaller or more helpless, they will do bearded dragon waving slowly.

Most of the male bearded dragons will do head bobbing to show their dominance over the female bearded dragon, and they do that during the mating season.

Immediately calm your bearded dragon if they have started waving their hand until they feel calm with themselves. Separate your bearded dragons, don’t stay in the same tank for a while until they feel there is no threat near them.

Bearded Dragon Waving Back Leg

In addition to waving their front leg, some saw the bearded dragon waving their back leg. This can be found when they are after bathing and shaking their legs because they are wet.

If they are still on the rocks for basking and they are waving their back leg, the sign is that the rocks are too hot because certain rocks are absorbing more heat.

Pay attention if your bearded dragon can’t move its legs because there are signs your bearded dragon has the metabolic bone disease, and it will be a danger to your bearded dragon.

To prevent bearded dragons from getting the metabolic bone disease, they should eat lots of green vegetables such as timothy hay, spring greens, and lamb’s lettuce. Do not give spinach to your bearded dragons to prevent blockage of the calcium uptake.

Bearded Dragon Waving At Crickets

There are two possibilities if you see a bearded dragon arm waving at crickets. First, the bearded dragons act like they mean no harm to the crickets until they are not aware of being preyed upon by the bearded dragons.

The second possibility is that bearded dragons feel threatened by many crickets simultaneously, even though it is prey for them.

Bearded dragons will feel scared if something comes together, especially if they are alone in a tank. Bearded dragons feel that they will be attacked by crickets, so they do bearded dragon waving behavior.

If the two possibilities are still uncertain, then you check the health condition of the bearded dragons, whether they are experiencing impaction or lack of appetite.

Crickets are a bearded dragon’s favorite food which they will always eat every time you give it. But if they don’t eat the crickets you give them, then something has happened to your bearded dragon.

Why Is Bearded Dragon Waving At Me?

When bearded dragons sense the presence of humans, animals, or other bearded dragons, they will perform bearded dragon waving to form their awareness.

Bearded dragons feel their presence as a threat to their awareness of the arrival of predators. If they hide after waving their hands, it’s a sign they’re scared.

You can experiment by bringing other pets to approach the bearded dragon’s tank if they are waving their hand, a sign they feel a presence that could harm them.

Think of it when the bearded dragon waving their arm to you is a form of greeting from them, and you need to provide proper care according to their needs. If there’s something they’re afraid of, you try to find it as much as possible and get rid of it.

Bearded Dragons Waving At Each Other

One of the signs of bearded dragon waving is used for the mating process. Both female and male bearded dragons did this to show their interest. But do they do it because it’s only when they die? No, because waving their hand could be a submission, a sign of fear, or awareness.

If you are of the same gender and one of them does a hand wave, and you don’t notice, there is a possibility that one of the bearded dragons will be more aggressive towards the other and become a threat.

It is not recommended to put more than one bearded dragon in a tank if they are of the same gender because there is a possibility of the dominance of one of them if they feel their body is bigger.

If a smaller bearded dragon feels overwhelmed by the presence of another bearded dragon, over time, it will be stressed, and this will affect its health.

What If Bearded Dragons Waving A Lot?

It won’t be a problem if the bearded dragon waving behavior only a few times, but it will be a worrying thing if you see the bearded dragon waving too often.

There are two things that might happen when a bearded dragon performs this behavior. First, the bearded dragon is nervous. Secondly, because of the suboptimal habitat.

If you have other pets that often pass here and there, this can annoy the bearded dragon because they will always feel insecure and, more often, waving their hands.

Ensure you put the bearded dragon tank in a safe place without other pets in the bearded dragon area. If the bearded dragon is stressed, it can become a health complication.

For suboptimal habitats, you need to see if a large tank is suitable for them, is there a UV light for the basking area? Is there shelter for them if they feel insecure?

The heat and humidity issue can cause bearded dragons to stress and will be waving their hands to show they are uncomfortable with the tank. Prolong uncomfortable conditions in the tank can lead to bearded dragon wheezing issues.

Can I Stop Bearded Dragon Waving?

You can’t stop natural behavior like bearded dragon waving because bearded dragons do it subconsciously. You can only understand what they mean when doing the behavior, and you try to solve their problem.

Only this can solve the bearded dragon of their waving arm behavior. For example, you may need to change the tank environment by adding shelter, a larger basking area, no mirrors around the tank, or separating the bearded dragon from other pets.

If you still find this behavior even though you’ve done some of the things above, you need to see if your tank already has a UV light or not and whether the light is bothering the bearded dragon because it’s too bright or not.

If the bearded dragon is exposed to light at night while they are sleeping, and there is a shadow passing over their head, the bearded dragon automatically feels threatened because their parietal eye senses danger.

If everything still doesn’t stop the bearded dragon’s behavior, immediately take the bearded dragon to the vet for a medical examination.

Misconception About Bearded Dragon Waving

In addition to the many bearded dragon waving arm behavior, many people have the wrong guess about this. The table below will show some misconceptions about bearded dragons when waving their arms.

Although there are many misconceptions or real things that bearded dragons have shown, seeing them waving arms is still an interesting thing to see.

Final Verdict On Bearded Dragon Waving

Knowing about bearded dragon behavior will increase your knowledge about how to take good care of them. Bearded dragons are waving if they indicate submission, acknowledgment presence, fear, mating, or seeing a reflection.

This behavior does not show harm, but you must understand what they are trying to convey so that they do not repeat the waving behavior until they are stressed because of it.

Place the bearded dragon tank in a quiet environment and provide UV light for them to bask in and a tank that has a design like a natural habitat. This is to reduce the risk of bearded dragons feeling threatened by their surroundings and being more comfortable in their tanks.

Rajkumar Ravichandran

Welcome to Learn About Pet. My name is Rajkumar Ravichandran and I love all pets, travel, and amazing food. I write about my passion and personal experience caring for multiple pets in this blog! ❤️