Water Dragon Going Crazy

Question
We've had our water dragon, George, for over a year now. He's about a year and a half old at the most. Normally he is very even tempered, calm and very affectionate. Lately however he's taken to throwing himself around his enclosure violently whenever he sees someone. If we let him out, he immediately hides somewhere we can't reach him. His coloring goes dark and we're worried he's going to hurt himself. Nothing we do seems to stop him from throwing himself around the enclosure! Why is he doing this and how can we help him????

Answer
Hi Cissi,

This tends to be a bit of a phase that they go through at that age and it can last for several months. It is a very common  observation among people raising iguanas as well. I raised my second iguana from a baby and it happened to him at just over a year old. He suddenly went from being a calm, tame animal who tolerated handling to behaving as if I was going to put him on the barbecue! It lasted around 3 or 4 months before he (almost as quickly) went back to his mellow self, eating out of my hand, without any particular effort on my part.

It is sometimes described as the "terrible teens" and likely is related to hormonal changes. A lot of bearded dragon owners report a similar change in their "babies" at around 6 to 8 months of age. Sudden fearful and/or aggressive behaviour. I suspect it is more commonly observed with males.

I don't really think there is anything you can really do to hurry the process. In my experience, any attempts to calm them just adds to their distress and waiting it out is all you can do. Stay as near as you can without stressing him but let his response to you be your guide.