Handling a baby help!

So my beardi has been home for 2 weeks this upcoming Saturday. I was wondering about some techniques for handling. He is still so skittish with me idk why. He allows me to pet him but doesn’t seem to wanna come on my hand at all. Maybe I’m impatient. I won’t go after him and try and grab him but he seems to not wanna come on my hand at all. He will either run away a little bit or duck his body down. I’m afraid he won’t wanna be handled he is still new to his surroundings I get that but just looking for some advice

Hi there, just be patient and he should settle down but this will be when he's ready. When you put your hand in his tank, just leave it for a good 3-5 minutes every time. Eventually you can pick him up, sometimes they just chill out as soon as you pick them up but you need to keep both hands on him + sit near the ground so he doesn't jump + fall.

Okay I will do that. He will eat crickets and greens out of my hand so that’s a good start

That's good, it shouldn't be long before he gets more relaxed.

Don't worry, I was seriously stressed out about this when I got my baby beardy too. I got him at 3 weeks old and didn't start handing him successfully until he was about 3-4 months old. I thought he hated me, lol but they are all different and some just take longer to come around. Taking it slow is better because you don't want them to associate your hand with anything scary or bad. He's now 7 months old and the biggest snuggler ever! Just stay patient and giver your little one enough space and they'll come around!

Someone gave us the advice of handling our beardie when he is sleepy, and that seems to be helping. When the lights go off in the cage we wait until he is snuggled down, but not asleep and then slowly and gently pick him up and snuggle him for about 15 mins before placing him back in his cage to sleep.

The other thing that's been helping is just putting our hand near him but not picking him up many times a day. As well as just gently petting him while in the cage and hand feeding him his greens and fruit.

When we do pick him up for his baths it's something that I do over the period of 2-3 minutes. I start with a finger under his chin, then slowly inch under his belly and eventually kinda use my other hand to lift up his back end and slide him onto my hand. When I finally lift him out of the cage I cup one hand in front of his face to keep him from seeing that he is being taken out of the cage.