Lost Beardie!

[9:45am eastern] i lost my beardie yesterday at 5:45pm (16 hours ago) and haven’t been able to find him since. i took him out of his cage at 5:30 and put him on my shoulder. he somehow managed to get off of my shoulder and run off without me noticing..... i still don’t understand how. anyways, we’ve been searching for him since. we’ve turned over couches and pulled them apart, turned over the fridge, checked in any small crevice we can find around the house, under every item we own, we even set up a few basking lamps and put out greens, but we just can not find him. we think he’s only around 7-8 months, so he’s not full grown yet. anybody have any more ideas? i would greatly appreciate any help

He is probably hiding in a small corner or in a coat sleeve in a closet or on the underside of a couch (etc) sleeping. Leaving a basking lamp out and a bowl of food is a good idea. Keep looking but when he wakes up that is likely to lure him out. He will turn up eventually if he's inside and the indoor temps shouldn't be harmful to him for a while. Try shining a flashlight around dark areas. If his eyes are open they are likely to reflect the light a bit and make him easier to spot.

Check the shirt or top you were waring, chances are he was on it but behind your neck or on your shoulders and when you took off the shirt / too beardie was still clinging to it and wound up on the floor, chair or bed or in the basket with it.

Check the drapes ( especially if they drape to floor ) my water skink is little devil sometimes and goes off exploring and each time Fluffy has done this she's been found shortly later climbing the curtain.

Another good spot is in the bedrooms (under the beds (Rex got lost once and we found her curled up under our double bed and fast asleep a few hours later)).

Another good spot is in the pantry and in the underbench cupboards , Toothless liked to go there and was very hard to keep out of these places - even figured out how to open the cupboard doors.

If the bathroom is warm , check behind the bath and behind the toilet bowl.

Lay some news paper sheets around the food and basking lamp and sprinkle with fine flour , if he crawls across it , his tracks will show were he came from where he went (or hint at these).

The laundry is another good spot , esp the laundry basket , familiar people smells.

You can also try checking under the covers on any beds. My beardie Marta loves to hide and sleep under them. She'll either climb up using a blanket hanging down from the bed or she'll jump up. Hope you find him.

Oh dear, I hope you find him soon. You were given some great suggestions, only ones I can think of to add is inside shoes, slippers, etc and also that for some reason, they seem to be drawn to electrical cords so check those too.

Good luck & keep us updated.

Update: thank you all for your suggestions! i’ve tried them all but no luck . he’s now been lost for over 24 hours. we’ve done hours and hours of searching. at this point, we feel like there is simply no place else to look. we’ve looked up under stuff, we’ve pulled all sorts of stuff apart, we’ve searched every room in the house multiple times. we've even checked all the places we know he couldn’t have been able to get into, but we wanted to look just in case. he most likely hasn’t had any food/water or the warmth he needs.... does anyone have any really weird places a beardie might get into?? also, does anyone know how long he’ll be able to live without food/water/warmth he needs? reminder: he’s only 7-8 month old

Could he possibly get behind the toe kick on your kitchen cabinets? My dragon always runs and finds a dark place to sleep and I'm always worried he'll go behind there. Not all cabinets permit this, but some do.

Arm rests on the lounge unit are a possibility , my water skinks love these ( gap under them).

In the gap where the backrest and seat is on the lounge , my skinks have all squeezed in there on occasion (only found them because I spotted a tail poking out).

Inside the lounge (if the webbing on the underside of the bases is loose , they also get in there sometimes (I've taken webbing off to do repairs on my old lounge and the dragons and skinks love the cozy dark void and have climbed up inside as high as the go.

Dragons and skinks are extremely inquisitive, I warn all my visitors - not to leave open handbags or backpacks or other bags on the floor , I have currently have 3 wild water skinks and a wild velvet gecko (spotted it last night) living inside my house and visiting almost daily and they are all super inquisitive and apt to want to investigate new items on the floor (very intimately by crawling / climbing inside it) and might become accidential stowaways when the visitor/s leave....LOL , this may have happened to you little juvenile dragon , or he may be curled up in school bag, laptop bag or handbag .... worth checking or asking any visitors to check.

if you have an attached garage .... check under the wheelarches and near the exhaust pipe and around the engine .... these may have been warm enough to be attractive to him if he got into the garage. This is common hiding place for snakes and lizards (and cats) here .

I'm sure unless a door was ajar or there is enough crawl space under doors , that he's still inside.

If it's not Arctic conditions where you are (or FREEZING overnight) check where ever the sun shines onto concrete or paving in the mornings or afternoons , if he's outside , and not hiding and sleeping , he'll likely come out and basking on warmed concrete or paving when the sun's been on it for a while.

i hope he's still inside as sub 32F conditions outside will kill him .... these temperatures never occur in their natural range , only the occasional morning frost .

If there is warm place under the house , you need to consider the possibility that he's slipped through the front or back door , and may be in the she or garage or hiding in the garden under a shrub or under some ground cover flowering plants or even curled where ever your heating plant is.

He show up ?

found him!! he was hiding in a crack behind our (just for show) fireplace... don’t even know how he got down there!! we gave him a warm bath and put him under his basking lamp and now, a day later, he’s perfectly fine. he’s been moving around and eating and doesn’t seem sick at all, i’m really glad he’s okay. thanks again for all of the suggestions!

That's a relief! I'm glad to hear he turned up safe and sound. Most of the time when they disappear in the house they turn up after a while. I'd just take note of that spot and either block it off if it's unsafe or remember to check there when he's out and about. They tend to find favorite spots and return to them (my dragon is curled up underneath the couch fast asleep at the moment)

SO glad you finally found him. He must be very relieved too. He probably slept better than you did all those nights though. :roll:

Wow, that is great you found him! I was really worried that after so long he would of made his way outside :shock: But I'm glad he didn't :mrgreen: !

Hello,

That is great news you found him!
They can be very sneaky & hide in places you would never imagine.


Tracie