Very Scared Beardie

hi,

I have recently been given a baby Beardie as a Christmas gift and have had him for about 3 weeks now. At first I had him in a small cage of roughly 40 x 40cm n recently re-homed him in a larger cage with some rocks, water bowl n log which he loves to climb on and lie under the basking light.

The problem is he does not like to be picked up at all... Every time I put my hand in the cage he runs like hell to get away from me and opens his mouth at times. When I eventually get hold of him by cornering him and letting him basically run onto my hand, he lies still for a few seconds then want to jump off again. I feed him his crickets using a small tweezers so he's used to that, its just as I want to pick him up that he gets scared... Any advice?

He's still quite small, about 8 to 9 cm from nose to tail tip.

this sounds like your beardie is not yet used to your interaction. try not to corner him. as that makes him feel threatened. and he wont trust you have you tried hand feeding him? that will help him trust you and build a bond with you. another thing you can try i learned this from housing a leopard gecko. put your hand in his tank and rest it there dont move it at all this shows him your not going to eat him. because they are reptiles and in the wild they are prey and they get eaten by birds usually. so anything moving fast from above is considered a threat and they go into defense mode. just be patient and talk to him. eventually he will come around and possibly "wave" at you. my beardie spent 5 minutes last night waving at me.