Runs Away Like Crazy

Hello, I just purchased my first Bearded Dragon a couple days ago, and I noticed today that it runs away when I move at in the room it is in, like I just turned from the computer to look at its tank and it bolted out of sight, I know they can be skiddish when they're young but it has amped up since we brought it home, I've held off handling it til it gets comfortable with the living situation although last night I attempted to inspect it for cricket bites because my wife wasn't able to reach the last uneaten cricket and when I came home around 3am it was crawling on it, to remove the cricket I had to move some of its furniture out of the way and it slept right through that, but then when I went back a few min later after deciding to look for any bites as soon as I moved a stick it was instantly awake and running away and even opened its little mouth at me and puffed itself up which I found hilarious, I managed to get a hold of it and do a quick look before its squirming worried me that I'd hurt it and let it be. So I'm wondering could it's increased skiddishness be caused by my late night tramatizing intrusion or is it normal and its just because the lizard is getting more comfortable and more active?

Hi there

Reading your post made me smile because it reminded me so much of my initial post.

This is my first post to offer advice

So, as I am quite new to having a BD myself I think I can answer your question well.

Firstly do not bother your BD at night. I understand about the cricket thing so on that subject only put one in at a time (for now) so that doesn't happen. Annoying them at night makes it so much worse. They think they cant relax and wont sleep and hate you the next day and remember your face!!

It will move away from tank when you move and watch you like a hawk because it is a new environment to him/her. Your BD does not care how much love and attention you have put into its new home. It does not feel safe or comfortable yet and in its eyes you are a predator! LOL

I would hold off on the handling for a couple of weeks until he/she gets comfy in her new environment. Make sure it gets plenty of foot traffic and do not tip toe around her/him. Make your presence known and MOST IMPORTANT thing is to talk to her/him. Go to the glass and look at it and talk to it and establish trust. Ten minutes a day I did that for. OH and after a few days put your hand in the tank, just rest it on the floor NOTHING ELSE apart from looking and talking to him/her. Then slowly take your hand out. Your BD will understand it is not a claw coming to grab it.

Next thing is feeding. Make sure you have feeding done at the same time everyday. They need routine and live by it. You will soon notice this.

Now my personal favorite way of taming these nervous beasts is this. Frozen crickets! Everyone says live live live!!! But it really does not matter. People say gut loading them etc but if your BD is getting veg and leaves and fruit and his vitamin calcium ratio is right I do not see anymore benefit in gut loading crickets. Sure each to their own but my beardie gets frozen crickets 90% of the time and live for training and keeping her sharp. She is super healthy and today weighing in at 198g!

OKAY so onto training for you and your BD.
I personally feed veg at 09:00am after she has warmed up and usually she will look at it as if it is cr**** ahhahahahhaha but I will only give her crickets at 14:30 and she knows the time, honestly they are such creature of habits. So at 14:30 she knows and she is waiting!!

So you should put one cricket in your hand and lay it flat close to her and she will think about it for a while and eventually she will take it!! If she does not move it with your finger so it moves, BD's see movement. If she does not take it after 30 seconds then take hand out slowly and try again. If she doesn't take any I personally would not give her any and try again tomorrow, It depends on how stubborn she/he is!

Keep doing this and she will take from you and keep doing it until she doesn't want anymore. At that point she will walk away and you should too. Do that for a few days to build trust. Then you can entice her with crickets on a plastic lid and put your hand out for her to crawl onto so she can get to them! Now mine runs up my hand to get to them and eats them as I stroke her. Hell I even put her in the bath using that technique and feed her them while I bath her and now she is enjoying the bath.

Another way if she wont take from you is to buy a pair of long pincers usually wooden and then she can trust more as its not your hand. I click my pincers and she knows the sound and legs it to the front of the tank waiting for the crickets! As I said creature of habit!

Okay that's a long response and you are probably wishing you didn't ask! LOL so yes patience and understanding are the key words.

Right now as I type this my BD is laying down under her light with her legs back and eyes closed. That is how much trust I have built up with her now. If I stand up she will look, it doesn't happen over night it is natural for them to look at whats happening. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to mail me

Thanks for the info, she seems to be settling in just fine. We've started handling her, mostly when we notice her glass surfing, she likes to just sit in our hand and look around. I only feed her by forceps because I've noticed she doesn't aim particularly well, she bites the forceps accidentally around 50% of the time, there are now little scratches on the plastic from where shes over bit. But all is good, we're ganna take her to the vet for a physical sometime in the next week or so.

Great to know! yes a physical is a great idea. She looks lovely, thanks for the picture!