I am becoming overwhelmed and frustrated with trying to figure out how to make my beardie happy- I could use some practical advice- and a little emotional support from people who might've experienced feelings like this in the beginning.
We got Tofi in early September 2020 from a local reptile/amphibian pet store. They guessed he was 3-4 months at the time, so in a way, at that age maybe he was kind of like a rescue since I imagine he was very rarely handled? He was terrified when we brought him home and we gave him some time to acclimate to his new home.
We started slowly by getting him to eat insects from our hands. Then we tried taking him out and holding him to our chest. He was extremely skittish and would try to desperately escape- once jumping from my hands so quickly as I was putting him back that he fell behind his viv.
It's now been 8 months, and he will eat from our hands and will sit on my chest for a few minutes. But, he remains skittish and mostly afraid of us. After a few minutes on my chest (while I'm reclining on the bed) he moves to jump off and run away. He went through a brief period where he stopped eating very much, but then randomly started eating again. Some days he basks- other days he doesn't want to wake up and will sit there all day in the cool spot frozen in the same spot.
I think his setup is fine now (I've gotten lots of advice here)- temps are normal (~92-97 basking; ~75-83 cool), UVB is good (T5 10.0 reptisun tube in his cage), 55 gal tank with reptile carpet and window to look out at the scenery...plenty of salad with hornworms and/or dubia on a daily basis (dusted with vitamins and calcium).
Basically, he just seems like he hates us and is depressed. It hasn't been very enjoyable for us- it has been more stressful than rewarding so far. Does my beardie need to be rescued from us or am I just giving up too easily?
We got Tofi in early September 2020 from a local reptile/amphibian pet store. They guessed he was 3-4 months at the time, so in a way, at that age maybe he was kind of like a rescue since I imagine he was very rarely handled? He was terrified when we brought him home and we gave him some time to acclimate to his new home.
We started slowly by getting him to eat insects from our hands. Then we tried taking him out and holding him to our chest. He was extremely skittish and would try to desperately escape- once jumping from my hands so quickly as I was putting him back that he fell behind his viv.
It's now been 8 months, and he will eat from our hands and will sit on my chest for a few minutes. But, he remains skittish and mostly afraid of us. After a few minutes on my chest (while I'm reclining on the bed) he moves to jump off and run away. He went through a brief period where he stopped eating very much, but then randomly started eating again. Some days he basks- other days he doesn't want to wake up and will sit there all day in the cool spot frozen in the same spot.
I think his setup is fine now (I've gotten lots of advice here)- temps are normal (~92-97 basking; ~75-83 cool), UVB is good (T5 10.0 reptisun tube in his cage), 55 gal tank with reptile carpet and window to look out at the scenery...plenty of salad with hornworms and/or dubia on a daily basis (dusted with vitamins and calcium).
Basically, he just seems like he hates us and is depressed. It hasn't been very enjoyable for us- it has been more stressful than rewarding so far. Does my beardie need to be rescued from us or am I just giving up too easily?