Baby Dragon Handling?

Hi everyone!

I just got my new baby boy Leo from Daichu Dragons a couple of weeks ago. As expected, he was extremely skittish when I got him. Now, he's finally calming down with me and even let me hand feed him a couple of Dubias yesterday before he ran away. If I move slowly and calmly, he will let me pet him, and I can tell he's getting used to me. However, he absolutely hates when I go to pick him up. I have an enclosure where I have to access him from the top. Can this cause extra timidness? (When he starts getting bigger I'm going to move him to a bigger tank with front access, but for now this is what I'm stuck with) When I go to pick him up, I move slow like usual and let him calm down before moving onto the next step. But, as soon as my hand moves under his belly, he runs, puffs himself up, and hisses at me like he's going to bite me. Will he actually bite? And would picking him up more often eventually make it easier on him? I don't want to stress him out more than I have to. I like to hold him at night when he's super tired, but the next day he hates me for it. :lol: My biggest concern is that Leo is starting his first shed with me and I'm worried about not being able to bathe him as much as I'll need to. I gave him a nice long soak yesterday, but it took me almost twenty minutes to capture the little guy and get him into the water. I put a water dish in his enclosure to see if he'd use it during the shed, but he hates the water so much he doesn't even touch it. Thoughts?

It will just take time. I'd go easy on the handling if he's acting defensive. When you have to approach from above do so slowly and put your hand in front of him as you've been doing. Be sure to support both hands and feet as they don't like being off balance. The shed probably has him more agitated than normal as well. I wouldn't offer baths for now since it is likely causing more stress than it's worth. He will be able to complete the shed on his own. They tend to be less active in the evening so I'd focus handling then but only do so if he is willing to be picked up. You don't want to cause lots of stress by pushing too much handling too early, especially during a shed cycle. He may nip at you if he feels scared but it doesn't usually hurt much and when they act like that it's mostly bluster.

CooperDragon":1uwf4niz said:

It will just take time. I'd go easy on the handling if he's acting defensive. When you have to approach from above do so slowly and put your hand in front of him as you've been doing. Be sure to support both hands and feet as they don't like being off balance. The shed probably has him more agitated than normal as well. I wouldn't offer baths for now since it is likely causing more stress than it's worth. He will be able to complete the shed on his own. They tend to be less active in the evening so I'd focus handling then but only do so if he is willing to be picked up. You don't want to cause lots of stress by pushing too much handling too early, especially during a shed cycle. He may nip at you if he feels scared but it doesn't usually hurt much and when they act like that it's mostly bluster.

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Thank you! That's basically what I was thinking, and haven't been handling him often expect a few nights a week and only bathing him when I feel I really need to. Glad to know he'll be fine on his own!

Frequent short handling sessions as tolerated should get him use to you with minimal stress.