Scared of me after accident

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emilios

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So i have had reptiles for many years, my bearded dragon, Santos for around 5 years. I got him from a family with small kids who didn't treat him well and i felt sorry for him.

Since i took him he had a great calm and relaxing life with me, with proper temps, food, nutrition, light sources etc. He always been really laid back to me, never bit or showed any signs of defensive behavior what so ever.
Normally he runs up to me whenever he see me approach the tank and we have a great relationship.

I have his tank open on weekends when i'm free from work, so he can climb out whenever he wants to. He likes climb outside and take a stroll, climb my leg or just derp around and then head back inside for some sun basking.

Well today went to the toilet and when i came back i actually forgot (STUPID ME) that he might be outside of his tank behind the door, which he obviously was.. And i hit him with the door when i opened it, not hard but enough to hear a bump.

He got so scared and ran across to the other side of the room, when i was gonna pick him up he acted defensive, huffing and puffing, black bearding and all that.. I took him and did a quick check to make sure he was psychically okay and he seemed so and i put him back in the tank where he ran to the back and just sat there defensively. I left him alone since he was obviously scared of me for now and didn't want me around.

It's been 30 minutes now, he has no black beard anymore and he look pretty relaxed. I managed to offer him a cricket by hand and he actually ate it, without black bearding me, but he still seem suspicious towards me. He took it with a big bite (normally he take them nice and gentle from my hand)

I feel so sad.. I hope he can get back to trusting me again. Poor Santos.

Will he be able to trust me a 100% again?

I understand this was an error on my side completely and it will not happen again, i have very little tolerance for doing errors with animals so this really hit me hard.. (him too probably)
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
This happens sometimes. It sounds like he isn't physically hurt which is good. They tend to be quick to forgive and forget so I doubt it will cause harm to your bond. Just startled him a bit.
 

emilios

New member
Original Poster
CooperDragon":3nnr7ose said:
This happens sometimes. It sounds like he isn't physically hurt which is good. They tend to be quick to forgive and forget so I doubt it will cause harm to your bond. Just startled him a bit.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah it seems like time will heal this.. He is almost back to normal, it was faster than expected.
He lets me come close again and he crawled out and came up to me at one point too.

I have more experience with snakes, Santos is my only lizard i ever had apart from salamanders. Their mind and response to human interaction is very fascinating, a lot different from snakes.

Thanks again though :)
 
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