Baby beardie Concerns

[Tassadar]

My baby beardie HATES me, I think. She only likes to be held sometimes, but always always always bites. I give her time to cool off but the second the hand is in the tank, bam, wants to attack.


Does this last a long time? She is in a 40gallon tank, a few places to hide and a nice basking spot. I have had her almost a month and nothing has changed. :/ I feed her twice a day but sometimes she doesn't eat and sometimes she eats a lot. She hates greens but they are always offered and she likes dragon bites, so I give those to her when she is good.

 

[sweetpea1981]

one thing to try is to put a t-shirt that you wore but didn't was in the tank so they can get use to your scent, another thing is to try to get him out when it is bedtime so they are sleepy and not as aggressive as he would be totally awake, some dragons just take a bit more time and smaller steps to become used to you.

 

[Tassadar]

I keep a tshirt in there with her a lot, she even sleeps on it from time to time. I have an older beardie (about 4 months) and he is the worlds sweetest dragon ever.


She is very active during the day as well. I guess I'll try taking her out when she is sleepy and let her sleep on me, is that a good idea or is it a bad one to disturb her sleep.

 

[sweetpea1981]

I don't think it actually disturbs their sleep, so taking her out when she is sleepy and letting her get used to you that way would be beneficial in my opinion. It should help build some trust, cause when they are sleeping they are defenseless so she would be trusting you by sleeping on you.

 

[Tassadar]

Should I just let her sleep on my shirt or on my arm?

 

[sweetpea1981]

what I would do is take her out and lay on the couch and watch some tv, she can lay on your chest under the blanket and feel secure and warm and be on you and smelling you, kinda like multitasking.

 

[Tassadar]

That's easy enough, I have a thermal blanket that she loves sleeping under, I let her run around the room from time to time when I can keep my eyes on her and just let her explore. She always runs to the thermal blanket and falls asleep under it, it's really cute.

I'll try that and hopefully within a month or two she warms up and calms down a little bit

 

[sweetpea1981]

yeah hopefully that will help out, and also remember beardies love food, hornworms are usually a favorite of beardies, so don't be opposed to bribery.....

 

[Coley54]

To get my baby used to me, I take him out about 15 minutes after lights out and let him lay on my chest and cover him with his 'blankie'. He's definitely started getting used to me and is a lot easier to handle! Good luck!!