Bearded Dragon Hates Me?

[CodyH3012]

Hi,

So I have a baby beardy and no matter what I do when I try to get him out of his cage he freaks out and opens his mouth at me, blackens his beard, and hisses. When I move my hand in front of his cage, but not try to grab him, he just opens his mouth but doesn't hiss. Nothing in his enclosure has changed aside from me moving 1 log but I did that last week, and he just started doing this the past few days. I've already had him for 2 months now and he never used to do this, he used to be the nicest little dragon, but now he's like the devil and will bite me. Once I get him out of the cage and into my hands (if i can) then) then he's fine and doesn't hiss or anything anymore. His husbandry is correct he has a 75 ambient with a 110 degree basking spot with a 20 gallon tank. He's got plenty of room considering his size. He doesn't eat everyday, which I find odd. He used to eat crickets every day but now I've tried switching over to calci worms and dubia's. so i dontt have to deal with those jumpy little guys and sometimes he will eat them, and sometimes he wont. So does this mean he doesn't like them and i should sttick with crickets?

Thank you for your responses!

 

[Cerko]

How old is he? My guy recently started going through 'puberty' and he is SASSY! He used to lounge around and be perfectly content, but it's like a switch went off overnight - black beard, hissing, biting...

He's around 5-6 months, though,so if yours is younger I'm not sure

 

[CodyH3012]

He's about 4 1/2 months old, so could that be it?

 

[Mordecai]

Do you have other animals around the he can smell on your hands and it scares him?

 

[kingofnobbys]

Teenage beardie moodiness .... he'll get over it and you'll have a sweet gentle smoogy beardie before long.

I'd keep the crickets coming , and roaches, and calci gents coming , add silkworms and he'll be one spoilt beardie.
Have you tried handfeeding ? Is easy , even if a wee bit hazardout to the end of your thumb or finger .... accidential finger tip nips are likely if you are not paying attention, they are rearly bites in anger.
Matter of fact if cranky they will give you nip .

I decided to hand feed Toothless tonight for a change, since we have the grandson here and I wanted to show him how it's done, off cause Toothless was more interested in the strange sounds and what the little 5 yr old boy was doing and not interested at that moment in his crickets and showed me his displeasure by biting me on the tip of the thumb (enough to draw a drop of blood .... little devil ....) he was fine after he got it out of his system .... not exactly a vicious bite, but enough to tell me he was cranky.



Toothless and Peppa are 7 months old.