Beardie bonding

[koco46]

Hi,
We have had our first beardie for 3 weeks now and he seems to be getting more used to us,we have been holding him for a few minutes every day.
I was wondering,does anyone's beardie come to the front of the tank/enclosure to come out when they see their human walking by?
Do they signal in any way that they want to "hang out" with their people?

 

[rustyshackleford]

We have a 5 month old, my boyfriend thinks when he comes to the front of the tank he wants to come out, but I kind of think it's just him going to the front of the tank. However you can definitely tell if he feels like being approached or not.. as long as you can tell when he/she is tense and when they want to be left alone you should be okay. I usually try to pick him up whenever I can because I work a lot and he sleeps almost right after I get home. Now he doesn't seem to mind at all ever, but he does get grouchy when he is shedding or hasn't pooped in more than a day, so sometimes we just leave him be all day... ours doesn't always come to the front to see us when we are around but he always gives us the patented beardie head-turn wherever he is, probably to make sure he isn't about to be eaten by by a bird or something

 

[koco46]

Oh I love that little head turn!!
I do hold Phoenix at night,I love it when he falls asleep on me.
He gets very restless when he gets sleepy and either tries to climb something vertical or burrow under something.
Last night we had him out around 8:30 or 9pm amd he kept trying to climb into the bouquet of lilacs that were on the table.He was struggeling to get comfortable and we finally figured out he was tired and looking for a place to fall asleep. :lol: I never knew reptiles had that much personality!

 

[rustyshackleford]

I know, our Rusty is just the most interesting little guy!! It's so adorable! They sound a lot alike. Rusty likes to fall asleep in my boyfriend's shirt at night, which is a better time to pick him up anyway because he isn't trying to scamp around as much.

 

[koco46]

They do sound a lot alike,their size seems similar,too.

Phoenix is just a little guy,we "rescued" him off CL,he now is 6-7 months old and just reached 50 g at about 10 inches long.

I read one of your previovious posts about the parasites,I am curious how that turned out,did you get by without the meds?

 

[rustyshackleford]

Ours is about the same size!

You know since we got him we talk to lots of different people at pet and reptile stores about how they take care of their own lizards because this was our first pet let alone a lizard.. Everyone but the vet told us he will be fine unless he has something more serious like "velvet worms". Apparently it is probably more like 95% that have them, and as long as he is eating, pooping, basking, sleeping and alert he is okay. I really did not want to give him medication because I know you can also stress them to death. The vet told him he gets pinworms and coccida from crickets, and she said that it can take a year to fully get rid of them. So we thought, if we keep feeding him crickets and medication, technically it's possible that it never goes away. This one guy says he has had his beardies for 8 years, found out they had pinworms and coccida, and never did anything about it and they were fine. The parasites need to get out into the cage in order to go back into his system. We invested in a good steam cleaner and now when he poops we try to clean it up right away, and steam the surrounding area quickly. Who knows if it will work or not, but I don't want to kill him with stress or with medication that might not agree with his system.

 

[Mintyrush]

Charmander runs to one side of the tank when she wants to come out. She'll scratch the side and we'll take her out and let her run around our room for awhile. She jumps in the window sill (which we always leave available for her) and stares at the tree right outside. She loves it when it storms. She's not very people orientated, but she still wants freedom.

Nacho is kind of opposite, we recently had a storm and Nacho tried to hide in the closet. One day while I was watching TV Nacho jumped up on the futon and took a nap on my chest. (we keep them in our room with us when they are running around and we have a small bedroom, they are safe. c: )

I wouldn't recommend it for babies though. Our beardies are older and much more calm. Less easy to lose, as well!

 

[bunnyrut]

there are 3 different kinds of scratching i've noticed.

1. "FEEDMEFEEDMEFEEDMEFEEDME". If they get fed around the same time everyday they start to scratch to remind you, lol. If i so much as walk by her food area she goes nuts.

2. *POOPS* "HUMAN!!! GETITOUT!!! IT SMELLS!!!!". Tasty Treat does a much more frantic and desperate glass dance when she poops.

3. "out! out! out!". Mr Dargon has his "i want out" dance. he paces back and forth at the end of his tank, stops and stares at me, then scratches at the glass.

i do love when they just sit there and watch you walk back and forth.

as you get used to each other you'll be able to tell what they want.

 

[beardie789]

WE ave had our baby beardie, Sobe for a couple of weeks now. He (or she, we don't know) is approx 2 months old. I've been hand feeding hime greens everyday. He eats them pretty well. He eats lots of crickets and I introduced him to phoenix worms last week which have quickly become his favorite!

He did a full body shed and since then has been more active. I noticed that when he wants live food, he runs around his viv with his tail curled.

He did bite my finger this morning for the first time ever and it caught me off guard. Didn't hurt me but startled me. I was trying to give him a very tiny piece of cantolope. SO now I'm nervous every time I've tried to handle him after that today.

He seems so much more active than he was when we got him. He comes running almost everytime he sees me which is making me think he assumes I'm going to have crickets or PW every time he sees me!

Should I be more caucious with him? I don't want him to keep biting me. He's just so much more active, it's so weird. Maybe because he's comfortable in his new home, just went through a shed, etc.

Also, I do not hold him outside of his viv. He's still small and extremely fast and jumpy and I don't want him to get lost someplace in our house or give one of our cats the opportunity to get him! Is this bad? When I pick him up (from under him not above him), he tends to want to run directly right up my arm which I don't want him to do because I don't want anything to happen to him. Is it wrong for me to wait to handle him more outside of the viv til he gets a bit larger? He seems very happy to me.

 

[bunnyrut]

Also, I do not hold him outside of his viv. He's still small and extremely fast and jumpy and I don't want him to get lost someplace in our house or give one of our cats the opportunity to get him! Is this bad? When I pick him up (from under him not above him), he tends to want to run directly right up my arm which I don't want him to do because I don't want anything to happen to him. Is it wrong for me to wait to handle him more outside of the viv til he gets a bit larger? He seems very happy to me.

not at all.

when tasty treat was tiny i would hold her on my hand inside her viv. when i did take her out she would be sitting perfectly still and then just jump and take off.

you can take Sobe into another room and hold him on you. just block off any spaces he can get into.

some people go into their bathrooms, i prefer my hallway since it is the easiest to block off.

when he gets bigger you'll be able hold him more. just as long as you handle him a little everyday it won't be a problem.

as for the biting, when they are being fed something they like they get a little over excited. Mr Dargon bit me once the same way, I shouted mostly out of surprise as well and he actually looked sorry he did it. he has never bitten me again.
just try to get him to see the difference between your fingers and food. i use tweezers for most of the live food, they tend to get excited when they see the tweezers now since they know it brings the noms.

don't be scared of him biting you again, animals often know when you are scared. plus since he is small it won't really hurt, Tasty Treat has nipped me a few times. It seems to be her way of telling me she's mad (if she runs down to the cricket cage when i take her out and i pull her away she tends to bite me and give me dirty looks).

now when they are adults the biting hurts. some people here can tell you all about that!