maggieherr
Member
I've had my baby bearded dragon Apollo for about 2 months, and for about half that time he's been normal, happy, and calm. He would let me interact with him and he was well socialized, would just hangout with me while I did homework or got ready in the morning. There was an incident a few weekends ago where I had to go out of town for a family emergency, and asked my roommates to take care of him. I reminded them about turning on the lights, but they had forgotten and when I got back the light had been off for probably 24 hours. Since that day when his light was off, he hasn't been the same. He became very anxious, glass surfing often and gaping or running away frantically when I reached into his enclosure. I assumed it was just anxiety from a drastic change in his normal schedule and that he would readjust, but it seems we take a step forward and then two steps back. He eats normally, and within the last two weeks I gave him a new setup to make the enclosure more desert-like, including a background to discourage glass surfing (which has stopped when he's alone). I've slowly been trying to gain his trust back and make him feel happy and safe, and it seemed like things were slowly getting better, but today he bit me when I reached into his enclosure to interact with him. I've tried talking to him calmly, taking him out and trying to get him used to my scent and voice, associating my interaction with something positive, but nothing seems to be working. I am not sure if something besides the light not being turned on happened while I was gone and my roommates are not being honest with me. I am really concerned and I do not want to give up on Apollo. This is my first bearded dragon and I would really appreciate someone with more experience's opinion on why he's acting this way, or tips on how I can try to help him!! Thank you.