beardie is scared to come out of his enclosure

[tangel256]

I've had my 4 month old beardie for about a month now, I've been extremely patient and slowly getting him used to me and his new surroundings. Which he has done well with. but he gets extremely anxious when I take him out of his tank to clean it or bathe him. he isn't too fond of being handled, as he is super squirmy and tries to get away when I pick him up. when I do get him out of his tank to hold him and attempt to bond with him, I have to do it with my hand in a bin so that when he does end up jumping off of my hand, he wont fall on the ground and get hurt. When I put him in a bin just to keep him safe as I clean his tank, he just freezes or tries to jump out of the bin frantically. I am trying to make him as comfortable as possible but we have many years together so I want him to get used to me. The best I've gotten thus far is getting him to sit on my hand by guiding him onto my hand with a BSFL, but once he eats it, he jumps back off and runs onto his basking spot. Is this normal? does he just need more time? I know we aren't ready to be buddies yet but I hear about other beardie owners having their little dudes just hanging out with them by this point so I feel like we are a little behind. I just want the best for him! I am unsure of what I should be doing!

 

[TotoTheBeardie]

Every beardie is different, so just take it slowly, continue hand feeding him, and hopefully he’ll grow to love you, but sometimes beardies just like to hang by themselves, so make sure to do whatever he’s comfortable with this article could be handy.

https://forevervets.com/blog/how-to-bond-with-your-bearded-dragon#:~:text=While%20lizards%20can't%20be,a%20few%20weeks%20of%20training.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Personalities among beardies can differ, like personalities among humans.
My dragon Taco was the anxious little guy when he was 4 month old. I was (and I am) patient, me and my husband (other people were not around) are generally super calm and gentle, there are no loud noises at home (for sure not, we're both noise sensitive and there is no such as loud music or TV).
And luckily, we also never had to do anything like giving medicine or catching Taco. Nice enclosure with many ways to hide.
Still: me entering the room, he slid behind his branch. Me entering the room, he ran away from eating.
The first time I put him in his carrier so I could weigh him: He scratched me up until I was bleeding and then tried to escape the carrier. (Second time it was fine.)

Taco is now close to 1 year old, calm and nice, never hisses or bites, I can put on his harness and leash for outdoors without any problems, I can touch him everywhere on his body.
What happened in the meanwhile?
* He got older, obviously. Small dragons are more cautious.
* He continued to make good experiences: That when I put him in his carrier, I will really take him out again, for example.
* He got used to unavoidable things at home. That I dry clothes on the balcony, for example (in the beginning, he was afraid of seeing clothes on hangers, he likely had mistaken them for birds). That there are sounds from the kitchen. That I use a broom.
And he kept his personality. Taco is the introvert guy - not afraid anymore, not sliding behind branches anymore, won't stop eating when I watch, but he for example only wants to come out of his enclosure approx. once a week and wants to go back in after 10 - 20 minutes. He could come out almost as often as he wants (my husband works from home), but Taco doesn't like to come out more often. Despite he seems to enjoy it (happy colors, tail up, curious).
I'm fine with that. If there would still be anxiety, we'd have to work on that. But as he's looking very happy, that's fine - I'm also an introvert, and if Taco likes to stays a lot in his enclosure this is fine in the same way as I would rather stay at home on weekend and get the scale modeling kit out instead of dancing in the club