Beardie scared of me

[BeardieFromTheNorth]

This is Kepler - going from what the pet store told me, he's about 5 months old (maybe 10-11" long).

I did a ton of research before purchasing Kepler. I wanted to avoid as many rookie mistakes as possible. I feed him twice a day: romaine lettuce, carrot/bell pepper, mealworms (x5) - I let him snack on that while I'm in class, by the time I get home he usually is done (with the insects at least) so I offer him more mealworms or 4 week old crickets.
His terrarium is toasty warm at around 32-36C on the hot side, and 22-26C on the cool side. He has 2 hides, and plenty of hard scaping for him to climb on, and multiple basking levels.

This is my first reptile, so Im definitely no expert. However, I definitely try my best to make the lil guy happy. I handle Kepler every day, letting him roam around my room, or chilling on my shoulder while I prepare his food. He used to be really chill with me, happy to come out, curious about what I was doing, curious about my room, etc. But recently Kepler has been running away from me... Darting away as soon as I move. He never used to use his hides, but now it seems like he sprints inside one of them as soon as he sees me. When I take him out, he either jumps from my hand, or runs up my arm and jumps off my shoulder. I figure he wanted to explore more, so I let him... He runs to a corner (ramming his nose into the wall in the process) and then lays there until I pick him up. He still licks my hand, and he's sleeping on my shoulder as I'm writing this, but this new animosity is definitely worrying me. I did recently change his entire terrarium to fit a magnetic feeder ledge thing, which I figured would add some stress, but it was over a week ago. Other than that, nothing has changed. How do I know if I'm doing something wrong?

Hoping that someone that knows more than me can help me out! Thanks!

 

[IAmAMirage]

Well, to start, beardies can take a little while to get used to new people and setups. When I first got Mirage he was super sweet and cuddly. About a week later (when we found out he had coccidia and had to redo his tank) he started acting all skittish. It took him a couple of weeks to get back to normal. But thats just my experience.

Second, lets get some more expierenced beardie owners to help you out! @KarrieRee @AHBD @xp29 @BPSabelhaus @NickAVD

Third, Welcome to the community!

 

[AHBD]

Kepler, the beardie from the North ! He looks good + healthy. So what often happens is that when they first come to their new home they may be more or less very timid about exploring but now that he's used to his surroundings [ when you take him out ] he figures he's going to go on his OWN adventure. Thus the jumping + running to see what he can see. So be very careful and never let him on your shoulder. Beardies get hurt all the time leaping from a shoulder , even breaking bones. Don't handle him too much right now , especially if he just ate.
On another note, your basking temp. should be around 40C -42C . The cool and should be a few degrees higher as well. Mealworms should only be fed once a week in small amounts, crickets should be the staple and bsfl as a back up. Can you get dubia in Canada ? Greens are far better than carrots so switch to kale, turnip, mustard, collard greens, nicely torn to small pieces.
Can you post pics of his entire enclosure, also showing the light ?

 

[BeardieFromTheNorth]

Kepler, the beardie from the North ! He looks good + healthy. So what often happens is that when they first come to their new home they may be more or less very timid about exploring but now that he's used to his surroundings [ when you take him out ] he figures he's going to go on his OWN adventure. Thus the jumping + running to see what he can see. So be very careful and never let him on your shoulder. Beardies get hurt all the time leaping from a shoulder , even breaking bones. Don't handle him too much right now , especially if he just ate.
On another note, your basking temp. should be around 40C -42C . The cool and should be a few degrees higher as well. Mealworms should only be fed once a week in small amounts, crickets should be the staple and bsfl as a back up. Can you get dubia in Canada ? Greens are far better than carrots so switch to kale, turnip, mustard, collard greens, nicely torn to small pieces.
Can you post pics of his entire enclosure, also showing the light ?

Thanks for all the information! I definitely take him out quite a bit. He has already jumped off of my shoulder, scared the crap out of me... he's not the most cautious creature, that's for sure! I sit on the ground when he's out, I have a very clean and accessible room, so I don't mind him running around and exploring. But, like I said, recently he's just running away from me into a corner.

Kepler has several levels that he can access for basking - the hottest of which does reach around 41C. As for my cool side, I was mistaken- when the hot side's ambient temp reaches 36C, the cool side is at ~29C. I actually only recently got crickets because I noticed Kepler doesn't always eat all of his mealworms. Initially he went nuts for the crickets... he chased them all around and started glass surfing around the crickets' container. Now, he just lets them crawl on him and run around. Not sure if that means he doesn't like them or not. I will definitely look into getting some more variety for greens! Oh and no, dubia roaches are illegal in Canada.

Here's a picture of his enclosure - there's also a ledge with his food bowl on the right hand door. I have an Arcadia 26" T5 14% Tube UVB light (placed as closely as possible to the heat lamp).

 

[BeardieFromTheNorth]

Well, to start, beardies can take a little while to get used to new people and setups. When I first got Mirage he was super sweet and cuddly. About a week later (when we found out he had coccidia and had to redo his tank) he started acting all skittish. It took him a couple of weeks to get back to normal. But thats just my experience.

Second, lets get some more expierenced beardie owners to help you out! @KarrieRee @AHBD @xp29 @BPSabelhaus @NickAVD

Third, Welcome to the community!

Mirage is adorable!! I love his colouring. Thank you for the warm welcome and wisdom!

 

[IAmAMirage]

Mirage is adorable!! I love his colouring. Thank you for the warm welcome and wisdom!

Thank you!

 

[AHBD]

Very nice set up ! Love the beautiul, natural wood pieces especially, looks great and allows for a lot of climbing /exercising. I figured that you can't get dubias there and crickets can be hard to keep track of. What you can do when it's time to feed him is to get a jar or large empty container , put a small pinch of calcium powder and the crickets in, then shake it very hard to stun them. Really hard, so you can see that they are almost immobile. Then offer them in the bowl and he should eat them all at once. He may be rejecting them in favor of the mealworms so hold off on the mealworms which are more like dessert.

As for his change in behavior, don't be discouraged. Like children and puppies [ lol ] they can be super energetic + flighty or more calm. He will settle down as he gets bigger.
EDITED - for silly typos

 

[xp29]

I agree with everything @AHBD said. Give him time. You have to remember even though we fall in love with them on site, hatchlings are brand new to the world. And everythingis new to them. They don't know yet what is safe and what isn’t. Can you imagine a 100 foot giant picking you up? Most of us would die from freight. It take time and patience to earn their trust. I've had my hatching Lucy since October and she is still hard to handle. Zsa Zsa also took months to really trust us. It will happen though and when it does it's worth the wait

 

[BeardieFromTheNorth]

@xp29 @AHBD Thank you both for the help and assurances! I'm very happy with him regardless, and I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes. Good to know I'm not screwing him up!