Beardie won't let us hold him anymore. Please help!

[atucker]

Hello! Paranoid first time beardie mom desperate for help!

We got Bardt in July, he was small but I don't know for sure his exact age. We've had him for about 5 months now and he is now abou 8in including the tail.

I had read a lot of things on here about slowly introducing your hands to him as not to scare him and we definitely took it slow. He's never come to us on his own but he always lets us gently get under his belly and pick him up...until recently. The past few weeks when I go to pick him up he jumps and runs away from me. I'm not doing anything differently but he seems very scared. He has ZERO stress spots, no black beard, and has never hissed or shown any aggressive signs. Yesterday i was able to get my hand underneath him and his front hands held onto my finger but if I slipped my hand under his belly he backed off so I couldn't pick him up. He actually jumped from the top of his tank to the floor the other day and when i picked him up he jumped off my shoulder! He's never done this and don't know why the change all of a sudden. For the past month prior to this we'd been taking him out of his viv in a big plastic bin and holding him while we watch TV and he was doing great! We've never let him run around the house loose because we can't really block it off and he could easily get lost.

I was very excited to finally get to hold him regularly and outside of is tank but now I'm very upset about this change in his behavior. Was there something I could've done to spook him? Is it time to move him into a bigger tank? Please help! I miss holding my little sweetie!

 

[luissandoval87]

My Hermes did something very similar. When he was young he was very curious and interested in everything, but he still let me handle him and I handled him quite often. After a couple of months, he just didn't like to be handled as much. He would jump down from my hands onto the floor and run off into a corner. I'd try to pick him up and he'd just run away. It was quite frustrating. What I did to get him to re-tame him was to just pet him, a lot, everyday. Soon I started picking him up and just letting him chill on my arm or my shirt because I was scared he'd jump and hurt himself. Then I'd let him run on the floor, but he'd still run from me so I just gave him some veggies or a treat as soon as I put him on the floor. Now he's very tame. He's still very very curious and runs up and licks anything he sees that attracts his attention, which is pretty much everything...But it did take me maybe two months to get him the way I have him now. If you work with him for a little while I'm sure you'll re-tame him and everything'll be like before

 

[bunnyrut]

They all go through this stage.
and they also go through an intimidation stage. he'll beard at you and open his mouth like he's going to bite.
they are testing their limits. just don't back down when he puffs at you. and don't worry about him biting you at that age, it doesn't really hurt - just feels like a little pinch. (Tasty Treat has gotten me a couple times)