Hi everyone - bit of background.
Just before Christmas I welcomed little Praxis into our home, more than 6 years after the untimely passing of my beautiful dragon Feanor from a tumor.
Praxis seems to have settled in very well so far and is definitely a very active and healthy young dragon who I have a feeling is going to grow up to be huge! I am not sure of his exact age but he is about 3-4 inches in the body and a good 5-6 inches of tail.
I am looking for a little bit of advice on handling - Feanor was a very chilled out dragon from day 1 but this little chap is much more skitty and seems to be afraid of my hands.
He is ok with me putting my hands in his tank and will cautiously take worms and pieces of apple from my hands, but if I get too close or try and pick him up he gets frightened, gapes and puffs and has tried to bite me a couple of times. No black beard but I think he is too small yet.
I have read lots of advice online and opinion seems to be divided between the softly softly approach and just being more assertive and picking him up anyway - but I don't want to frighten him and would rather spend time and patience with him if that is the right approach.
Its strange because he was fine with me for a few days when I first brought him home, but all of a sudden started acting this way - just after I changed his fluorescent so maybe that is a possible cause? Using reptiglo 10.0 and white reflective 40w basking bulb.
I will post a picture and am happy to give details of the setup but am confident it is correct as it worked for my last beardie, its just a couple of degrees warmer as he is small.
Does anyone have any advice they could share with me please? Thank you!
Looking good Praxis! Welcome!
Being a newbie myself, I have no advice to give, but I'm sure the experienced posters and moderators can help, they have been great helping me and Petey.
-Dee
Looking good Praxis! Welcome!
Being a newbie myself, I have no advice to give, but I'm sure the experienced posters and moderators can help, they have been great helping me and Petey.
-Dee
Thanks Dee! He is precious. I'm being super gentle with him for the time being and respecting him when he backs away or runs from me and am continuing the hand feeding
great to see another UK Dragon - greetings from london!
we brought our little baby home two and a half weeks ago - its only in the last couple of days that he has felt comfortable with me picking him up.
i've been hand feeding him since we got him but i was actually scared to pick him up because he was so very tiny and so very fast! i guess he could tell i was nervous, which in turn made him nervous, so we didn't really make any progress.
by picking up my baby in this way (the first way in the video) my boy has been comfortable with me picking him up and a couple of times has actually moved himself so that i can pick him up easier instead of running away!
this helped me so thought i would share.
(note: i am not the guy in the video, i have no connection whatsoever to the video, i just found it helpful).
It's very common for them to be quite timid and actually let you hold them the first few days. As they get more comfortable in their new environment, they tend to get more flighty and less wanting of being held. It's just a time thing, gotta keep working with him