How can you tell if your beardie hates his enclosure?

[Enzynom]

I think my bearded dragon hates his enclosure. It's not too small for him but every time I put him in, his stress marks turn a dark grey and when I take him out they go away completely. Sometimes he will glass surf but he doesn't do that often. What should I do?

 

[CooperDragon]

I think that's fairly common. If you have a good temperature and UVB gradient along with some places to climb and some places to hide it should be OK. Just give him time to settle into it. Perhaps it would be helpful to put up an interesting background.

 

[Enzynom]

He has a gradient along with two places to climb and two places to hide. I did that so he could bask and climb/hide or cool and climb/hide. But he doesn't hide much. He always likes to climb and bask. He also has a background. Can they feel over crowded?

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds good to me. I don't know that they feel crowded but they can take a while to settle in. They can want out if something is off with the lighting but that sounds OK. If he glass surfs I'd take him out to explore but otherwise I'd just let him be to try and adjust.

 

[Enzynom]

I already handle him a lot. I guess I'll just handle him more than that. I guess I just got a little explorer on my hands