This morning I couldn’t sleep since 4am because of a very loud chirping cricket in my bearded dragon- Taco’s cage that had escaped his reach at some point. Not being able to take it anymore I was able to eventually put the cricket to an end and feed it to Taco but at the cost of waking him up. He is probably only 5 or 6 months so I’m sure he reacts differently to this situation than a full grown would, but I was wondering if I may have caused him a lot of stress? He isn’t showing any signs that leads me to believe he is stressed but from my own experience with this cricket I am a little upset having gotten up early and wouldn’t be surprised if he felt the same. What do you guys think?
I think he will survive. I mostly keep snakes, and sometimes it’s necessary to stress them out to get things done. If your guy isn’t showing signs of stress, he’s probably a-okay, and even if it did stress him out to wake up early, I’m sure falling back asleep maybe him feel better. Stress is kind of a fact of life, and though it’s great to try and avoid it, it happens sometimes, especially since many reptiles are easily stressed. They also seem to get over it fairly quickly, though, so I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s more when they are living in an environment that stresses them 24/7 that you should worry IMO.
If he's anything like all my mob (skinks and dragons) he'll be scratching at 5am every morning from now on wanting his "midnight snack" and a snuggle..... LOL