Lazy Dragon - Breaking the habit.

[Twinz]

My beardie is coming up on this first birthday soon, I got him in july of 2011 and ever since I had him he was a pretty lazy guy except when he I first got him and he was climbing all over his "house". He eats and poops regularly and usually he is either under the basking spot with about 1/3 of his body stuck out under the light or ontop of the basking spot. We have the Reptisun 10.0 (TUBE LIGHT not coil!) and I keep the cold side temperatures at 80 and the hot side at about 90-100 but when I get to 100 he is always gaping so I usually keep it at 95. Im looking to break the habit of just lying there. If I take him out he walks around a little bit but usually he just chills. After I put him back in if I put him ontop of the basking area he will stay there for a couple days without going down, he even sticks his head into the corner to sleep instead of going into his cave area. But if I put him on bottom he stays there for a couple of days. Every now and then he ventures up and down and when he goes up instead of going up the ramp he will insist on hauling himself up. Its actually pretty funny to watch because he is so stuborn and he is kinda dumb sometimes haha. Im looking to break this lazyness habit so I was woundering if anyone had tips.

Also he wont come down after his basking area to eat so we give him his worms on the basking spot, if he gets really hungry he will run down to the dry food and eat a tiny bit but thats not very often. His most active time is when he poops because he runs around his cage then takes a huge one right in the middle of the floor.

 

[EmpNortonII]

I notice you saying "he."

Take him to a bar that allows pets. Croaker gets very excitable around attractive women.

 

[Yoshi2012]

stop feeding him at his spot. If he wants food he should have to "hunt" or at least look for it. He will not starve himself out of laziness so at least that will force him to move around when hes hungry.

 

[tattykassy]

My dragon is also very lazy and I found this worked for me, although if you find that your dragon gets stressed it would probably not be a good idea.

I had his tank off behind the couch so he was relatively sheltered and he'd really only see us when we were in the kitchen. He was quite lazy, same things you described, just wanted to lay in his spot all day and be hand fed as he couldn't be bothered to shuffle his butt down and get something to eat.
We moved him into a new tank (bigger) and put it right in the living room, near a window so he can see the birds outside or the cars drive by, and we spend a lot of time in the living room so whenever we walk by, we stick our hand in and pet him or give him a head scratch and basically we involved him more in our active daily lives. He seems much more aware of what is going on, he moves around more although he still likes to bask and still prefers his food dish over actually hunting, he's definitely more active.

Its important to watch them though, if they aren't eating or looking agitated or having stress marks you should stop. You don't want them to be moving around because they feel scared or stressed, you just want them to feel more engaged in physical activity.


Hope it helps.