Life with Grumpy

This is the thread for the adult beardie I got from craigslist about six weeks ago. He had two previous owners, neither of which handled him much so I've got my work cut out for me! The guy I got him from said he was both two yrs old and three years old. I'm sticking with 3 for some reason. We started calling him grumpy from day one because he seems to want nothing to do with us! And it stuck so even though I don't really like it, that's his name

I left him alone for about a month to get used to his new setup (I got rid of the sand) and out home and just seeing us around.

Now I'm working on getting him used to me petting him and trying to hold him. He's deathly afraid of being picked up. I had some success last night with the beardie burrito though

So of course I make some progress and what do I find this morning? Poop all over his face!! Ugh. That means bath time and more grumpy hate.
He wasn't as angry with me though this time as much as tortured looking!! He just had puppy dog eyes the whole time like please please help me out!!! Lol aw.

He's also become more picky with food, preferring supers over crickets. I have to take everything out and play the waiting game before he'll eat his stupid crickets! I want to start dubias, I just hate crickets.... He has started eating mustard greens every day though!!! You know you're a freak beardie owner when you get so excited for them eating veggies

I bought this huge butternut squash and cut it up so nicely. I tried offering it to him and he just gave me "that" look... Lol. Guess that's out!

I'm so in live with guy and I'm so surprised by it!! I didn't even know bearded dragons existed a few months ago.... I look forward to seeing how life with grumpy goes over time

Oh and I'll post pics as soon as I get it figured out!!! He's really pretty, yellow face, tan tail (it has a black tip though, is that normal??) purplish lines on his sides and an orangeish beard. Love my grumpy

 

[CooperDragon]

I'm glad you're having fun with Grumpy. The rescues are difficult cases and take patience from what I've found. The black tip on the tail is normal and nothing to worry about. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on his progress =). You can upload photos to an image host like photobucket or tinypic. Then paste the url to the image here with img tags for it to show up in the thread.

 

[Ilovelucy]

Yes, he is definitely making me work for his trust!! I am trying to have patience and I love him anyway day two of bed time burrito holding went well. Less struggling, less anger and fell asleep right away. He's still doing glass dancing during the day, not wanting to bed and turning his back from me. :/ I do not think he's used to so much attention at all.... I am starting to research larger cages for him, I hope to get one soon. I left out some freeze dried crickets and pellets today to add some variety to his diet since he only seems fond of supers lately. He is still eating the mustard though! I had newspaper as substrate but it looked so bad I did paper towels. So easy for cleanup!! I was planning on tiles but waiting for new cage but I don't know.... I really love the ease of the paper towels and the white doesn't look so bad.... Now here's some pictures of the big old grump!!

 

[CooperDragon]

Hehe cute little grumpy guy. You may want to try some non adhesive shelf liner as substrate for now. That is a little more durable than newspaper but also cheap and super easy to clean up. I'd also try adding variety through some salad options. Maybe add a little fruit or some new veggies with a base green or two rather than the freeze dried crickets and pellets. There are some good ideas here http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

 

[Ilovelucy]

After more than six weeks with grumpy I was about to give up!! I saw an ad on craigslist for a beardie rescue in my area. He would run from me every time I went near him! Always have me stink eye, seriouslly just hated me!!! I was starting to get to the point if why keep a pet that you can't interact with and that hates you??

Luckily the rescue woman had some great tips for me since I really do not want to lose my grumpy!!

After only one day I have seen a huge improvement. I'm excited to post his progress as it continues!

 

[Taterbug]

Grumpy is freaking adorable! I like that second picture where he looks like he's having some serious business meeting or something. I'm glad to hear you got some advice that's working for you and are still trying to keep him. It can be frustrating to get a pet you expect to behave one way and they are totally sour about it. (One of my snakes is like that) Good luck with him, and please share your new found tricks with us if they prove to work, I'm sure some other owners of irritable dragons would be thankful.

 

[Ilovelucy]

Thank you, he is so cute!! He was barely handled with previous owners so I knew it would be tough, but not this hard!!! But here's how day two went bad photo quality and bad pics but you can see the progress

Didn't realiZe how big he is til he's crawling all over me

New shoulder buddy

 

[Ilovelucy]

Oh yeah the tips!! I basically just started ignoring his defensive behaviors which used to intimidate me. I would pick him up even when he didn't want me to and hold him firmly while he thrashing around violently. I used a soft towel so I wouldn't get my arms torn to shreds. After a while he realized he isn't getting anywhere. Now he barely does it and when he does it's because he wants a position change. Lots of petting and talking. Put him in the bathroom so he could walk around, eventually he walked OVEr me lol then onto me. I have just handles him a ton, hours upon hours the past few days. Just out him on my shoulder, lap everywhere. Carried him with me throughout the house. I think once I ignored his aggressive behaviors and just kept reassuring him that he was safe and that I love him, things have been great. I am oh so happy. The wait was definately worth it, I love this guy so much .

 

[Ilovelucy]

Btw not even a few days ago he was hissing at me black bearded puffed beard at me, would flinch at me to scare me away from petting him run away when I put my hand in the cage, try to claw his way out of the cage while I was tidying it up. Would look at super worms in my hand and would walk away. stand in the corner to avoid looking at me, would not even eat food from me as long as my hands were in the cage, lots of stink eye etc. violently thrash about if I tries picking him up, stare at me with pure hate if I did manage to pet him briefly. And any other bad beardie behavior you can prob think of lol

 

[Brezzy99]

Oh my goodness! I love Grumpy! He has beautiful colors and looks really healthy. His name fits him perfect by the looks of your first picture. I am so glad you didn't give up on him!

 

[Ilovelucy]

I am so glad too!!! We are having a great time. He's so curious but gets so scared at the same time he did the head bob to bottle of bathroom cleaner and a shelf on the wall with candles on it! He's gotten so much better about me picking him up, he mostly just goes limp and let's me do it now. We have had all kinds of snuggles which is too fun. He finally ate out of my hand again today too. After night Time snuggles he got out of him blanket and looked at me like, hey I wasn't ready yet! More snuggles please. So of course I had to comply I have a lot of house cleaning to do over the next few days. I want to be able to let him roam and see where he goes but I have tons of laundry and my daughters toys are all over!! I have a feeling hell just look for a place to hide anyway at least at first.
So yeah, things are going great I'm so so happy we've had this huge turn around. Pretty much just stopped being afraid of him.
There's a reason though!! A while back I used to hand feed him everything. Then he took a two day nap where he barely moved and didn't eat, I wondered if he was dead!!! I would poke and he's barely startle. Anyway he woke up and was quite hungry. I fed him a worm and he chomped my finger by accident. It hurt so frealing bad I've been afraid of him ever since.!but I know that it was an accident and a rare occurrence so I'm trying to get over it. I'll have to admit though, I am still very wary of him mouth. I'm having to trust him as much as he's trusting me I guess lol!!! Here's a couple snuggle pics ...

Curled up by my neck, so cozy

Cheek nuzzle, doesn't get any cuter!!!!

 

[cynikalkat]

He is adorable! Good luck!