newbie question about behaviors...

[rhondau]

So, we have had Max for a week and two days. He LOVED being held the first few days, now when we try to take him out he runs from us, when we are holding him he tries to get out of our hands, and if we are near the tank he jumps! literally jumps towards the tank. When we got him they told us he was 2 months old, so is it an age thing? The kids are always going near the tank talking to him and we try to take him out at least 3 times a day but the last couple of days have been so hard, because he is sooooo fast and so tiny, I am afraid we will lose him! Just to make sure we are doing things right... we give him a little bit of kale in the morning which he does not eat very much of...the crickets anywhere between 8-12 is what he has been eating in the afternoon they are medium sized. And he poops at least once a day. I am getting worried because we are leaving this weekend and I dont want the lack of stimulation affect him anymore. We will feed him Crickets and Kale Friday morning, his lights will be on a timer. I have a friend coming on Sunday to feed him and clean up his poop, give him some fresh kale. Then we will be home on Monday. We thought about taking him with us, but he would be in the car for a good 6 hour drive. Any suggestions or ideas? Should we leave a radio on for noise? Thanks in advance!

 

[Beardednoob]

Possible to leave on a TV? Radio is okay but, mostly just noise to a dragon, TV though is visual stimulation. That is if you want to go that route. In the past I have seen a few posts were the slave was posting on this same sort of behavior. There are some tricks that may work in helping your dragon feel more comfortable.
Leave a worn shirt or other thin article of clothing in the enclosure, it shouldn't smell heavy of detergent or perfume/cologne, it should just smell like your normal day to day.
Persistence is really key to this sort of thing, if the dragon knows it can just run away, what is stopping it from doing so? Make sure you hold the dragon if that is what your intentions are. If the dragon is biting then get some sort of glove that will allow you to still hold him. It makes sense if you think about it.
Lastly though, lighting can upset dragons (I feel anyways) if the lighting isn't right what other way does your dragon have to tell you? What UV source are you using and do you use a night light?

 

[rhondau]

We are not using a nightlight, the room stays pretty dark all night. We got the 24inch reptisun 10.0 for uvb and then a 75 basking bulb in a 40 gallon tank. I do think the light has been on for 12-14 hours the past few days because of our schedule, (buying a timer tomorrow) Not sure if that would be making a difference. We also switched to medium crickets because the small ones sometimes seemed sooooo small. I havent dared to try a bath with him because he is sooo hyper and ready to escape (We have 4 cats) escape for him could likely mean death