scared to handle

[trinity040400]

I really want to pick up my beardie but I am scared. She has never been handled before and I just heard that she bit her former own. She lets me hand feed her and pet her head but when I am petting her she like to suddenly turn her head with her eye faceing up where my finger is petting her, like she wants me to pet her eye or something. It gives me the feeling that she is about to bite me. She eyes my hand alot like I have food in it or something, which also makes me nervous.

Everytime I get home from work she is taning on her branch that is like 5" from the lid, she is alot meaner looking when she is basking and it looks like she is eyeing the top of the cage to jump out!

Has anyone else ever had this problem or am I just a wimp? This is my first reptile so I am not use to reading their behavior. I know it is importaint to handle them and I want to but.........

 

[Claudiusx]

Well, its something you kinda have to just do. Your beardie isn't going to get any tamer from you thinking about handling her.
You have to make the effort to do it. Try just letting her climb on your hand while she is still in her cage. Once you get more comfortable, try taking her out of her cage and holding her out of her cage. Just take baby steps like that. :mrgreen:

Another trick you can do is put a t shirt that you've worn into her tank. She will live with your smell and might recognize the smell when you try to hold her and she will realize you won't hurt her.

-Brandon

 

[trinity040400]

I do have a t-shirt in her cage already. It is a little hard to grab her when she is flattened out because she is tanning.

 

[trinity040400]

Update, I put my hand in when she was on her branch and she jumped on it! she sat there for a min then ran off and her bearde got black but she didn't puff up. She then started to "glass dance" on the back of the cage. She ran up on top of her branch as if saying "yeah I can jump over this wall". I quickly replaced the lid.

She seems to be very high strung, I hope she mellows out soon. :shock:

 

[MommiesBoyX]

as mentioned above, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take the chance. when i used to volunteer for a so called reptile rescue, i had to bite the bullet many a times for the new rescues we got in. sometimes i got bit, other times i didnt. just remember if you get bit, dont freak and stay calm. i learned this from dealing with tokay geckos, the bitpulls of the gecko world! lol

she may be as afraid of you as you are of her. but having her on your hand is a good start. remember to be firm, just not aggressive. good luck!

 

[Claudiusx]

Maybe she just wanted you to take her out! :mrgreen:

-Brandon

 

[Fievre]

You should definitely give it a try. My little girl always looks like she wants to hop right out of the top. Be firm, but gentle. If she hasn't been aggressive toward you, I don't really think you have much to worry about; she's not opening her mouth when you get your hand near her. My little one always watches my fingers when my hand is in her tank, but she never tries anything.

I was a little paranoid about picking her up at first, too. I didn't want to frighten her, or have her hop out of my hand and get hurt. Just try to lift her up, don't pull her right out though. See how she reacts just sitting there. It'll be totally worth it once you start working on it

 

[trinity040400]

Update, I just got of the shower to find that she had jumped from her tree and was hanging on the cord to her uvb strip light! :shock: Her nose was right on the lid waiting for me to open it! After a few min she slid off the cord and I have relocated her tree away from the light.

 

[trinity040400]

P.S. she is starting to fall asleep, is now a good time to try to pick her up?

 

[Kate221]

I started by picking mine up while they were tired....now they're my cuddle-bugs!!!

 

[trinity040400]

Thanks thats good to know, I will try that. You know its really funny because when they are asleep they are the cutest things :mrgreen: I look at her and think, who in the world would be scared of something so cute.

 

[MrWhite]

She lets me hand feed her

keep in mind, if she gets used to being hand fed, she will always look for food from your hand when you put your hand in her cage which is probably why she's probably facing upward as if looking at your finger and saying "What? no food?" :wink:

 

[trinity040400]

Its kinda strange, I also have a cockatiel who turns his head like that when I am petting him, but that is because he wants me to pet his orange cheeks. But I am assuming that my beardie dosnt want me to pet the side of her head when when she does this.

 

[littlesavedgirl]

My Levi bit me once, you know what it felt like? Velcro clams coming together on my finger but not hard. It did not hurt, it just startled me but he got picked up anyway :wink: . The spikes don't hurt either and almost all dragons will give their owners a black beard every once in a while, it's a right of passage.
They will wiggle away but you can rangle them gently, they are just playing hard to get .

You can do it!

 

[trinity040400]

I kinda think she is crazy. I took eveything out of the cage to feed her crickets, when I was done I put in my hand to see if she would get on it. She started to "glass dance" again and started to jump up the walls trying to get out. She wasnt running away from me just going crazy toward me.

She did jump on my hand and sat there for a min but she started to puff up her beard so I put her back down. Again she started to go crazy against the walls so I put my hand back in and she charged and nipped at me. I was determined not to let her win so I kept putting my hand in and she kept attacking me!

In the end I did give up because I think it was stressing her out not to have her stuff in the cage and I broke my toe AGAIN like 10 min before so it really hurt to be standing on it that long. When I put her tree back in she made a flying leap for the branch while it was still in my hand and looked like she was about to jump out of the cage. I had to quickly put the lid back on it.

Like I said I think she is crazy, all day long all she does is stare at the lid waiting for her change to excape!