Thinking my fingers are food and Running away!

[Lexielu182]

Hello my names Alexis about 4 months ago i baught a Baby bearded dragon he was fine with handleing at first and now that hes getting older hes been running away from me and jumping out of my hands and been licking my fingers and then biteing them as though he thinks its food why is this? is there anyway i can get him to stop? i have to admit when i first got him i was very busey at work i tryed to keep him on a steady handleing scedule and due to work i did slack a bit so maybe hes mad at me? and his feeding habbits wernt on track like i would have hoped but hes back on scedule. if anyone could help me to make him realize my fingers arent food that would be great and maybe some tips as to make him stop running and jumping that be good thanks!

 

[nair88]

the initial tasting of the finger is just him trying to know who you are. but when he licks yours, he must be tasting something he likes which causes him to try to eat your finger. are you eating something prior to handling him? or maybe it's possible that the soap that you use tastes good to him. just some thoughts.

 

[Lexielu182]

I never thought of it like that thank you i do use fruity soap when i wash my hands and i dont really rember if i have eaten before handleing him but i do feed him meal worm by hand so i was thinking maybe hes misunderstanding and thinking my fingers are giant meal worms lol but thank you that was helpful info =}

 

[Frito]

hahaha, yeah fruit soap is probably a bad idea

 

[SoarHigh]

Have you ever hand fed your beardie?? See, I used to hand feed mine in an attempt to tame her but she ended up thinking my fingers were food and bit me a few times. :?

 

[Lexielu182]

how did u get her to stop biteing you thinking you were food? just let her bite you? cuz i let him bite me and for as little as he is he packed a pretty mean punch haha but i think he understood i wasent food after atleast i hope

 

[SoarHigh]

You know I really didn't do anything except keep my fingers away from their faces. They grew out of it as they got older and realized there was a bigger being attached to the hand. Just watch your beardie and pull your hand away from his face if he looks like he's about to bite. It might help to stop hand feeding him for a while too and just wrap him in a burrito (If you can wrestle them into one lol) in order to tame them.