Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have a dragon that I beleive to be about 3-4 months old. Whenever I try to remove him from his cage he runs for his life. Recently, he just started to threaten to bite me by opening his mouth when I approach him. I know he's bluffing and he never does bite me, but is this normal? Will he learn to trust me???? Any suggestions???

Thanks,
Mitch

It's normal for most yougn dragons, and even some untamed older dragons, to run for cover or to just run when taken out of their cage. As for the threatening to bite, this too is normal, i mean what would u do if a creature 10x the size of you cornered you and tried to grab you? The best advice for this situation that i ever got (ive been in your shoes) is to hold your dragon atleast once a day for about 10 minutes, and once you attempt to pick up your dragon, you must pick him/her up, otherwise, if you try and quit b/c it keeps gettign away, it'll learn that running from you will work. But if you manage to pick it up every time and it begins to realize you mean it no harm, then the animal will begin to become tame. I had a very ornery female for the longest time, but after i followed that advice, she never puffs up at or hisses at me.
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1.1.0 Bearded Dragons
Quebert & Isis
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www.funnymanreptiles.com

Association is another quick and powerful way to get beardies to trust you, and the easiest way to do that is to offer food by hand. A few crix here and there, a mealie once in a while, and he'll get the idea that the "hand" means something other than danger.

Another thing to work on is to try and approach your beardie from the side rather than from above. I know, it's kinda hard to do that if the tank only opens up from the top, but if you put your hand in on one side of the tank with him on the other, he won't feel as threatened as being "assaulted" from above. Since they live most of the time on the ground, anything that comes at them from above is a threat (birds, larger animals, etc...).

One other thing to try. You can get the best time to hold your beardie after he's gone to sleep of a night. A sluggish dragon can't run away as easily as an active one. You can hold him for a short period of time each night and then place him back in his tank for the rest of the evening, and it shouldn't stress him out as much that way.

Hope this helps.

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Dl

>>Hi,
>>
>>I have a dragon that I beleive to be about 3-4 months old. Whenever I try to remove him from his cage he runs for his life. Recently, he just started to threaten to bite me by opening his mouth when I approach him. I know he's bluffing and he never does bite me, but is this normal? Will he learn to trust me???? Any suggestions???
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Mitch

My brothers bearded, Draco, is like that sometimes. Draco's full grown though and she's one tough cookie.

What I've been doing is hand feeding her her dinner every night. She's trusting me more and more now. I just grab a piece of her food, and hold on to it until she gets it in her mouth then I let go and get another piece.

Then after she's eaten all of her greens I give her a wax worm if she hasn't done anything bad like trying to bite me or puffing her beard out.

If you can pick up the little guy, talk to him a nice tone of voice, nothing too high pitched like yelling and nothing too low pitch. I try to keep eye contact when I do the same thing with Hades, my bearded. He likes it. Then if your bearded was a good little guy when he was out give him a treat, whether its a few more crickets or a wax worm, this is postive reinforcement and the bearded will associate being good while being out with a treat at the end.

Good luck
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
1 Saharan Uromastyx-Iris
1 Leopard Gecko-Kalypso
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
3 Fish-no names
1 Beta Fish-also no name
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps

Yes, this normal. You appear to be a big ominous predator. You, through patient training are going to convince this tiny creature that you are a friend. Be patient, put a wiggly treat, like a waxworm in the palm of your hand. If your dragon has a strong prey drive, which most do, it will come close and try to snatch the worm. Let him have it and don't pick him up. He will eventually crawl up into your palm, but this takes quite a while.