Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got my Frilled Dragon about a month ago from a pet store i work at. It's about 15 inches in length, at the petstore it was housed in a 55 G tank with another smaller one. When it was at the petstore it ate crickets, was active and quite tame. When I first took it home it stopped eating everything other than undusted superworms, became very aggressive and just remained behind one of the pieces of driftwood at the top of it's cage. It's cage at my house is 30 inches tall by 2 feet deep and 4 feet wide, it has a hot spot of 95 degrees and is misted once a day. I brought it back to the petstore and the next day i was there it was active again, was eating everthing again and it wouldn't even flare up when you reached in to take him out. He stayed there for another week and i decided to give it another try but now it's back to being aggressive and un-active. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

That sounds like something is spooking it. If you have other reptiles in the same room/area that might make a difference, but I keep my frilled in a room with aus water dragons, rankins dragons, and a bearded dragon. Do you have snakes in the same room, visible to the frilled? They don't like snakes. Frilleds are skittish by nature and their vision is beyond awesome, look around the room for anything that might look suspect. LOL My frilled use to be in an enclosure, twelve feet from the tv and would get spooked by the Victoria's Secret commercials.. it was the shadow, I guess. One thing you can try is putting sticky shelving paper on the sides of the enclosure, I do this for all new additions, just until they get adjusted. The adjustment period can be a week to several weeks, from my experience. Other than that.. I have nothing else to offer, sorry. I hope this helps, keep me posted.

These are pictures of my lizard and it's cage.

Nice enclosure and nice looking frilly! I imagine that enclosure is better than the one he/she was in at the store.
I have enclosed pics of my lil one, these were taken a few months ago.

You need to allow the frill to acclimate to its new surroundings. if you notice the front entrance to the cage; somtimes this will freak them out if they are not used to it. Try coming from below the animal. Also put your hand in the cage but dont go to close to the animals, stay there a couple of minutes, then get closer. Do this until it will go onto your hand. Obviosuly if it is freaked t wont eat so this will be out of the question. i have animals that i have had for a couple of years that still wont eat in front of me. Sounds dumb but try putting a smaller fake lizard in/ inn viewing distance of the cage. Most likely your animal was the aggressor, dominant. food for thought; good luck.
Mizzy
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Mizzy: frilldragon.com

but do you happen to have plans for that cage? It's great and I am planning to get some frillies when I get home and would love to build someting like that. Thanks, Blue

Nice cage...but I think I see your problem.

You've got this great cage that allows him all of this room to move and stretch out AND...be seen.

Like one of the previous posters said...cover the sides to "cramp him in". He's used to a smaller area (for him small = secure). Give him more cover and hiding spaces.

If you prefer to be able to see him instead of having to search for him everytime you want to show him off or do something with his cage you can slowly remove some of his cover one piece at a time (be sure to leave any items that appear to be his "favorite" for last).

Since you have a wooden cage a simple way to cover the sides and back would be to either purchase some of that decorative aquarium background or buy a few yards of dark cloth and keep it in place with tacks. Over the course of the next few weeks (or months...depending on his ability to acclimate) you can lower the cloth or background by a few inches at a time. This will give him time to slowly get used to being "on display".

About 15 years ago the first lesson was taught about keeping reptiles and amphibians was "A hidden herp is a happy herp."