New Beardie handling advice please

tanzi57 · 08-28-04, 06:34 AM

Hello everyone I have just (6 days ago) purchased a tiny baby beardie I have a picture of him/her don't know yet but have called it Gizmo, I was told that Gizmo was 12 weeks old but after showing gimo's photo to a few people I now have my doubts giz is about 6/7 inches from nose to tail and is a very light colour with two red/orange sripes running down his back, the only problem I am having is that giz is very nervous I have been putting my hand in the viv about 10/15 times a day and have just managed to touch giz under the chin, I find it a bit frustrating cause I want to hold giz and get him out but dare not just yet any advice from anyone who has had a similar problem would be great, by the way the viv I am using is 46x23x23 and has a UV tube 36", a basking spot light and a ceramic heater bulb for at night the temps at the hot basking are 100/105% and at the cool end 75/80% I will no doubt be writng a few things on this forum, bye for now..:w

corr · 08-28-04, 07:45 AM

Don't rush him. Most young beardies are skittish like that. Once he gets accustomed to you and his surroundings, and grows a little, he'll be fine. Don't worry.

Kimo · 08-28-04, 09:52 AM

Corr is correct! for the first lil while beardies are extremely skittish, and nervous of everything while they are babies, now this is just a guess here on my part through observation of my own beardies. I currently have 4 beardies 1 is an adult 2 are sub adults and 1 is slightly bigger than yours, now what i noticed with all my dragons growing up, is when they are small they seem to be afraid of everything, and at night time, they try as hard as they can to burry themselves in the substrate as much as possible, now even my sub adult dragons do this from time to time, but my adult dragon...no way! when he goes to bed, it's wherever he happens to be sitting at the time, so in a conclusion from this observation i think its just because they feel vunerable when they are small, and as adults, they dont fear anything! i know my Adult beardie chases our pittbuls around, and they are SCARED SH**LESS of him lol (and people think these dogs are blood thirsting mean dogs...YA RIGHT) but once again this is from my own experience. hope any of what i was just blabbering about helps you!

Josh

beanersmysav · 08-28-04, 10:17 AM

Haha same thing happens when I get my Sav out my Rotti (who is easily the biggest I've ever seen in height and girth although not fat) heads for the hills only looking behind when he's far away. I have no idea why he does this but its comical and probably better that my dogs arent around him anyways. But does this skittishness exist in all baby dragons? I know both the breeders I got my dragons from held them frequently, and while showing them to me when they grabbed them the beardies didn't scurry at all. Both of them sleep out on their logs and the only time I had either of my two beardies hide is when they were housed together when I first got them, my female would always hide under something as far as she could go but now thats she no where near the male she sleeps on her basking log. I also handle them alot so maybe thats the reason.

tanzi57 · 08-28-04, 10:57 AM

Thanks for all your advice it really does help a newbie like me bacause I would hate to do anything to frighten gizmo I just thought that he didn't really like me and it feels so dishearting when you feel that everything to try to do just makes him run away I have just had my hand in his viv and stroked him under the chin just for a few seconds and he didn't run away phew that makes a change, anyway thanks again and do you think his age is about right 13-14 weeks he is about 4inches from nose to vent and his tail is longer than his body he is so pretty this pic isn't very clear he won't let me get near him he just takes off I am about a couple of feet away and had to use the zoom , enough babbling thanks. :rsmile:

beanersmysav · 08-28-04, 12:39 PM

i dont know if the age / size is right mine may just be big but i have a 9 week old thats 5 inches nose to vent, and i have a 13 week old thats about 8 inches. So yours may be a bit small or mine may be a bit big. Are you sure thats the age of your beardie? Sounds a bit small for that size but like i said i dont know if mine are just bigger than average, or maybe there is no average. Haven't kept enough beardies to decide for myself.

ICULIZARD · 08-28-04, 01:09 PM

Dragons grow at different rates depending on many factors like sex, morph, bloodlines etc, so it's hard to say how old yours is. Don't think that yours is unhealthy if it's not as big as others.....some take longer. Keep an eye on the top part of the tail to make sure that it doesn't look "boney" and the underside after the vent, watch for runny stools, and basking behaviours....if all of that seems fine, relax and give the little guy some time. He will grow and most grow out of the "terror" reflex.

Good luck.

ICULIZARD

tanzi57 · 08-28-04, 02:32 PM

Gizmo has put on a bit of weight since I have had him in just those 6 days he was in a smallish viv about 24x12x12 and there were 7-10 in there a couple of them were twice his size he is a lot more lively now his stools are good nice and firm and there is no sign of any looseness but will watch him carefully and just be very patient with him will let you know how we are getting on in a couple of weeks, thanks to everyone for there comments and advice.