Pissed Off Bearded Dragon!

[Pazzoman]

Hey Guys,

I have a captive bred bearded dragon (Forgot the color morph). My dragon is by him self in a 65 gallon wooden tank. Every time I'm near him he gapes his throat and it turns black. When I move to close to him he opens him mouth wide, but knowing from my research they are very good at intimidating such a when he puffs up to look large. I ignore it and hold him where he calms down a bit, but then is fear ful when I trying to leave beyond his tank. Any advice and help would be great, btw he is about a foot long and I had him since he was like 5 inches.

 

[snakeguy101]

handle him more and so long as he continues to eat normally and does not loose wait, you will be fine. You just dont want to stress him to the point that he stops eating.

 

[Pazzoman]

ok thanks

 

[foto69man]

A couple things you can do. Take a blanket/rag and wear it under your shirt for about 30mins. This will put your scent on it and then put it in his tank...that way you won't smell so foreign everytime you go to pick him up. The other thing, is don't reach straight down on top of him, that can be very threatning to animals. Come from in front of him and scoop so he can see your hand and not be scared.

 

[Pazzoman]

oh ok then, I will get the blanket idea into use, and since I'm like about 2 feet taller then the tank, I guess until he is calm with me, I should get on my knees and approach him so he's se's my face also....