I recently got a bearded dragon who's only a few months old. I've done some research, and it says it's good to hold them. And it said sometimes you have to "cozy" them up to the act of being held by holding them every now and then throughout the day for short periods of time. Up until earlier after I held him for the first time today, he has been all over his log, even choosing to sleep on it instead of his heating pad at night. I didn't drop him or anything, but he did squirm to get put down. When I did put him down, he got under his log. I was afraid he got stressed and scared, but, after giving him a little time, I went to check on him and he was sleeping. I fed him, then, he curled back up under his log again, but this time he was under it where I could see him so it doesn't seem as if he was hiding. He went back to sleep. It's around the time I usually go to bed, but I still had the lights on. Could he have been trying to get away from my room light to sleep? Or, is he actually hiding from me? I've held him other times before, and he's been fine. He just doesn't seem to like being held.
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Beardie hid under log after being held?
- Thread starter BrookieG
- Start date
He could have been just trying to find a dark place to sleep. When our dragons go to sleep, since we use the room they are in, we have a very soft light lamp on the other side of the room. It doesn't make the room real bright and the light isn't over their head. They don't seem to have any problems with it.
Make sure when you are picking him up that you are scooping from in front of him and not reaching over his head to grab him. You can try just holding him in his tank for short periods of time to get him used to you holding him. I found that holding mine at night right before lights went out helped because they tend to be real sleepy and let their guard down a bit.
Heating pads aren't a good choice for bearded dragons because they have limited nerve endings on their belly and so they can't sense when something is too hot for them. Their brain is designed to search for heat from above, that's why they bask in the sun. If your tank drops below 65 degrees at night then use a low watt ceramic heat emitter that doesn't give off light but just heat. Their tanks should drop in temp at night to give their body time to recuperate and further process D3 and Calcium.
Make sure when you are picking him up that you are scooping from in front of him and not reaching over his head to grab him. You can try just holding him in his tank for short periods of time to get him used to you holding him. I found that holding mine at night right before lights went out helped because they tend to be real sleepy and let their guard down a bit.
Heating pads aren't a good choice for bearded dragons because they have limited nerve endings on their belly and so they can't sense when something is too hot for them. Their brain is designed to search for heat from above, that's why they bask in the sun. If your tank drops below 65 degrees at night then use a low watt ceramic heat emitter that doesn't give off light but just heat. Their tanks should drop in temp at night to give their body time to recuperate and further process D3 and Calcium.
