Hossinn
Hatchling Dragon
- Messages
- 52
Hello,
We've had our dragon for 3 weeks, and he is 12 weeks old. We were off to a slightly rough start because he was eating almost nothing for the first 4-5 days we had him. Now he seems to be eating fairly regularly (example: 15-25 dubias 3x/day).
Our goal for these first weeks has been to allow him to become comfortable in his new surroundings, so we handled him very little. We now want to start handling him more so he can get comfortable with human touch. I have a few questions:
- If we only try and scoop him up from underneath, he will almost always run away, so we end up having to "chase" him around his enclosure. Even though it's not the preferred way, it seems less stressful for him if we slowly put our hand over him, and wrap our fingers underneath his body for support, when we pick him up. Does this sound okay, or is there a better way?
- Once we pick him up, we generally sit on the bed and hold him gently, or open our hand and let him stand on our hand, or put him on our chest and let him relax. He is sometimes opening his mouth, as if he is going to bite, but he has not bitten yet. To minimize stress, we've only been holding him for 5 minutes max 2-3x/day. Does this sound okay, or is there a better way?
- Today, my daughter and I each held him one time each. This afternoon, I put some water on my finger to try and put a drop on his nose because I want to make sure he is hydrated (he's eating some kale, but isn't really eating the apple, carrots, strawberry, etc. that we are putting in his salad), and he ran from me, then turned toward me, opened his mouth, and flared his beard. I basically immediately gave in, closed his enclosure and left. Does this sound normal, or is there a better way?
I'm open to any strategies anybody might have to make the transition to being a hand-held pet, as low-stress, and easy as possible, for all involved.
Thank you.
We've had our dragon for 3 weeks, and he is 12 weeks old. We were off to a slightly rough start because he was eating almost nothing for the first 4-5 days we had him. Now he seems to be eating fairly regularly (example: 15-25 dubias 3x/day).
Our goal for these first weeks has been to allow him to become comfortable in his new surroundings, so we handled him very little. We now want to start handling him more so he can get comfortable with human touch. I have a few questions:
- If we only try and scoop him up from underneath, he will almost always run away, so we end up having to "chase" him around his enclosure. Even though it's not the preferred way, it seems less stressful for him if we slowly put our hand over him, and wrap our fingers underneath his body for support, when we pick him up. Does this sound okay, or is there a better way?
- Once we pick him up, we generally sit on the bed and hold him gently, or open our hand and let him stand on our hand, or put him on our chest and let him relax. He is sometimes opening his mouth, as if he is going to bite, but he has not bitten yet. To minimize stress, we've only been holding him for 5 minutes max 2-3x/day. Does this sound okay, or is there a better way?
- Today, my daughter and I each held him one time each. This afternoon, I put some water on my finger to try and put a drop on his nose because I want to make sure he is hydrated (he's eating some kale, but isn't really eating the apple, carrots, strawberry, etc. that we are putting in his salad), and he ran from me, then turned toward me, opened his mouth, and flared his beard. I basically immediately gave in, closed his enclosure and left. Does this sound normal, or is there a better way?
I'm open to any strategies anybody might have to make the transition to being a hand-held pet, as low-stress, and easy as possible, for all involved.
Thank you.
