Dragon keeps biting??

[wavewarrior]

Hi, Im new to the bearded dragon world. My dragon is about 10 months old and when i go to pick him up it attacks, and now his bites hurt to the point i wear a glove before i pick him up. I did not pick him up often when he was a few months old, only to clean its cage weekly. But it never use to bite until about 3 months ago...any ideas on how to stop this behavior? Ive been picking him up daily for the past 3 weeks and i havent seen any change...

 

[Exile Skimmer]

how are you picking him up? like from the side ((scooping))... sticking your hand down ontop of him like a claw machine? letting me come to your hand?

 

[wavewarrior]

I go from behind, like a claw....i guess thats my first problem....should i scoop or let him come on to my hand?

 

[Exile Skimmer]

thats your best bet because when you scoop him from the side. coming from above on most retiles they think your hand is prey like a bird and same thing from behind... prey trying to sneak up and take a meal... i had the same problem with my iguana and then was told about the way to pick up reptiles and i learned really quick that was my problem and started scooping up my iguana from the side and didnt have anymore problems after a little while... so i would start scooping him up from the side and see if that helps and if he is on a tree or somthing not sand becareful not to pull the claws when scooping. i hope this helps you it did for me

 

[wavewarrior]

cool thanks....ill try it...

 

[wavewarrior]

i just tried it, he still attacks and freaks out...will continue doing that

 

[Exile Skimmer]

k i hope that helps let me know if it does...

 

[Exile Skimmer]

mabe another thing you can try is showing him your hand and placing it by him for a little bit then slowly try to scoop him up and even during the day just take somthing out of the tank and place it back so he learns that is the hand that takes care of him and is used to your hand being in the tank and learns it is not harming him