my beardie needs help..

[hollaholly]

i adopted a worst case scenerio in which a kid totally loses interest in bearded dragon and on to the next toy. For 2 years of his life he was untouched and given spinach once in a while (im guessing once a month on average) and dandilion green once or twice, ive been told. Me knowing nothing about lizards pretty much steals him from this kid and now he's doing better with a mix of food and proper heat, but he is very tense and scared when i pick him up. Its almost impossible to get friendly with him, he just flares out if i pet him, i really dont know what to do, i want him to have quality of life and not be in a cage 24/7 at all times. he has other problems but this one is by far the saddest. i need to have conversation(s) with people that have knowledge because i want to know if he has a chance to be held properly one day or not freak when its time to clean..

 

[Justus85]

id say so , Monique, who's sn is Pogie, had a similar experience. I'd say with a good bit of perseverance it can be accomplished. I personally haven't had to deal with that kind of scenario but Ive heard lots of come from behind success stories with beardies.

 

[beardie_love]

First of all, welcome...

So sad how he came to you. Take a look at the care sheet about basic care and feel free to ask any other questions..
Here is the link: http://www.mybeardie.com/general_information.php

As for his behavior.... don't fret that he isn't friendly right away after just coming into your care. Seeing as he's been not much handled for that kind of time, you'll need to be patient for him to open up to you and realize you mean no harm. A suggestion for when you go to pick him up is come from the side rather than the top, as coming from the top makes you look large and frightening..

Since he has come into your care recently, he'll need to adjust to his new surroundings. I suggest having him somewhere quiet where he is less likely to be scared, till he adjusts.

Just don't panic.. A little time and patience.. and he'll come around.

he has other problems but this one is by far the saddest.

What do you mean by this? What other problems?

 

[Pogie]

Hi and welcome.

Yes I had a real bad time with Pogie when I got her. In short she was malnourished and mistreated and not friendly at all.
Here are 2 links to my posts on her and the progress weve made. Give them a read. Patience is the answer

http://mybeardie.com/bearded-dragon-forum/general-discussion/taming-your-bd/msg22083/#msg22083

and

http://mybeardie.com/bearded-dragon.../pogies-thread-as-promised/msg20113/#msg20113

 

[hollaholly]

the other problems is trying to escape by scratching or climb up the glass for hours on end. eespecially in the morning only. and responding to a normal enviroment because before i had him there was just some pebbles, paper towel and random little boy toys for decor... so my beardie finds everything strange, like sand and dishes n such. and im pretty sure my tank is too small, its a 20 gallon, so yea just trying to grasp the whole lizard habitat and relationship

 

[Pogie]

so my beardie finds everything strange, like sand

SAnd isnt really the best substrate available. It can cause impactation and hygeine issues.

Safe and good alternatives are:

Paper towels
Newspaper
Non adhesive shelf liner
Repti carpet / Astroturf
and the all time favourite - Textured ceramic tile

And yes a 20 gallon is too small for an adult beardie, they need at least a 40 gallon breeder tank.

The scratching up the glass is called glass dancing. There are various reasons why they do it. To name a few are

He is hungry
He wants to Poo
He wants attention

 

[zebraflavencs]

Hi there and welcome !
I would only add that perhaps you also might look into finding a herp vet, and a digital thermometer.
Do you have a uvb bulb in use ? Is it new or older than 6 months ?
I would also agree with the larger enclosure..
Hope this helps out.

 

[staylor]

Hello and welcome. Looks like your questions have been answered and I would agree the viv is too small. He will come around to you in time. One thing that I did to tame one of mine is hand feed her live feeders. Then she saw me as the source of the yummy stuff. We did have to work up to that and it took a couple of months but now she is my love bug and I can hold her anytime I want. She has also decided that I am the only one that can hold her. If my daughter or husband holds her she jumps out of the hands or off their shoulder right to me. In time he will come around it just take a while.

 

[Pogie]

Something just hit me . . . . I read (havent done it) that if you place an unwashed t-shirt of yours inside the viv then the BD will get your sent from it all day long and get used to you quicker. Like I said IDK if it actually works, but guess its worth a try.