Baby Beardie keeps hiding

[Garza]

Hey, got my baby beardie about 3 weeks ago and I thought he had settled in but all he does is hide underneath the kitchen roll now. Hes about 12-13 weeks old. He eats about 10-20 crickets a day usually, but always more than 7-8.

He will sleep underneath the kitchen roll at night, but will not get out even when the lights come on even after 4-5 hours. So i have to keep moving him out onto his basking rock. He heats up, eats, maybe some glass dancing, then back underneath the kitchen roll again. Worried that he is not getting enough UV-B.

He seems scared of me and still sports back lines down his belly. I've tried enteracting with him, struggles when I lift him, then settles down, likes being petting in the end but sprints like the the devil when i put him down.

Anyone know whats wrong with him?

Viv temps are cool side ~ 75F, hot side ~ 90F, basking spot ~105F.
UV light is exoterra 10.0.

[jools]

Lights and temps sound fine. You could try replacing the kitchen towel with a textured lino - he can't hide under that. Also does he have a rock or branch that he can hide behind - not under - so that he feels secure but he is still getting the uv. Is the room he is in very busy or noisy? If so try draping a towel or similar over most of the glass, then each day pull it back a little more so that he gradually gets used to the busy environment. Hope this helps.

[Aunty_Lizard]

Hi there, I had this problem when I had newpaper in one of my vivs.. I would just take out the kitchen roll and put him on something like lino or astro turf for now. Give him plenty of wood and rocks to climb on but not too many places for him to hide.

I think the best thing to do when getting him out of his viv is to first keep your hand in the viv for about 5 mins slowly moving it towards him.. Try also hand feeding him the odd bit of livefood and veg. This helps to gain beardies trust in you and does not stress it out by you trying to chase it around the viv just to get it out.

Liz

[Welsh dragon]

I have lino on the bottom of my viv and its really good and easy to clean. I just took the baby Beardies out and hoovered up the bottom of the viv then wiped it clean with the disinfectant. I got a large log at the back of viv that goes up like a half moon and they love that , plus I got some smaller logs which they can climb around on, they are pretty active in the day and go to the same spot every night to sleep.

[Top Cat]

I had a Hatchling just like this. All his siblings would sleep in the hanging Vine over night but this one Hatchling liked to sleep under the Kitchen roll. Yes its down to security but my main concern was any un eaten crickets at the time which tend to come out of the woodwork at night and bite the beardies. In the end I used to put him in a tub with Air holes over night to ensure he wasnt been bitten to bugger! Fetch him out in the morning and let him bask then it was a repeated scenario every night. Think some Beardies are just like that to be honest cus out of the many clutches I have raised he was the only one. He is basking, he is feeding, pooping and should be shedding so just persevere and as said above handle more frequently.

[beardie_2]

i would not worry at this stage, it is winter and at this time of year, beardies start slowing down because of the brumation period, there for they eat less and move about less, we currently have 4 beardies who sleep all day and all night, only move to go onto basking spot occasionally, it is a form of hybernation, in australia where beardies originate from this behaviour is normal, they would hide under rocks etc to sleep and only come out for food or to warm up

it is completely natural behaviour for a bearded dragon, so personally i would not worry at this time. it is if this behaviour carries on after the brumation ( winter ) period that i would start worrying.

[ridgie]

we had this prob with 1 of our beardies when he was young. i would take the hide out as our 1 started to show signs of mbd!! luckly we noticed in time and he has recoverd fully!! he still does this but we take the hide out in the morning and put it back in at night now to make sure he gets the uv.plus we feed butter worms reg for extra calcium and they love them. hope this helps

[jools]

Originally Posted by beardie_2

i would not worry at this stage, it is winter and at this time of year, beardies start slowing down because of the brumation period, there for they eat less and move about less, we currently have 4 beardies who sleep all day and all night, only move to go onto basking spot occasionally, it is a form of hybernation, in australia where beardies originate from this behaviour is normal, they would hide under rocks etc to sleep and only come out for food or to warm up

it is completely natural behaviour for a bearded dragon, so personally i would not worry at this time. it is if this behaviour carries on after the brumation ( winter ) period that i would start worrying.

It is not recommended (and most of them actually won't want to) for BABY beardies to brumate and the temps / daylight hours should be kept up to help prevent this.