Handling a baby Water Dragon

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TheRamiRocketMan

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I've been handling this baby water dragon for about 2 weeks now (daily, 5-10mins) and while he is getting better at being held I get the impression he is getting more frightened of me rather than less. They're very skittish lizards and he bolts now every time I stand close to the enclosure. He also refuses to eat in-front of me now where before he was comfortable with it.

Does anyone have experience with this? Should I persist with the handling or am I doing more harm than good? He/she is 5 months old.
 
Mate, you'll get those that will tell you to persist with handling it until it gets used to you and how their lizards enjoy their company and do this and do that but in reality and despite what people will tell you about their experiences with their lizards, they don't bond with people simply because they don't need or want to. They will get used to you and tolerate you but aren't interested in becoming your friend. I have no doubt that at this age it still sees you as a possible predator and totally unsure of your intentions. That's why it is skittish and bolts every time you go near it and won't eat in front of you. It will take time for it to come around and get used to you so just be patient and give it time.

I've raised plenty of them over the years and have currently got a couple around 20 months old that I've had since hatchlings that are kept in an enclosure in our lounge room and despite being in a high volume area won't hesitate to take off and dive in the water or seek shelter if anyone gets close to the cage.

I don't handle them at all and haven't ever since I've had them and that's even when I clean their enclose, I just work around them. I do this because I find more enjoyment watching them just be lizards rather than trying to interact with them.

Naturally it's your choice but I can tell you that despite what others may infer, as I said before they don't want or need to be your friend. Just make sure that your husbandry is up to scratch and you provide an environment for it to thrive in. Then sit back and just let it be a lizard and get your enjoyment watching it do what lizards do.

All the best,

George.
 
I understand the lizard won't want to become my friend, however I think it is necessary to at least get him tolerant of my hand. They are relatively powerful lizards and I don't want to have to manhandle him when he is fully grown. My goal is to get him to the point where he is fine with me going near him and hand feeding him, which I know is definitely achievable with this species.

I've raised plenty of them over the years and have currently got a couple around 20 months old that I've had since hatchlings that are kept in an enclosure in our lounge room and despite being in a high volume area won't hesitate to take off and dive in the water or seek shelter if anyone gets close to the cage.

This is what I wanted to avoid. I've just been hanging out near the enclosure everyday for a few months to avoid antagonising him and he didn't improve much at all, hence I started handlings.

Thanks for the input!
 
I understand the lizard won't want to become my friend, however I think it is necessary to at least get him tolerant of my hand. They are relatively powerful lizards and I don't want to have to manhandle him when he is fully grown. My goal is to get him to the point where he is fine with me going near him and hand feeding him, which I know is definitely achievable with this species.



This is what I wanted to avoid. I've just been hanging out near the enclosure everyday for a few months to avoid antagonising him and he didn't improve much at all, hence I started handlings.

Thanks for the input!


That's understandable and as I said it will take patents and time. I've kept them on and off for over 50 years and, like in the past, all my current adults are kept in an 6mtr x 3mtr outdoor pit. I don't consider any of my captive charges (which includes several species of snakes and small monitors) to be pets and learnt a long time ago that I find that the larger species of Aust lizards are far more interesting when kept outdoors and I'm fortunate enough to have a property big enough to maintain what I have this way. I don't breed Water Dragons intentionally these days I just leave any clutches in the pit and let the adults dig the eggs up and eat them. The young ones I have inside are a couple that survived the yearly carnage and my daughter discovered and wanted me to save them from becoming a meal. So I removed them and placed them in an enclosure inside where they'll stay until they are big enough to go in with the others and because of this I don't like to interact with them.

We've got heaps of wild ones that live all over town and it's not uncommon for them to come up on verandas while people are sitting there at home or at friend's places and raid any left over dog food, or take pieces of chicken or banana or other fruit that are offered to them.

I know how what you talking about when you refer to how powerful they are but they are easy to handle once they get used to you if you're so inclined. Even as a juvenile they have an extremely powerful bite for their size and I'd suggest offering food on tongs before you go putting your fingers any where near their mouth. As you can imagine adults have an extremely powerful bite. I often feed mine thawed mice and my male has no trouble biting full grown adults in half and I can hear the sculls of mice being crushed as they are smashed down by the females. So can I suggests that you always be on guard if you get around to hand feeding it...I've seen the result of friends hand feeding what they believed were tamed captive Water Dragons....and it's not very nice...hahaha

I had one some years back that I used as an exhibit in a live reptile display that my wife and I used to own and operate that just loved strawberries and after some time became confident that we wouldn't harm it and could be hand fed. The only problem was my wife soon learnt not to wear red nail polish as when he saw the red paint he would think she had a strawberry in her hand and would try and bite her fingers.

Best of luck with your endeavour.

Cheers,

George.
 
Forcing an animal to be handled when it clearly doesn't want it is usually counterproductive. It just makes the animal more scared. The animal tries to get away, you forcefully restrain it with your hand, the animal sees you as a terrifying big monster. When it finally 'gets away' (when you put it down) it thinks it somehow managed to escape. Eventually it might realise that this keeps happening and it never gets eaten, but it's still not a positive interaction and at best it'll dislike you but tolerate something it sees as terrifying, or it might just always be terrified and stressed and always interact poorly with you.

Something like a water dragon is pretty easy to tame. Don't force them to do anything they're scared of. Even wild water dragons which get familiar with people often become very tame, and this never happens by people repeatedly catching and handling them. It happens because people walk around near them paying no attention to them. Rather than being monsters which try to grab them, they're just innocuous large animals which aren't interested in them, so the lizards are relaxed around these familiar, harmless creatures. If people throw feed to them, they come to like people, and I've had wild water dragons in parks etc come right up to me, even climb on me when I give them feed. If I was to grab one of these water dragons and force it to be handled, it would be less likely to come up to me the next day, not more. If you were to gradually build up to it, perhaps by very gently touching the lizard when feeding it, it would become comfortable, then you can touch it more, then eventually build your way up to holding it as it becomes more and more comfortable (this may take weeks or even months). If you try to start from the other end and handle it from the beginning while it is scared, you're probably going to be counterproductive. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not, but gradually building up and never going far enough to scare the animal almost always works better.
 
Forcing an animal to be handled when it clearly doesn't want it is usually counterproductive. It just makes the animal more scared. The animal tries to get away, you forcefully restrain it with your hand, the animal sees you as a terrifying big monster. When it finally 'gets away' (when you put it down) it thinks it somehow managed to escape. Eventually it might realise that this keeps happening and it never gets eaten, but it's still not a positive interaction and at best it'll dislike you but tolerate something it sees as terrifying, or it might just always be terrified and stressed and always interact poorly with you.

Something like a water dragon is pretty easy to tame. Don't force them to do anything they're scared of. Even wild water dragons which get familiar with people often become very tame, and this never happens by people repeatedly catching and handling them. It happens because people walk around near them paying no attention to them. Rather than being monsters which try to grab them, they're just innocuous large animals which aren't interested in them, so the lizards are relaxed around these familiar, harmless creatures. If people throw feed to them, they come to like people, and I've had wild water dragons in parks etc come right up to me, even climb on me when I give them feed. If I was to grab one of these water dragons and force it to be handled, it would be less likely to come up to me the next day, not more. If you were to gradually build up to it, perhaps by very gently touching the lizard when feeding it, it would become comfortable, then you can touch it more, then eventually build your way up to holding it as it becomes more and more comfortable (this may take weeks or even months). If you try to start from the other end and handle it from the beginning while it is scared, you're probably going to be counterproductive. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not, but gradually building up and never going far enough to scare the animal almost always works better.

Wow! I had no idea that wild ones could be so accommodating. Thank you for the extensive reply, I'll take your advise and stop the handling, instead throwing food in and hanging around the enclosure while he eats. I wasn't feeling like the handling sessions were productive and while he's stopped biting me while I'm holding him he still bites very willingly when I reach for him.

I know how what you talking about when you refer to how powerful they are but they are easy to handle once they get used to you if you're so inclined. Even as a juvenile they have an extremely powerful bite for their size and I'd suggest offering food on tongs before you go putting your fingers any where near their mouth. As you can imagine adults have an extremely powerful bite. I often feed mine thawed mice and my male has no trouble biting full grown adults in half and I can hear the sculls of mice being crushed as they are smashed down by the females. So can I suggests that you always be on guard if you get around to hand feeding it...I've seen the result of friends hand feeding what they believed were tamed captive Water Dragons....and it's not very nice...hahaha

I am well aware of how powerful a juvenile bite can be :oops:. The tongs sound like a good idea, I'll try and get a long plastic pair to feed him. Right now he won't eat while the door is open but maybe I'll be able to tempt him.

Appreciate the advise guys! I'll work on rebuilding that trust and potentially build up to handling when he has grown a bit older.

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