Crazy chinese water dragon

[mastroj]

Well about a year ago I bought 2 chinese water dragons, a male and a female. The female is perfect but the male is nuts. I tried taming him for a while but in the process he kept escaping and I would have to chase him and break stuff apart and freak him out even more. Up to last night I had tried everything except for the bathtub trick with no success. I went into the tank last night when he was good and asleep and picked him up to transfer him to a rubbermaid container. I did it at night because it was the only way I had a chance to get to him without him freaking out. Well once I put him in the rubbermaid container he flipped. I brought him upstairs and into the bathroom. MY cats were alittle curious as to what was attempting to destroy me from inside the container. Well I spent about 30 to 45 min with him in the tub and he calmed down after a while. Mouth agape for most of the time but he would let me pet him and eventually I was able to slide my hand underneath him without him running for the hills. I worked on going from hand to hand with him but he just plays dead with me. When I am around he either doesnt move at all or freaks out. He is obviously nervous but I dont know if he will eventually trust me enough to walk freely from hand to hand or anything like that. Does anyone have any experience with taming that has dealt with reptiles like this before? Today during the day, when he was wide awake I fed them and cleaned there water dish and did the normal housekeeping on the tank (well converted commercial refridgerator). After I finished I approached him and layed my hand down in front of him. After a bit I moved closer and closer until he let me pet his side. I tried sliding my han dunderneat him but he wouldnt budge so I tried to pet the top of his head. He jetted off a couple of feet and then stopped. So I tried to get to pet him again and I was succesful, I tried to slide my hand under him again without success but he didnt freak out. I left it at this for the day and will try the bath tub thing again tonight.

Does any one have any advice with this guy?
Does it sound like I am going about this wrong?
I read that someone on here had a white enclosure and their tegu freaked out until they painted it grey, I have a white enclosure also, should I try and paint it?

Any other advice is very welcome, thanks in advance.

Mastroj

 

[Herplings]

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction.

Some animals are just harder to get to calm down then others, even with in the same species. I believe its not how much you handle them, its how you handle them when you do.
The trick is to handle enough to make a change, but no to much. You made progress last night for sure, today you might make more, but if you notice that you are going back steps, then you might want to cut down on how long and how often you handle him.
Just going to take some practice for both you and the animal. After some time doing this you will better be able to read him and know better what to do.

The bright color of his cage might be making him more jumpy, but I dont honestly know. The female seemed to calm down for you and she I take it is cages with the male.
Sometimes its just personality.

Keep us posted on how his progress is coming and good job with what you have done so far.

 

[mastroj]

Here is an update on Oscar (the grouch) my mental chinese water dragon. I spent another half an hour in the middle of the night with him in the bath tub. Basically same thing as before. We made som more progress and by the end he was getting brave and running and jumping off of me to try and get out of the tub. I guess this is a good thing because prior to this he was basically just playing dead. Which I am trying to get past with him so that I can handle him and not expect him to run off at any time. If he moves as fast as he wants I will never catch him until I dig him out from under my tool bench again.

Any ways here are some photos of him during the taming process.

 

[mastroj]

Here are some more photos

 

[chelvis]

CWD take a long time to calm down. Most are imports and as youngesters had to fight or run in order to servive. He may never calm down but if you keep working with him he might start to relax more and more. I remember reading the CWD do better in cages that only allow for one side to be visiable (ie only one side made of glass) that way they feel more secure in their cage.

 

[mastroj]

Thats actually what I have, its a gas station fridge that I gutted, it works out pretty good for them. Yea I am not asking for the world but it would be nice to get him calm enough for me to let him hang out with me a bit. We shall see.

 

[dicy]

just gont grab him but scoop him up whit ur hand i have cwds to and non like to be grabed but dont mind beeing scoobed up just becarefull cuz usualy they wanna climb u to get on top of ur head ore the highest spot they can reach :mrgreen:

 

[Guest]

Sometimes it takes weeks or months. Just be patient. Once he becomes tame just remember to interact with it at least a couple times a week to keep him tame.