Hi all. My little boy Gunther is a 1 1/2yr old male high yellow/tang morph. He eats great...mostly mealworms. Has big fat tail, active...and overall healthy. Never had health problems. He gets the proper heating gradient and cycle with use of timer/thermostat. No drafts and low traffic area. Poops/pees daily to every other day. He has always been super social and always curious of things going around him. (He thinks he can take on the vacuum...hehehe). Regular sheds about every 20 days. His last shed was 8-17-13 (10 days ago). He was cranky and nonsocial the day before, which is normal for him. The shed was successful with no retained skin. The only difference I notice with this shed compared to others is that he took a nap half way through (and man it looked uncomfortable sleeping like that!!). The day after his shed he was back to his happy social normal. The I noticed he started hanging out in his favorite hide more often. He would come out when I approached, but only for a short time, then back into his hide. (I don't force him out...as I respect this is his "safe" area.) Over the days, I notice when he's out of his hide, he seems to be like in high alert behavior. Well today, I was doing his head massage/petting like normal and he was fine. I went to pick him up and he tensed up and did the sign he does to ask to be put down (he does a side like twist jerk). I put him down gently like normal.....he FLIPPED OUT!! As soon as his feet were on the ground he BOLTED!! He smashed into his climbing rock and then dove into his hide. He has NEVER done this before!! Scared the crap out of me. After a minute or so, he poked his head out of his hide. I lifted his hide temporarily to do a visual check over to make sure he wasn't hurt...thank god he's not. I replaced his hide back down and pet his head a few minutes talking to him. Then he pulled his head back into his hide. Gonna let him chill the rest of the night. He is acting fearful and skittish and I don't know why. Nothing has changed around him. This is SO not like him. He's usually so social except the day before a shed. He appears healthy in every aspect...but don't know what's up with this attitude change. Any ideas...I'm kinda worried.
Hello, and welcome to the boards! Has he settled down since this incident? Reptiles (especially males) can have little moody periods just like people. Sometimes they are set off by a change in environment or a specific event; other times there seems to be no reason at all. Most likely he was just having an "off" day and should be back to normal shortly. Typically you can get through a moody period by keeping stress to a minimum and continuing to patiently pet or handle the animal, but without forcing the interaction. Let us know how everything is. This doesn't sound like an abnormal situation by any means, so don't worry about it too much. =)
