I’m struggling to figure out what exactly to do to help our beardie adjust and come around. She’s about 5 months, and we’ve had her for about 10-11 days or so. Almost 2 weeks.
she’s been active since day one, and doing things like digging, glass surfing, climbing the walls/ledges of the enclosure, even climbing the mesh upside down.
But she’s barely eaten, runs from us when we open the enclosure to clean, feed, water, etc;…and im talking like. She’s eaten a few worms in the entire time she’s been here(wont touch greens or dubias and the breeder said she’d been eating dubias, collards, and mealworms no problem)
And we hadn’t seen or heard her for 2 days, so I had to pull her out of her cool hide just to make sure she was okay. She hated that, and black bearded at me for about half and hour before finally going to climb the wall on the hot side.
I just want to make things as stress free and comfy for her as possible; but I feel like we’re stressing her out even more by trying to feed her and make sure shes okay
Update: Here’s a picture of her enclosure! It’s a 4 x 2 x 2. We have new meters on each side now than what’s in the pictures (the ones in the pics were reading wrong and we got some govee ones).
It usually reads about 70-75 on the cold side, and about 84-92 on the hot side with a basking surface between 109-117! The UVB is an Arcadia T5 HO 14%, ontop of the mesh only because putting it inside would be too close. The basking lamp + UVB are on a day night cycle and theres a CHE to offer additional heating during day + night (our room temp in the house is roughly 64-68 normally).
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Being scared of you is completely normal for new reptiles. By being around the enclosure (when she’s out, somewhere she can see you and not be threatened by you), you can get her used to you, and she will also just calm down with age. Try not to bother her too much, I wouldn’t take her out of her hide or mess with her, try to handle her, etc until she’s settled in and calmed down. Do you have any pictures/info on the enclosure? What are the temperatures on the hot spot, warm side, cool side, and how are you measuring them? If the temps are off or there isn’t much cover, that could explain some of the behavior that you mentioned in the second paragraph.
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Another thing that you could try to do is if you have a dish you can put the dubias in that they won’t be able to escape from then she could eat whenever she feels like, at least until she’s more comfortable with you. Also, mealworms aren’t usually a really good food to be a staple of your beardies diet, especially while shes young. They are high in fat and low in calcium and protein and can be kinda hard for her to digest. They should mainly be fed as treats a few times a week if at all. I feed my beardie mainly dubias and sometimes hornworms every once in a while as a treat. Also as @erie-herps said, it would be nice to get pictures of the enclosure as well as what the temps and humidity are.
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That’s what I thought; most reptiles we’ve gotten have taken a bit to come around! I know that beardies are a little more…persnickety sometimes though and want to make sure we’re going about it right for her! Her enclosure is set up in our office so she can see us at any given time when she comes out!
What sort of ‘calm’ behaviors should we look out for before we start trying to handle her or bathe her or anything(she’s a little dehydrated when she came to us, and it seems like she’s in shed…or has stuck shed).
I updated the post with a picture + the measurements and everything!
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We’d been putting them in an escape proof dish with a dish for her salad too, but she either doesn’t go near it, or just runs over it wherever we DO put it.
We try to avoid super/meal worms, but its the only thing she’ll eat! she wont touch dubias at all; which was concerning since the breeder said she had never turned them down. She’s eaten a few horns, but definitly wont even look twice at dubias 
I updated the post with specs and pictures!
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The enclosure looks great! The important thing with a young beardie is that there are plenty of small hiding spots, which it looks like there are. As far as temperatures, I’m not a beardie person and I don’t know anything about their temperatures, so I’m going to let someone else determine if those are good or not (it looks good to me).
As far as behaviors, if she’s still crazy and running around, avoid handling her. I would wait a week or two (or more if she’s still crazy) until trying to handle her. If she runs from your hand when you put it in there, try to get her to associate it with positive things (maybe try tong/hand feeding her). If you’re patient you could leave your hand close to where she sits and see if she checks it out on her own (I’ve tried this, but I’m not patient enough for it). If you think she needs a bath to get rid of shed for her safety (like if it’s constricting her toes/tail), don’t worry too much about stressing her out. If you can get rid of the stuck shed in a way that doesn’t stress her out a ton, that’s great. But, if that’s not possible, her safety is a priority over her being stressed.
You could try putting the food dish in an area where she spends her time. Don’t put it directly where she usually sits, but putting it in an area where she feels comfortable/secure might help her to eat.
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