Sometimes a Different Person is a Better Fit

I finally gave in and asked for help with Pickle. After months of him attacking me and trying to bite me (often succeeding), I knew I was getting nowhere.

I traded Pickle to my friend for one of her rescues, Snowflake. I got a text an hour after the trade: "Pickle is eating out of my hand."

Huh? What? Really?

CRAZY! and Amazing all at the same time. You have to see it to believe it:

Sometimes it just helps to let a different person try to work with a difficult beardie.

Here's how he was for me-- just so you can SEE the difference.

Update-- and look at this amazing pic:

Pickle is such a ..... well, a Pickle!!

Pickle came to me as a super grumpy 4 month old beardie. Then he came back to me as a super grumpy 8 month old beardie. He is still a super grumpy beardie.

I have never met such an aggressive beardie.

I used to be able to wrap him in a towel and he'd sleep with me, but a couple days ago he started shedding and I went to get him out, he bit me good.

So I've been leaving him alone. He's happy in his tank by himself. He prefers to not have me walk by or look at him or talk to him or touch him. He may just be a beardie who is "For Display Only!"

I figure I'd give him a few more days to finish shedding and then I'll see if I can go back to wrapping him up at night. If not, well.... my next step is to deworm him to see if that will help him feel better and be less grumpy. If that doesn't work, then..... we'll come up with Plan F.

What do you do with an aggressive beardie who hates everyone and everything??

Pickle 2, rescue number 34, now known as Georgie

I got another juvenile aggressive beardie today. My daughter calls him "Pickle 2" but that won't be his official name. He's been bounced at least 4 times this year alone and hisses & puffs up at everyone. I have been sick today so I sent my hubby & kids to go pick him up. I pulled him out of the box and he was cold. So I put him on my chest and did a "kangaroo pouch" for him. He's been asleep there very since.

"Pickle 2" or whatever his name will be

I'm hopeful he'll be easier to tame than Pickle. Pickle is, at the ripe old age of 7 months, the biggest stinker beardie I have EVER met. EVER. We do have a truce and he'll let me wrap him in a towel at night and put him in my shirt. Tonight, though, when I went to pick him up, he tried to bite me several times. Everything freaks Pickle out. He is anxious and aggressive. Poor guy. It's going to take awhile before I can get him calmer.

So having Pickle 1 as a basis for what a grumpy beardie is, Pickle 2 seems to be a piece of cake.

Pickle in his favorite place-- a towel 

UPDATE 12/18/13-- I finally decided to call "Pickle 2" by the name of "Georgie."

Pickle, rescue 24.2

Mr Pickle came back today. I'll see if I can work on him to help him be more social & friendly. I'm not sure what happened to him with his first owners for the first couple months of his life, but it has made him fearful towards *every*thing! Poor guy.