chinese water dragon handling

Question
QUESTION: i have a juvenile chinese water dragon, i have had him for a 2 weeks now and he is very healthy, eats, drinks and swims all the time. but i have a problem with his behavior. he is very aggressive with me. he dosent hiss or puff up at me, just wants to bite...all the time. wen i get close to his cage he opens his mouth at me. i know you need to handle your water dragon to get him more tame but handling him causes me a lot of bite marks. what should i do to get rid of this habit???
thanks! Luke.

ANSWER: Hello Luke,

Wow, sorry he is trying to bite you like that!  He must have been mishandled before you got him perhaps.  They normally are not quite that aggressive.
Well, what you can do is keep some worms or feeders nearby so when he opens his mouth you can stuff some food into his mouth!  Or I know they don't normally eat greens, but you could also get some mustard or collard greens & stuff a big leaf into his mouth.  
Usually, when that continues to happen, they stop biting or opening their mouth.  One thing is for sure though, definitely do not back down.  Otherwise he will think that he has won & wont stand down.  He needs to know who is boss, & it is not him!  LOL  It will take some effort, but you can do it.  If you have to, get some gloves to wear until he tames down.  The food is a very effective way to help fix the problem.
Do you ever get him out of his tank at all, to where he is actually on your hand?  If so, if you are able to get that far with him, that is good.  If you have him on your hand or arm & he tries to bite or lunge at you quickly lower your arm or hand to throw him off balance.  He wont like the feeling of almost falling like that & will begin to associate the feeling of falling to biting.  That should stop that happen fairly quickly as well.  That is called the Wobble method & is used often with biting birds.

Let me know how things are going.

Tracie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks a lot!!! I maybe thought that him or her being a juvenile that he feels vulnerable to me and feels the need to protect himself. So i let him just chill in his cage for awhile. Now today wen i went to pick him up he ran from me, i got him cornered and picked him up (putting my hand underneath him so he feels that i am not a predator trying to grab him up). He tried to jump off my hand so i closed my hand so he was not to get away again. After leaving him alone in his cage he dosent want to bit me in his cage any more. I had a meal worm in my other hand and offered it to him and after awhile of him looking at it he took a bite at it but missed and wouldnt touch it again. But after holding him and fondling him around he had enough and went back to his ways, i stuffed a leaf of lettuce in his mouth and he spit it out and bit me a couple of times. i dont know what to do now...maybe he will grow out of it???
At this point it dont know what to do and if he keeps this up i will be forced to get rid of him and buy another one. I dont want to do this but i have no choice at this point, i dont want a mean water dragon. the reason why i got him in the first place was because water dragons are more docile reptiles. and if he gets bigger his bites will hurt a lot more.
Anything thing else you could tell me to help me out? Thanks for you last great reply!! Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks, Luke

Answer
Hello Luke,

You are welcome.  WOW, you poor thing.  That has got to hurt, that is for sure.  Yes, as he gets bigger the bites will hurt more.  
I wonder if perhaps he was abused or neglected a little bit before you got him?  They normally aren't like that.  It is going to take a lot of effort on your part.
Have you tried the gloves yet?  
So, he is not biting you in his tank anymore then?  That is a little bit of progress anyway.  Now, we need to get him to stop biting you out of his tank.  The way that you pick him up is great, going from underneath of him so he doesn't get scared with you going over his head.
Can you try to put something else in his mouth that he likes, a worm or something instead?  Does he like superworms?  
I still think you should try to get some gloves, just so you can handle him for longer periods to try & get him to adjust.  
There might be a time that you decide it just is not worth it if he just will not stop biting, but try to give him a decent period to tame down.  He could just be testing his waters, & will settle down in time.  It does take a little bit of time for them to calm down sometimes.  
The best thing is to not back down so he doesn't start running over you.  Don't lose control or he will take advantage of you, for sure.  Be firm.  Did you try shifting your hand or arm when he was biting you to throw him off balance?

Good luck.
Tracie