Thanks for all the advice. I put on a pair of gloves and he let me pet him. So that's good.

As for bathing, I give him a bath one a month, but most him every morning and in the afternoon.
The sand is special sand from my local pet store which is made for reptiles; it's not like..beach sand.

My vet informed me that Spike is allowed to eat baby mice (not as his primary diet. But as a rare treat.)

The red light is infrared. I was told that he can't see the red.

But I will definitely take everything into consideration.
I think it might have been that when he got really agressive at first, I got scared that he would attack me, so I interacted with him less. So I'm going to start interacting with him more with the gloves until he comes around.

To answer the question about his last bowel movement. It was yesterday. It seemed very healthy (he's been sick before, and his stool was runny) and it was solid.

And yes, he is a very big boy. When I figure out how to post a picture on here, I'll put one up.