Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a pretty young leo, a few months old. I am just wondering how long it will take for him to stop being afraid of me. I know he'll never "like" me, but he still gets jumpy when i come over to his cage. And when is he going to realize there's gravity in the world and he shouldn't try to jump out of my hand when i pick him up. I have had him for about 6 or 7 weeks. Thanks for any help

My experience has been that it does take a while for them to calm down, especially if you got yours fairly young. They all seem to start out nervous. However, there is a method I've used to get mine to "like" me (and I think the current one does like me as much as any lizard ever likes anyone - whenever I put my hand in the terrarium when she's active, she climbs up on me of her own free will). What I've done is as follows: I try to just get them used to a hand - not by picking them up at all at first, but rather by just putting my hand in the terrarium with them and sitting still for a couple of minutes at a time. They seem to get over their fear and become curious after a while. I don't know if I can really say that my current gecko 'likes' me, but she sure seems to see me as warm, moving terrain . This did take probably a few months to achieve, and it required a fair amount of patience, but that patience has definitely been rewarded. Sometimes she even appears to request being picked up.

Try always approaching from the front, not behind or above. Lay the back of your hand down in the tank, palm up. He may get curious and walk over to you eventually but if not you can gently scoop him up from the position and he'll see it coming and will be less likely to freak out. Good luck!