Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I'm really new to the whole reptile scene, and I just aquired two new lepoard geckos. (Both Females about 4 months old) A friend of mine got them for me at a reptile show, (at my request) and they're very knowledgable as far as choosing good looking and healthy animals. We got them on Monday the 27th of November. My only concern is that one of them appears to be right at home, and the other one seems to be scared to death all the time, hidding in the hide all the time and not moving much if at all. I've only witnessed her come out of the hide on one occasion, and the instant she spotted me, she ran like crazy back in to the hide. I did get to witness the calmer one eating crickets last night, but I haven't seen the scared one eat as of yet. However I've been giving them mealworms and they seem to be getting eaten alright, but I can't pin down if it's the calm gecko eating everything, or if they're sharing the food. I cleaned the tank last night, and the scared one seemed to be a bit more relaxed since I brought them home on Monday, but she's still very skitish most of the time. My question is, will this pass in time or do I have a very nervous gecko that will never be calm? Any advise that people would like to offer me is greatly appreaciated.

totally normal, even more so with new leos. Give it time. Assuming they have proper heat, food, water, hides, calcium I wouldn't worry just yet. Sometime it takes a couple weeks to get settle in their home let alone become friendly enough to trust you.

Just don't go searching in his hides for him or try and handle them yet. Introduce food and if its not eaten in a bit then remove it because it could lead to more stress.

As far as trust you will have to build that over time. this is done slowly and wish the animals best intrest in mind.

Or you can seperate them. That will probably solve most of your problems.
Sam

I second Sam's thought. If you havn't SEEN the skittish one eat, assume it isn't. You could always seperate them until they're a tad bit older, and then introduce a new substrate, hides, and rearrange the cage they're both going into.