Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My leopard geckos are nuts when it comes to feeding. I have them all in their seperate tubs! They all have a cool whip container for a hide with moist vermiculite. Small dish with calcium and a small deli cup for a water dish. Of course they are slide out tubs! Everytime I go to feed most of them are looking straight up at me like they are about to lunge at my fingers! Sometimes they do!!! I put all my mealworms in a cup to do the shake and bake with vitamin/calcium mix. So When I go to feed I just dump a couple in outta the cup. They cant wait they lunge at the cup or anything moving!! Then they arent looking at the ground for the worms they just look at me like duhhh. I have never seen leopard geckos like this. They get about 3-4 mealworms every other day. What can I do to calm them down somewhat? It is hard to get them out because they want to bite my hand everytime I open their cages. I clean their cages once a week usually maybe ten days. Any suggestions??? Thanks!

Ha! Ha! That's funny! Mine do the same thing. I think they get excited, anticipating being fed.

Well, if you are keeping them in closed containers and only interacting with them for cleaning and feeding, I wonder what you expect exactly? Especially since, as humans, we tend to take care of things at once, so no doubt you are feeding and cleaning on the same day as well.

To them it is really easy to associate drawer open = food. So, yeah, you're going to get excited geckos because that is the association and anything that moves HAS to be food.

There are several things you can do if you want to change this. Firstly make sure they are well fed, seems to me to be a bit light on the number of mealies, but I don't know size/weight/age of your geckos either and I feed crickets for psychological hunting reasons so I may be off on my volume estimate in my head YMMV. Secondly, interact with them when it isn't feeding time. This is especially good for geckos who have progressed to the biting the hand that feeds them stage. Get them out, interact with them, PUT THEM BACK, wait a few hours (if you were feeding daily) or in your case do this on a day you don't feed. I've broken the human means food 100% of the time with this method in a week's time with juvis, it is really nothing to do and not any fault of the gecko.

Really, just an application of common sense is what is needed.

I agree, try sleepygeckos advice.
But I do find it cute when I go to one of my Leo racks to feed & the little guys all come to the front of there tubs anticipating there turn. What cracks us up more, is when we look at the ones waiting to be fed there attention is focused on the tub of worms or on the bowl of the one that's being fed. They even seem to get jealous.

>>I agree, try sleepygeckos advice.
>>But I do find it cute when I go to one of my Leo racks to feed & the little guys all come to the front of there tubs anticipating there turn. What cracks us up more, is when we look at the ones waiting to be fed there attention is focused on the tub of worms or on the bowl of the one that's being fed. They even seem to get jealous.

I even see this cross-species. I keep my crested's terrarium right next to my leopard, and the crested only gets crickets as treats, whereas they're the leopard's staple food. The crested definitely pays attention, even trying to eat the leopard's crickets through *2* panes of glass sometimes. I sort of feel bad for her bumping her nose, but on the other hand, you'd think she'd learn eventually, plus her nose seems pretty durable.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

No I dont clean them on feeding days. They get physical interaction pretty much every other day. I put my hand down on the tub floor and wait for them to come to it! Then I pick them up! They dont get crazy till they see the little cup. Its like the magical trigger! Mine get jealous of their neighbors also! They watch everything! If I walk next to they're rack they watch me and folow me LOL. I think they are just excited leopard geckos. I can understand the association with opening the tub and food. It makes sense I pretty much figured that. They all are around the 45-50 gram range. 1.3 SHCTB and 1.3 Tremper Tangerine Albinos het Raptor. The baldies are the crazier ones! I think they are jealous the tangerines are more orange haha. Thanks for the comments, I'll try everything you guys said!

Funny... Can you just fill the cup before you place it in the tank?