Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So Ive had my year old gecko for a month now and she is eating regularly and I want to try and start acclimating her to me. When I feed her I have been placing the mealies next to her with a tweezers so she can kind of get used to my hand sticking in her cage. Last night, I tried to get her to eat a worm from my hand but she would not go near it. She also won't eat from the tweezers - I have to drop the worm and then back my hand off a little before she feels comfortable enough to eat. From reading other posts, it seems that to start handling her a good way is to get her to eat from your hand, but this is not working. Any advice?

With my snakes, I just kept picking them up for a short period of time frequently to get them used to me handling them and did not put them down if they started freaking out. Can it be the same for the gecko? The 2 times I have tried scooping her up from the side she goes nuts and is real scared. Also - odd behavior - when she is in any of her hides, she tucks her head under a part of the moss or rock and it makes it seem like she is sooo scared even in her hide that she is trying to be invisible.

How small is your gecko? Leos under 6 or 5 in. are quite defensive and are intimidated easily. If your leo is under 5 in., it's quite normal for it to be refusing food from your hand, because they're scared to grab a prey from some sort of hand from a giant biped creature. You'll have to wait until the gecko gets bigger.

Tim
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Extinction is forever. Endangered means we still have time.

Protect the global wildlife.

I was told that since she is a year old she is full grown. Not having her here in front of me, I'd say she is around 6 inches - maybe more.

Leos can get big as 10 in. and 6 in. is still growing. Maybe you should wait a bit, since your gecko is around 6 in, and probably reached that size recently.

Tim
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Extinction is forever. Endangered means we still have time.

Protect the global wildlife.

From what I've read, I thought you are supposed to get young geckos used to being handled early so that they will become tame and calm later on in life. Rather than waiting until they are full grown and then exposing them to something new??

You can try to tame them when they're young, but no, because they're generally skittish until they're 5-6 in. Trying to handle a skittish or intimidiated anole can lead them to stress.

Tim
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Extinction is forever. Endangered means we still have time.

Protect the global wildlife.

Well, she's not full grown, no, but she's close enough. I don't think you're supposed to start handling leos at a very early age, but a year... that's more than enough time! My two are still well under a year old and already very acclimated to me.

If it were an anole, as Tim said, it would probably be another story in most cases. In this case, just go slowly and expect it to take a little while. It can vary between individuals, but as long as you keep handlings short it shouldn't bother them too much. Start off just by putting it on your hand still inside the cage and letting it crawl off as it wants. Let us know how it goes, too!
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame

BTW, how long have you actually had this leo? How do you know its age? Where did you get it? Also, if it's sick it could very well be cranky, too.

My leos, as mentioned, are under a year old but over 6" so your gecko is probably larger than that if you measure it
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Got hips like Cinderella / Must be having a good shame / Talking sweet about nothing / Cookie I think you're Tame

I got her at the North American Breeders and Reptile Show in Chicago this October. So I've had her for a month and I know that she is a year old because the breeder told me so - unless of course she was lying. The breeder had what appeared to be hundreds of leopard geckos she was selling so perhaps all of them weren't handled that much?? I think she looks pretty healthy and is eating fine now - it took her awhile to get to eat regularly. She may very well be longer than 6 inches but I haven't measured her cause I haven't picked her up yet

I've tried sticking my hand in without moving it - but if she is out and nearby she freezes and then eventually turns and goes as far away from my hand as possible and hides her head. Should I try scooping her on my hand and then letting her run off? Or should I just try gentle holding for 2 min. everyday with my hands still inside the cage incase she decides to leap?

Thanks so much for all your help. She is exploring her cage more and more every day

np
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Extinction is forever. Endangered means we still have time.

Protect the global wildlife.

Our little girl is also still pretty skittish, but she will sometimes come onto our hands... One thing that we found was that she was more inclined to crawl over our hand if it is face down in the cage, rather than face up... less threatening? perhaps. You're doing the right thing! Keep up the patience.
GeckoGirlsMom

Thanks for the advice. Did you try putting mealies on the back of your hand to encourage her?

No. Slinky likes her worms right off the paper towels on the floor of the cage. When we tried the handfeeding thing, she'd cock her head and kind of bite on my daughter's hand like she thought it was a giant food item. Didn't hurt her, but kind of alarming.
GeckoGirlsMom

Well what I have been trying to do is to just put my hand in there and keep it really still, eventually curiosity gets the better of her and she will come and sniff and lick my hand.
A coulple of times she has walked over it. I think the key thing is to be very slow (no sudden movements) and very patient.
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0.1 Leopard Gecko (Kai)
0.1 Spiney Soft Shelled Turtle (Berta)
3.1 Cats (Lancelot, Galahad, Orion, Mally)
1.0 Husband (Greg)

I have three leopards.

The 7 year old gecko (male), he is about 10 inches long, he is the monster of the family. He will eat crickets from my hand.

The 6 year old female will lick my finger clean if it has water on it. She will also eat from my hand.

My newest female is about 2 years old. If I stick my hand in the cage she will climb on it. She also digs the substrate and gets herself stuck under the waterbowl. I find it very funny, because she spends about an hour squeezing herself in an uncomfortable position, and then looks at me like I am going to get herself out of the mess she got herself in. She will also eat from my hand. (none of them have missed when they get fed by hand)

Advice for you: Just keep handling them, when you feed them, they know who is taking care of them. Whenever I fill up the water dish with water, my geckos come running over to the water bowl, same with when I put crickets in the cage for feeding time. They get extremely excited and love it. They will eventually get used to things, and they'll love ya.

My new Leo is about the same size an age as yours she has ate from tweezers and my hand but still didnt really seem like she wanted picked up. Well the other day i was just holding my hand at the bottom of her cag in a scoop like position palm up . well she out of no where decides to climb into my hand and then after a second of thought decides to climb up to my shoulder all the way from inside her cage. Now she actually climbs at the wall when she wants me to put my hand in and let her climb up.
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1.1 Leos
1.1 Corn snakes (1 Lav & 1 Ghost)
0.0.1 Childrens python
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
1.0 Rat (as pet not food)
1.0 Cat
"whats with you and all those dang reptiles?"

That's so cute! I wish mine were that outgoing. When I stick my hand in she goes the opposite way - but I'll keep trying.

I just figured out how to upload pictures. So here is Sadie.... You can tell she's kind of scared. She's in her humid hide back when I first put it together with papertowels - it has moss in it now and she likes it much better cause she can hide.