Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have an opinion on what speciesof Uroplatus, if any, are more adaptable to handling? I'm not planning on taking them out clubbing, i just remember what a nightmare it was catching up my Phelsuma grandis whenever i moved, changed plants, etc. I'm more interested in the smaller species (phantasticus, sikorae mainly); any help would be appreciated!

none of my uros enjoy being handled especially not phantasticus. the only time i pick them up is when i am either a)wighing them to see if they were gaining weight b)medicine like worming and stuff and c)quick look overs for stuck skin and whaterver else . my ebaunies are okay with it for short periods of time but they can be quick little buggers. my sikores will tolerate it but nine times out of 10 my females try to escape and my males will hiss and try to bite. when i first got my pair of satanics the female tolerated handeling a little bit but my male got mad. hei no sooner picked him up and he dropped his tail right away no questions asked.in my opinion these are watch lizards only. they are fun to watch though and you should still work with them, but only if you like the reptile. if you want a gecko to hold try a crestie, as my breeder pair love to be taken out and handeled occasianly. any questions feel free to ask.

but nine times out of 10 my females try to escape and my males will hiss and try to bite.

Funny, my Sikorae are totally different. Neither my male nor female ever try to bite me. They have bitten me both maybe 4 or 5 times total, all within the first month or two of getting them. Not that a sikorae bite is anything to be afraid of.

My female is usually somewhat willing to come out of the enclosure and jump on my hand.

The male does whatever he can to avoid my hand the second he sees it, and usually resorts to some crazy wall/ceiling climbing stunts. And if that fails, he'll start jumping all over the enclosure.

Once I have them out of the enclosure and they realize the hand is attached to me, they usually get pretty calm. They don't mind being handled at all, however they don't seem to really think of me as being a person, but rather just a tall object to climb.

Once they get onto my shoulders, they can get a good view of anything in my room, and it makes a good platform to jump off of onto other things in the room.

I try to handle them infrequently as to not stress them out, and I would say they are out of the cage on average once a week for maybe 20 minutes at a time.

I haven't had any problems with them being too quick to catch up with.

-Matt
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Last month I acquired a 1.1 fimbriatus. I was surprised that they tolerate handling fairly well. The male seems to tolerate handling better than the female, but given the opportunity they love to jump off my hand or climb up me. My daughter handles them more than I'd like, but they willingly climb right up on her hand.

Both my sikoraes and my ebanaui are easy to handle. My ebanaui actually will climb into me when I am cleaning his cage of feeding him. My sikoraes are pretty tolerant and will let me hold them. They are all males, I don't know if that affects their temperment.

I have been keeping U.phantasticus for the past 6 months and I have never had a problem handling them. I dont handle them on a regular basis, but when I clean out their cage, they love to walk up my arms, I was quite amazed to see a wild caught gecko be so out going. And not once have my guys ever dropped their tails.