Wrong philosophy when keeping reptiles?

[Frinta]

Firstly excuse my poor english, try to live through my typos. Thanks.


So yeah ive had this idea or philosophy towards keeping my reptiles, i have quite an collection, i see all these posts about taming or making your gecko more familiar with you, i personally dont keep reptiles in order to hold them in my hand and have them "tamed", but rather to have a piece of awesome nature at my flat.

Basicly nothing is tamed out of my lizards (some of the smaller species thats not even quite possible). I havent held any of my reptiles in my hand for like, half a year.

Do Tokays being such an shy specie, and reptiles in general suffer more from handling/taming or the fact i feel when feeding or cleaning their enclosures causing huge amounts of stress, espicially my tokay gets a heart attack even if i open the terrarium door and hes visible to me.

Should i change the way i think about reptile keeping and start slowly "winning" my tokays "trust" and attempt handling?

Ive had my tokay for 6 months so far and even tho i can clean the substrate with him hiding always in the opposite corner paniccing, i feel there could be a way to make it easyer for both of us.

Right now i feel i have no reason to tame my tokay, as i find him to be awesome fierce creature that doesnt need to turn into anything for my pleasure, should i think otherwise?

 

[daggekko]

Hey, I think this is a matter of personal preference. People ask me often why I keep animals that are not nice or don't like to be handled. My answer- I don't like to handle animals. It gets boring to sit around with a snake. Now, on the other hand, I do have a couple geckos I am working with and it is exciting when they get on my hand(they are nervous about it, but somewhat willing to participate!), but to walk around handling them is not something I want to do.

As far as my opinion goes, I think having an animal that trusts that you are not going to eat it is a very good thing. It could disrupt natural behavior, but how much natural behavior are we messing up keeping critters in tanks?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

We've had many discussions here in these forums about this over the years. I don't make any attempt at taming my geckos. However, some species are more tractable than others just as some individuals are. Even with tokays, despite the fact that I'm "hands off" most of the time, many have simply become more trusting over time. I feed them and water them and clean their enclosures. They've learned over time that there is nothing to fear from me. Is that really so different than "taming them"?

Other people do like to tame their geckos. And that's just part of the hobby that one must accept. Not everyone does things the same way all of time. So at times, we must simply agree to disagree. It does not make either side right or wrong.It's just two different ways of looking at things.

 

[acpart]

I don't keep tokays but I keep a variety of geckos, some of which can be handled and some not. I do like to be "hands on" but except for handling my baby leopard geckos frequently to get them used to it, I just handle the geckos that can tolerate it and don't bother the ones that can't. I have 2 day geckos I have never handled and never will and I can't handle most of my Coleonyx, but I do have some leopard geckos that seem to enjoy sitting on my warm hand (as well as some that barely tolerate handling, so I keep it at a minimum).

ALiza

 

[billewicz]

"Do Tokay being such an shy specie, and reptiles in general suffer more from handling/taming or the fact i feel when feeding or cleaning their enclosures causing huge amounts of stress, especially my Tokay gets a heart attack even if i open the terrarium door and hes visible to me."

Actually, My Tokay get very used to my comings and goings. My enclosure design is set-up to provide vertical hides that allow the Tokay to see me, and me them, without disturbing them.

There is also the typical feeding response where several of my Tokay will climb out of the open door right up my hand to get to food.

I have no time to "tame" Tokay to be like my dog or a bird, but I' m no fan of terrified reptiles either. Having them crash to the back of the enclosure in fear is no fun for me and I approach new imports very slowly and try not to come from above like a predator.

I have several loose Tokay in each of the Reptile Rooms for cricket clean-up. These animals will become very accustom to me and let me work right up against them without fright. Most will feed right from your hand.

So I, like others I think are suggesting that there is a middle ground in giving your Tokay the 'opportunity' to acclimate to you and your presence. In doing so, you may enjoy seeing your Tokay a lot more often and witness far more cool behavior.

Good luck,

Michael

 

[thehotchik1000]

I definitely don't try and tame at all. There are some in my collection that tolerate being handled and there are some that don't. My adults are used to me pulling them out of health checks, and cage disinfections. I honestly believe that the small amounts of stress getting them used to that prevents major heart attacks when I am around it if something does need to be done with them. It's not often and even for long but getting the animal used to things like that helps me in the future.
The offspring I have from most of my Toks are really really used to me. Especially if they are being handled soon out of the egg. It makes my life way easier for sexing, cleaning, pictures for potential customers. Etc.
As far as my whole collection really, as long as I don't grab them out and hold on to them they are fine. I'll take them out when they are sitting on their cork bark or a branch, etc and then eventually they climb up to my arm or Jump in my hand, we do what needs to be done and then they go back in. I do more free handling than anything. They get to go where they want. It has nothing to do with taming.
There's a major difference in stress level between an animal that has gotten used to human interaction and those that are not.


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