Standing on back legs pawing the glass -- normal?

[Alexicography]

Hello all, another question from Sal's paranoid parent. Long post, bear with me.

Over the last two nights (as far as I can see), Sal has been heading over to the cool side of her tank, behind her hide, and trying to climb up the glass. Sometimes she looks at me while she does it and follows my hands as I move them up and down, but usually she's looking either up to the ceiling or straight ahead at my pillowcase, which is patterned.

My temps are normal (gradient from ~88 to ~75) and she's eating like a pig, taking her usual ten gutloaded mealies daily and one or two gutloaded waxworms every few days. She's also very active whenever I hold her, and I know she has her favourite spots in her tank where she likes to hang out. I'm worried mostly because she never usually goes onto the cool side of her tank, instead favouring the hotspot under her CHE or her warm hide, and the other night when I thought she was stuck and took her out to move her, her belly was ice cold.

I'm panicking a little, just because I can't seem to find anything that would explain this behaviour. Eating and pooping is completely normal, temperatures are normal, the tank is large enough (20" long for a 6" gecko), she just seems completely fixated on getting either to me or to my bed or something! I did notice that she calmed down a bit when I took her out and let her scamper over my hands for a while, but soon she was right back at it.

Sorry for the long freaked out post. You guys have been such an awesome resource, I'm just constantly terrified that I'm killing her. She's so little and delicate and I could never forgive myself if she got hurt or sick because of something I didn't know was wrong.

 

[kholtme]

the usual term for this behavior is "wall surfing". My gecko does it sometimes, in the same corner. There can be server things it means. Too hot and is trying to cool down. 75 degrees cool side doesnt sound like the problem for you. those temps are perfect. Sometimes the gecko can get bored, try getting new decoration and stuff to climb on, maybe that will help. Other thing is the tank could be too small. Even though I test good in all those categories, My gecko still wall surfs sometimes, so idk why my gecko does it.

 

[CWilson13]

My female does this too. Like Kyle said, all husbandry issues are fine. The wall surfing slowed down quite a bit once I put a new cool hide in though, so I would lean towards that as a solution.

 

[Zux]

I recently took in a friends Leo who would constantly attempt to climb the glass in her old terrarium almost the entire time she wasn't asleep or trying to thermoregulate. She was in excellent health and the husbandry was spot on, the chap is a practicing exotics vet, though her old setup was basic in design and rather boring even to me.

Since then she has had a large terrarium to herself with many different levels/objects to climb on and a number of caves and hides and she now only ever attempts to climb the glass when I sit on the foot of my bed next to her terrarium and she wants to climb on me. I really feel like Leo's really benefit mentally and have their lives enriched by having a stimulating environment, so as the others mentioned that should be your first port of call.

Good Luck

 

[Hilde]

They also don't understand the concept of glass, a transparent boundary. If they can see past it, they figure they can go there. They have no idea they can't get through that 'invisible forcefield', so they keep trying. Eventually they give up. Enclosures with lots of places to explore can cut down on the wall climbing.

 

[kholtme]

The funny thing Hilde, is my gecko wall surfs in the back corner that have black construction paper covering the outside, but he doesnt wall surf the front glass. Not saying you are wrong, just saying i think I have a special gecko. Only one corner does he climb, 3 walls covered, multiple cool hides 1 being very enclosed. 40 gallon breeder so plenty big, and lots of stuff to climb on and im always changing the decor around. So idk. Maybe that corner is his "treadmill" lol

 

[Hilde]

I just mentioned it as another possibility.
I've seen it with my geckos, not just leopards, even when the set-up is as perfect as it can be in captivity.
Some do try to climb even if the glass is covered, but it's very common for them to do it on uncovered sides, particularly if there's something out there that gets their attention.