Scared my Leopard Gecko is going to bite me.

[swimmerfishified]

So last night I was sitting near my Leo's cage and I tapped the table to get her attention towards me. She looked at me and I just tapped a bit more until she came kind of close to me, I put my finger near the glass of her cage and she was just staring at my finger, Then she backed up a bit and jumped a bit towards the glass. I pulled my hand away from the tank because I thought she was trying to go an bite me adn maybe I was being intimidating so I just left her alone and went to bed for the rest of the night.

The next day I really wanted to try taming her so I went on youtube and some other reptile forums to find information on taming and handling. (I've have her for 2 weeks so she has had time to settle in) So I heard that you can put your hand in their tank and take all their stuff out so they have nowhere to hide (I also don't know if that is true) So I felt confident and I watched videos of people picking up their geckos so I thought it would be easy for me too.

I removed her hides first. I didn't remove anything else and there was just a fake plant, her calcium dish, mealworm dish, and water bowl. I slowly put my hand in my tank but she gave me that look she usually gives me whenever I take out something out of her tank (usually food) I kept my hand in the middle of her cage and she looked at my hand the way she usually looks at her food. I got really scared so I just removed my hand from the tank and left her alone.

Please help, I don't want her thinking my finger/hand is food for her and I don't want her biting me. (I heard it doesn't hurt but still) Does anyone have any tips on taming that I can use or how to make her think I'm not a mealworm? Thanks.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Click here for Taming Tips shared by several GU members: Taming your Leopard Gecko......GU's mecoat, Zux (Shane), & others

 

[GeckoFanboy]

My new gecko did the same thing at first...really snapped at me a couple times. He was scared. New home!

Here's how I tamed my Scooby: Every single night at around 8:00-9:00PM, he takes a big poop right square on top of his warm hide (he needs a bigger tank, I know). There are other places he could go, but he has to do it right on top his house. This drives me nuts! So what do I do? I remove his warm hide every single night to clean it off with hot water. Meanwhile, he's walking around because his favorite hide is missing (and he knows I'm going to feed him as soon as things are cleaned up). Alot of times he's standing right in the spot I need to place the hide, so I can't cause he's in the way. So what do I do? I ask him to move, and when that doesn't work I tap his tail gently in the back, or I slightly nudge his side with my finger. A couple times he's acted aggressive, but I just leave my hand still, and he'll come over and lick it. He associates my hand with food.

Basically, you gotta get your gecko use to being around your hand, and he needs to know it's not a threat. How is it a threat? If it's always grabbing him. I rarely grab Scooby unless I need to. Reptiles are cool pets, but you can't play with them like dogs or they get all weird and shut down (stress out). Start putting your hand in the tank more...change the water dish every night...clean his floor up...wipe his poop up every time you see it....there are alot of reasons you can go into the tank without touching him, and the more you do that, the more he's gonna get use to being around your hand. That's how it's working for me at least.

 

[~D~]

Sounds like she might have been hungry or just thought your finger was food. They like to eat things that wiggle and make ticking noises. I wouldn't consider that defensive aggression, more like predator aggression.

Before taming, she really should be comfortable and secure in her tank. This means do not mess with anything in the tank on a regular basis beyond removing poop and insect body parts, changing water and spraying moist hide, and adding food. Do it slowly and calmly with no sudden movements. If you want to mess around with the layout, get it done early and leave it alone. Anytime I change something around, mine goes into hiding for a few days. I found that mine didn't like the fake plants I put in for cover, a large fern, she wouldn't come out of her moist hide at all. I imagine removing all of the hides and having no cover would probably make them nervous. I take mine out and put her somewhere to explore when doing anything beyond daily stuff. Just consider that some decorations might be more for you than for her.

I don't hand feed, not even with tweezers. If she is standing there looking hungry, I might throw something in there for her to chase, she likes chasing superworms and roaches. If you want to hand-feed, use tweezers. But it sounds like maybe she was being hand fed, so you might just need to keep feeding her with a bowl so she can stop associating food with your hand. Keeping your fingers together might help with this too, so your hand doesn't look like five wiggling worms.