Day gecko dropped her tail a second time, PLEASE HELP 😰

[Raging_Crocodile]

This has now gotten out of hand. My sub adult standings day gecko has dropped her tail for the second time now. All I did this time was slowly reach into her cage with repashy on my finger, and she freaked out, jumping all over the cage and dropping her tail in the process. I don’t know what to do! I have never had this much trouble taming a lizard. She used to be tame when she was a baby, but when she dropped her tail for the first time, she stopped. Can geckos regenerate their tails more than once? And can someone please help me, I am at a loss what to do. I see videos of these super tame day geckos eating food right from people’s hand, I want to get mine to that point but I am having zero success.

 

[Aimless]

I would take a step back and just stop reaching in her cage. not all geckos are able to be tamed, they have their own personalities and for some it just isn't going to happen. I'd give her a lot of time and space and let her be herself.

 

[Raging_Crocodile]

Well the problem is that she is so stressed that she constantly hides and doesn’t want to eat, which isn’t healthy. The fact that I am just in the same room makes her super stressed. I basically never see her, and when I do she just instantly hides. I don’t think that is normal. I don’t expect her to crawl on my hand, I just don’t want her hiding the instant she sees me.

 

[Aimless]

it's totally normal. you walk up to the cage and stick your arm in. as Hilde said in another post, to her tiny little reptile brain you're a predator and she needs to fear you. especially if she's now associating you with multiple dropped tails. I'm sure she's terrified of you. this is normal and expected; she can't reason like a mammal. this also means that any reversal of this trend is going to take a lot of time. they're not mammals; she's not over there thinking, "maybe he's ok after all and I can stop being afraid" because you haven't captured her in awhile. her instinctive response is that you're a predator and you're coming close to kill and eat her.

I'm sorry if this isn't what you want to hear, but I really think this is where she's at and why it's getting worse.

 

[Raging_Crocodile]

Well this is unfortunate. This might sound like a silly question but can they regenerate their tails multiple times?

 

[Aimless]

yes, but it's really hard on them and the new tail rarely looks as pretty as the original.

 

[Dieball]

My first question is: What is the size of the terrarium? I remember, that when I had to temporarly house my 6 months old grandis in 15x15x15" terrarium, while I was working on their new enclosure, they were extremely freaky. After putting them in 24x18x32" made them extremely chill. I can even pat them on the head

 

[Raging_Crocodile]

He is in an 18 by 18 by 24 exo terra.