Handling

[jo57]

I was wondering when during the day you guys handle your geckos. The way my guy's cage is set up, he gets light from the room he is in during the day. During this time he is generally asleep in one of his hides. If i try to get him out of the cage, I have to remove the hide he is in and that really seems to make him mad. He makes a lot of noise and bites at me which I have to admit I find a little funny since the skin on my hands is too rough for him to get through. At night time, the room his cage is in is dark. The only light in the room is from two tanks below him that have red lights. this makes just enough light that I can see him if he is near the front of his cage. If I approach the cage and he is near the front, he runs into one of his hides. At that point I don't want to remove the hide to try to pull him out. Most of the pictures I see of people's geckos on here seem to be during the day. I'd like to handle him more to get him used to it, but I don't want it to be stressful for him.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. You can handle at any time of the day. "Taming" a leopard gecko is all about habituation (From google: the diminishing of a physiological or emotional response to a frequently repeated stimulus). He doesn't like his hide removed because it scares him. He thinks he's been uncovered and is going to be eaten by a predator. But if the hide gets lifted every day/night/whatever and he never gets eaten by a predator, he eventually becomes habituated to it and isn't afraid anymore. Same goes with picking him up and handling. The important thing would probably be to make sure that nothing bad does happen to him during this process. Make sure a hide doesn't actually get dropped on him, or he takes a nasty fall (handle him close to the ground for a while).

I don't think it causes them excessive stress. I pick up all of my hatchlings almost daily to check them over and find escaped mealworms in their tubs. Almost all of them freaked out in the beginning and would run around and try to bite me. Eventually, they just stopped and they don't care anymore (except one, which still runs around when I go to pick him up. His father is very skittish too). Never during this process did any of them becomes so stressed it stopped eating. However, if yours did stop eating, I would maybe take a different approach.

 

[jo57]

He still eats great. I pull out his dish 20-30 minutes before lights out. I put some meal worms and phoenix worms in there and place it in his cage 20-30 minutes after lights out. Sometimes he will be waiting in the area where the bowl usually goes when I get there. Usually if I am putting his bowl in, he will just stand there and watch. I guess he has gotten accustomed to that.

 

[mamashel]

My Geckos hate being handled too. One will crawl up my are if input my hand in front of him... but he freaks if i try to pick him up or touch him.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk