Taming Older Leopard Gecko

ronedog1

New Member
Messages
3
Location
CA
I have had my male leopard gecko for about 5 years now and up untill now I never had to much intrest in him.

I have been trying to tame him for about 2 weeks but all he ever does is lick or sniff my hand and sometimes walk over it.

(Also if I try to touch him very softly he runs away as soon as I touch him)

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 

Neon Aurora

New Member
Messages
1,376
Location
New Mexico
Personally, I've always found it most effective to just pick the gecko up everyday until it is habituated. Usually, the hardest part of handling a gecko is actually picking it up. Once you have it in your hand, they are usually more calm. It just requires a steady hand. I think it is important to reach in calmly and surely and gently pick the gecko up by the midsection. Don't forcefully restrain the gecko if it struggles because you may hurt it. What I do when a gecko struggles as I'm picking it up is quickly put my other hand in front of it. I recommend doing it a few inches off the floor of his tank to start with so if he runs off your hand he doesn't get hurt and he doesn't get lost. If you successfully pick up and handle him every day for a few minutes, he is likely to get habituated. But necessarily, though. I have several geckos from a particular pairing that are just skittish as heck genetically and will never be any different. Both parents have skittish temperaments and all the babies do also. They've had the same handling as all the others and still go a little crazy when I need to handle them.

I've habituated all of my geckos using this method and all of the ones with decent temperaments are perfectly tame.
 

ronedog1

New Member
Messages
3
Location
CA
Ya but like I said he runs if I even touch him

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 

Neon Aurora

New Member
Messages
1,376
Location
New Mexico
Mine do as well. I don't think they understand touching very well. That's why you just steadily reach in and pick up. I have some that will run like hell and wiggle around like crazy, but once I have the midsection and lift them into my hand it's hard for them to get away.

If you are not comfortable with my preferred method, you can try another. One method some people use is more like counter conditioning. It takes a lot of time, though. You would start each day by just having your hand in the tank. Once he is 100% comfortable, you may move to touching him really lightly. Once he is comfortable with that, you move on to kind of stroking him or whatever. This method works, it's just very time consuming and I don't really find it necessary. I had hatchlings that would stand tall and shriek at me. As long as I persisted in picking them up anyways, they all have tamed up fine.
 

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