Help! My Leopard Gecko is trying to bite me!

Darwin · Jan 10, 2014

So, I got my Leopard Gecko Darwin on the 26/12/2013 and he's relatively small in size. (About 3.5 inches long)

I keep trying the "put the hand in the vivarium tame method" but he keeps coming up to my hand and trying to bite it. Is this really strange behaviour? Iv'e seen various threads where some people have been breeding them for years and have never had one try and bite them. I'm genuinely angry about this and I have no idea why he/she may be trying to bite me. Also, are the bites dangerous? (Infectous?)

Cheers

Lewis.

LovelyLeopards14 · Jan 10, 2014

The bite from a gecko this small won't hurt you! In fact, i haven't heard of a leopard gecko of any size break skin for the most part. I have a greedy individual who often mistakes my hand for gecko kibble! Just make sure yours is well fed, and i will say this now. It takes time to tame a gecko. It is also possible that this particular him/her is stressed out. Young leos can be especially defensive when disturbed. Make sure that you have it in the appropriate conditions (housing, heating, etc). Hope that helps!

Josh

tb144050 · Jan 10, 2014

Geckos are loners who don't require any kind of companionship. I've come to understand that they just kinda "tolerate" us...lol You can train them to like your hand by letting him smell you right before you feed him. Then, he will associate you with feeding time.

They aren't meant to be handled daily, so you could try a special treat, like a waxworm, once a week after he smells you. He'll love you then.

We have one that just doesn't want to be touched and another that will calmly wander around my shirt, shoulders, arms, and from hand-to-hand.

Darwin · Jan 10, 2014

LovelyLeopards14 said:
The bite from a gecko this small won't hurt you! In fact, i haven't heard of a leopard gecko of any size break skin for the most part. I have a greedy individual who often mistakes my hand for gecko kibble! Just make sure yours is well fed, and i will say this now. It takes time to tame a gecko. It is also possible that this particular him/her is stressed out. Young leos can be especially defensive when disturbed. Make sure that you have it in the appropriate conditions (housing, heating, etc). Hope that helps!

Josh

Hey, Josh! Thank you for this information - I appreciate it! I just wanted to ask, is a staple diet of 7-10 'Small' gut-loaded mealworms a day a good idea for my gecko? I tend to feed him with the tongs but maybe I should stop with that habit and allow him to get his own food, would that better train him? I am attaching an image now of him, could you possibly tell me whether he looks healthy or not? (Have not determined sex yet)

Cheers!

Lewis

DrCarrotTail · Jan 10, 2014

A few of my babies are hungry enough to try to eat my fingers but I've never had one be outwardly aggressive toward me. Their bites are rarely painful and I don't think they have any side effects at all. Big 70+ gram adults can give a painful bite but it takes a whole lot to get them angry enough to chomp you.

7-10 mealworms a day sounds fine. I usually feed mine that up to about 25g and then cut back to every other day until 40g and then every 3rd day after that. They're still just as hungry but I don't want them growing too fast.

Phantom240 · Jan 10, 2014

lol don't worry about it. My adult LITERALLY just bit my thumb while I was tong feeding her. I've been feeding her every other day, and while I was dropping roaches into Moka's enclosure, Eris ran out her hide and started staring me down with her eyes all wide open (you know, that silly face leos make when they're focused on food). I fed her a couple roaches, and she absolutely destroyed them. I've never seen that kind of energy from her before. The third one she missed horribly, and bit my thumb. She didn't realize until the second or third chomp while latched onto my digit that I wasn't food. I think it scared her a bit, because she lost interest and went to her warm hide to digest.

escape · Jan 11, 2014

have you guys experience it too, when a baby leo is feeling threatened or afraid it emits a silent hissing sound, i taught it was just me but mine did it again.

tb144050 · Jan 11, 2014

Yep. My wife's leo, Ninja, is very anti-social. If you even get too close, he "barks" at you. He also barks when we mist him (just to make sure he sheds properly..don't know if it helps...just seems like a good idea..lol). I am trying to work with him to tame him down so that he will tolerate us one day. My leo, Smoke, is the opposite. He crawls all over you but he never barks and never actually RUNS.

I've seen enough to know the "bark" is a self-defense mechanism to scare aware smaller predators....it works on us (makes us jump) and makes us want to leave him alone if we have a choice.

tb144050 · Jan 11, 2014

escape said:
have you guys experience it too, when a baby leo is feeling threatened or afraid it emits a silent hissing sound, i taught it was just me but mine did it again.

but if it is silent, is it really a sound at all?? lol at first I thought you were describing a leo's "bark", but I am not so sure after reading your post again..??

Phantom240 · Jan 11, 2014

My subadult won't croak/bark/etc at me, but she does everything in her power to run/deathroll/etc to have me not handle her if she doesn't want to be handled. My adult, however, doesn't give two craps about anything. As long as I'm not pestering her by trying to inspect her belly, she's silent and doesn't mind if I pick her up.

LeopardGeckoMom · Jan 23, 2014

Mine used to hiss a baby, now she climbs on my hand (esp. With meal worm bait

lol) and wonders around. She still needs tamed in the touch field.. She is like: "Ahhhh, stoooop!" When I touch her xP

LeopardGeckoMom · Jan 23, 2014

Mine used to hiss as baby, now she climbs on my hand (esp. With meal worm bait

lol) and wonders around. She still needs tamed in the touch field.. She is like: "Ahhhh, stoooop!" When I touch her xP

LeopardGeckoMom · Jan 23, 2014

Sorry I did that twice @.@

VampyreByte · Jan 24, 2014

I've seen and heard of geckos breaking skin with a bite but still nothing to be worried about. Your gecko looks nice and healthy. I think i is just seeing you tong/hand feed it all the time and is excited and bites for your fingers thinking it might get food. I have geckos that do this sometimes.
I'd feed it from the dish so its not always looking at your fingers wanting food.

One more thing, I'd get your gecko off the sand and onto paper towels or reptile carpet. Sand can be harmful to leopard geckos if ingested. It can cause impaction and lead to death.

Superior Reptiles · Feb 5, 2014

Hey you should take your gecko off the sand because they could get impaction. Paper towels are a safer substrate to use. And hold your gecko everyday for like 10-15 minutes and within like a week or so they will become tame.

Sasha2 · Feb 5, 2014

Ive a couple try to bite me, always the females but in time they all mellow out. I used to have a gecko that was blind on one side and had to hand feed her. She would come after my hand as well. Put a fist in, tuck in those fingers and let the gecko get used to just that.Then start picking them up.I only ever picked mine up once a week and they are tame as dogs now, just takes a little longer but always seems like when they hit a certain age they just get mellow.

Help! My Leopard Gecko is trying to bite me!

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