Adopting a Leo Tomorrow!!!

[geckoTN]

I am excited, I am finally getting a Leo!
However, I am adopting her off of Craigslist. From the images sent over she looks healthy. They estimated the age to be around 2 years old. My question to you all is, any tips on getting this Leo use to me? This is my first Leo and even though I have been reading and watching youtube videos for the past 4 months on them, I feel real life experience is invaluable.

 

[mo.mak]

Congrats !

I'm assuming you already know the basic housing and caring of a leopard gecko and have everything ready and awaiting it's arrival (?) Leopard geckos aren't relatively hard to take care of as qpets and make great beginner reptile pets ! If the leopard gecko is already familiar with human interaction then it won't be a problem when you handle him/her as long as it's used to human interaction in general, if not then when you receive her/him, let it settle in for a while preferably for around 5 days to get used to its new environment and to familiarise itself with its surroundings,after that you start by placing your hand flat infront of it (but not too close ) 2 things will happen
1. It'll either run away ,then give it time to settle then try again

2 . it'll come investigate and lick your hand to pick your scent up ,keep repeating that then there you have it,everytime you place your hands it'll abourd the choo choo train for lift off !! After that it may find a hot spot on your arm or hand and lay there or restlessly walk around on your hands , I usually handle my geckos for a maximum of 15minutes so that I don't stress them out or so that they may go to their heat spot if they feel cold.

Good luck! (you shouldn't need it though )


Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

 

[geckoTN]

So I have a temp setup for her. They are selling the tank and all of her hides with her. My plan is to put her in the temp setup until I can get the tank setup just as they had the tank and warmed up. My hope is that will be one less change for her.
Your tips make sense and I will follow them. Let me ask for a little clarity. How can I tell if a Leo is stressed? I have often read about not stressing the Leo out but no one really goes into detail as what the signs of stress are? I would assume hissing and/or biting, running away etc are all signs.

 

[indyana]

Yep, those are clear signs. Reptiles also will sometimes do this thing where they stop moving and squint/shut their eyes when they get stressed. It's almost as though they are thinking if they can't see you, maybe you won't bother them...

I think it's good to give a couple weeks of time to settle in a new gecko, even more if they don't pick up eating. I like to see mine eating regularly before I start doing handling sessions.

Congratulations on getting a gecko! I recommend lots of bribery once the gecko settles in... tong or hand feeding can be a great way to bond with them, since they love food.