Food aggresive leo!

[Euphoric]

So my skinny female as gained a lot of weight but another problem has aroused.
She has a really hard time catching food so I hand fed her worms and crickets, but now she thinks my hand is food and has bit me (not hard it was ok)
Its like she is CONSTANTLY looking for food all the time like she is never going to eat again.
I tried laying the worm down but she concentrates on my fingers, not even noticing the worm. I have to kinda push it but she still is focused on me.

I don't think she wants to harm me or anything and the bites are bad, but I don't want to have an accident when handling her or someone else (Like my 7 year old sister) have an accident

Any suggestions?

 

[Crazygecko]

have you tried putting in the mealworms and just leaving her alone without you or your little fingers near her? lol she is fixed on your finger cause you without knowing it taught her that your fingers are the source of all her food.
So your best bet is to just put in some meal worms and leave her alone without you around then check back up on her later on to see if she ate them.
You need to get her not asociating your fingers with meal worms. good luck.

 

[acpart]

I had to deal with this with a hatchling that I was hand feeding and got fixated on my hand. I took a shallow bowl and would hold the mealworm over the bowl until she came to get mealworm (and my finger). THen I'd drop the mealworm in the bowl and move my finger back. It took about a week but she finally got it.

Aliza

 

[Euphoric]

I have been trying that for over a week, she won't take the worms in the dish or on the floor I have left them for the entire day until at night when I want her to eat.
and she has only caught one cricket on her own ever.

 

[acpart]

You may have to do some more training at the bowl. What if you hold the worm pretty low (and your fingers low as well) so the gecko is focused on your fingers just about in the bowl. It's pretty tricky timing, but if you can get the gecko to be focusing at first on your fingers in the bowl and then getting used to looking down for your fingers and the bowl that's a good start. You could also try putting the mealworm in the bowl and putting your finger on one end of the worm so it's right at the end of your finger and twisting around. I think if you play around with these ideas, you may have some success. I do have 2 geckos that as adults still need to be hand fed. They come to the side of the tank at feeding time and I hand them crickets and mealworms in turn. I haven't been able to bowl train either of them and when I leave mealworms in there, they tend to nibble on one's tail. They are cute waiting for their meal, though.

Aliza

 

[Rich Of The U.K]

Theres a good chance that she is focusing on your finger due to it being more noticeable...

Rich...

 

[JConley]

I know i know your fingers look like really big superworms!

Drop the food and run!!!!!!!! lmao

 

[Morpious]

maybe try tweezers so she stops associating your fingers with food

 

[dand883]

If you're good with chopsticks, i started using them to drop the mealies in the tank and wiggle em around a little so they look more exciting. I have also used a set of plastic tweezers that came in a kids bug catching set.
As for training them to eat from a dish, if you keep hand feeding them, they may never learn. I know no one wants to starve their geckos, but one of my males was really stubborn eater, and i had to try and show them to him, drop them in the dish, and leave them there, not feed him any by hand. He didn't eat many for about a week, but then he got hungry enough to actually try the dish and caught on pretty quick. I don't think you should ever starve any animal, but i don't think a week is really that long for an adult, in the winter some of mine eat very little even when it is available.