gecko tried to bite me?

[PetertheGecko]

I know this sounds silly that I'm worried about this.

I bought my leopard gecko of almost 2 years a repti shelter and some spagnum moss yesterday (i was previously using a tupperware and paper towel). I decided to redo and clean his cage since I was going to be in it anyway. I put him in a carboard box with his favorite hide while I was cleaning. I always put his hide in there to keep him calm but I had never put him in a box before. I had been using a sort of hamper basket turned upside down it had plenty of holes so he could even see around him. (I had actually assumed he would like the box better because it was dark in there). He was in there for fourty five minutes until the cage was ready. I put my hand in the box and his front feet on my hand. I scooped up the rest of him from underneath and curled my hand around him so he wouldnt fall. As carried him to the cage 3 ft away. he turned his head, opened his mouth, and it hit the palm of my hand. He didn't actually clamp down on me at all it was more like a nip/nudge. But I could tell he was scared and angry.

I've had my gecko since he was a hatchling. He has barked at me when he was a baby but he has NEVER tried to bite me. I'm worried he's scared of me now and will run from my hands. What should I do to regain his trust?

 

[Alceste]

You gotta remember these are simple animals. They aren't processing their actions or their surroundings with anywhere near the amount of complexity you are. Think of how you react when you are startled, that instinctual flight mechanism that you have that lasts a moment before you stop a process what has happened. Well in the case of your gecko, that flight response is its entire capacity for processing what has happened. Your gecko doesn't remember biting at you, nor does it have a reason for doing so. It simply did it, because in that moment that was its reaction. So don't worry about it, don't change anything about what you are doing or be fearful of your pet. Sometimes things like that just happen