Duckie
New Member
- Messages
- 6
- Location
- California
Before I got my leo I was given suggestions from a lot of different people about handling.
I was told to wait a couple of weeks before handling her, let her get settled and talk to her and try not to stress her out.
I was also told by someone else to handle her after a couple of days. Keep just her humid hide in the tank and when she lets me handle her give her the other hides slowly as a reward. If I have to be a little rough it's ok because she'll get used to me. That advice came from a bearded dragon owner and her dragons LOVE her, so I highly considered this approach.
This is what I've been doing:
I gave her a couple of days to adjust, and any time I fed her I slowly put my hand into the tank. I tried to make my hand look as un threatening as possible. I would let her approach me/approach her cautiously with my hand flat palm up to let her smell me. She was pretty curious but not interested in exploring my hand much. I continued to do this, and tried to show her my hand meant food. I took a pair of tweezers with a meal worm and held it close to her, she wanted it but wasn't sure about the tweezers.
She's become more curious and will come out every time I fill her food bowl, if she isn't already telling me she's hungry. As far as handling goes I've been keeping my hand, palm up, at the bottom of the cage and let her climb over it. She just walked across it at first but she started staying on my hand for a few minutes. One day I got brave and slowly lifted my hand, and she seemed fine for a little bit.
I'm assuming she's getting more comfortable with me if she's crawling on my hand and even laying on my hand. I have not scooped her up yet because I don't want to stress her out, and possibly have her drop her tail.
Is what I've been doing ok? Sometimes she will claw at the sides of the tank and that's my cue to leave her alone. We took her out once, well my boyfriend did because I was sad about something and he was trying to make me feel better and she did ok. She was just looking for a place to hide.
Should I try to handle her every day? I'm not sure how old she is, she was 17 grams when we got her but I haven't measured her since (We got her July 1st) and she's about 6 inches long (give or take). Right now I'm not putting my hand in there for her to crawl on every day but I am showing her I'm in there and let her smell/lick my finger. She also took a meal worm from the tweezers yesterday, just thought I'd throw that out there.
Sorry if I'm rambling and this is all over the place, I know not all leo's like to be handled but I'm hoping someday she'll want to hang out on my shoulder and cuddle with me.
I was told to wait a couple of weeks before handling her, let her get settled and talk to her and try not to stress her out.
I was also told by someone else to handle her after a couple of days. Keep just her humid hide in the tank and when she lets me handle her give her the other hides slowly as a reward. If I have to be a little rough it's ok because she'll get used to me. That advice came from a bearded dragon owner and her dragons LOVE her, so I highly considered this approach.
This is what I've been doing:
I gave her a couple of days to adjust, and any time I fed her I slowly put my hand into the tank. I tried to make my hand look as un threatening as possible. I would let her approach me/approach her cautiously with my hand flat palm up to let her smell me. She was pretty curious but not interested in exploring my hand much. I continued to do this, and tried to show her my hand meant food. I took a pair of tweezers with a meal worm and held it close to her, she wanted it but wasn't sure about the tweezers.
She's become more curious and will come out every time I fill her food bowl, if she isn't already telling me she's hungry. As far as handling goes I've been keeping my hand, palm up, at the bottom of the cage and let her climb over it. She just walked across it at first but she started staying on my hand for a few minutes. One day I got brave and slowly lifted my hand, and she seemed fine for a little bit.
I'm assuming she's getting more comfortable with me if she's crawling on my hand and even laying on my hand. I have not scooped her up yet because I don't want to stress her out, and possibly have her drop her tail.
Is what I've been doing ok? Sometimes she will claw at the sides of the tank and that's my cue to leave her alone. We took her out once, well my boyfriend did because I was sad about something and he was trying to make me feel better and she did ok. She was just looking for a place to hide.
Should I try to handle her every day? I'm not sure how old she is, she was 17 grams when we got her but I haven't measured her since (We got her July 1st) and she's about 6 inches long (give or take). Right now I'm not putting my hand in there for her to crawl on every day but I am showing her I'm in there and let her smell/lick my finger. She also took a meal worm from the tweezers yesterday, just thought I'd throw that out there.
Sorry if I'm rambling and this is all over the place, I know not all leo's like to be handled but I'm hoping someday she'll want to hang out on my shoulder and cuddle with me.
