how smart is the average leopard gecko??

[Laporte]

Lately I have been wondering to myself how smart is my leo? Can I expect her to learn what "up" means, or her name for that matter? or to figure out the food is in the orange dish, or does it all come with years of training, or is it all purely instinct?

I don't mean to be an ass about it either,incase that's how it sounds, I'm just trying to understand their brains is all.

Thanks, Tyler

 

[marauderhex]

Well, it depends on if you're counting learning as mere associations or if you are trying to test for higher cognitive abilities. It's been proven that the old tests on reptilian intelligence were flawed due to multiple aspects, not the least of which being tested in a cold facility.

 

[brillobee]

I would think they are pretty smart. I have a hatching albino, being albino it has trouble seeing when the lights are on. So, I started feeding it with tweezers. Only took a couple of days for it to learn the tweezers held food and that when I opened the cage door that it meant food was coming. It would climb right up to the doors.

 

[Laporte]

Well, it depends on if you're counting learning as mere associations or if you are trying to test for higher cognitive abilities. It's been proven that the old tests on reptilian intelligence were flawed due to multiple aspects, not the least of which being tested in a cold facility.

I would think that learning has alot to do with association, like brillobee says, it knows when the doors open there is food on the way, but is that the extent of it and is it coming from instintc, ( take food when it comes, because who knows when there will be more type of deal ), I'd definitly like to hear more of these studies they did, and why else they are proved flawed.
Thanks

 

[katie_]

Mine arent very smart. At all.
I also don't think they can hear our voices, so I'm not sure it could learn simple commands.

 

[Laporte]

Mine arent very smart. At all.
I also don't think they can hear our voices, so I'm not sure it could learn simple commands.

It seems like she can hear me, she looks right at me, sometimes I'll come in and say her name and she'll look at me, other times I'll just say giberish and still she looks at me, so I doubt she knows her name and is just looking for the source of the sound or vibrations if they can't hear our voices.

 

[katie_]

I have one in my bedroom, and when I walk in he does look at me.
I believe he sees movement and comes to investigate, and look for food.
I'm still pretty confident that he cant hear voices.