Lost Patience

[zeki692]

Its been 5 weeks of me laying my hand in for 5-10 minutes, waiting for her to finally stop being skiddish, and it hasn't worked. So, I lost my patience and just grabbed her out of her hide and held her. She was fine once she was in my hand, and walked around on my shirt for a while. Picking her up off the shirt though she jumped from my hand. I caught her, she wasn't high mind you, I was laying on the floor. But when I caught her it made me mad that taming her has taken this long. Other posts I have read people have done it in 1-2 weeks! Should I have been more hands on with the taming earlier? It would just be nice to have a gecko that doesn't freak out when my hand goes in to feed or clean or even hold her to make sure she is okay!

 

[jemjdragon]

It really depends on the gecko. My first leopard gecko hand tamed really easily (took 2-3 weeks after she got used to her surroundings). She was never skittish and she never bit hard. My current one I've had for 3 years and is still jumpy when held and bites when ever my hand is in his tank. He has gotten better and will calm down after 10 minutes of being out of the tank but still is very skittish at any fast movements or loud noises.

 

[sausage]

most of mine are pretty tame. some do still freak out when im messing with their cage lol
I think as long as they have seen you and know that your there they are generally okay with being picked up.

 

[katie_]

Some never tame. They are animals. You cannot get frustrated and possibly hurt your gecko. Nect time you feel frustrated, take a break.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

If it's a young gecko, you need to just give it time. In my experience the hand method isn't needed to "tame" a gecko, time is the best tool you have. I've had some really aggressive juveniles, I mean they would bite my hand, run and take cliff dives off my hand when picked up, etc.. those types of aggressive skittish juveniles. And without doing anything extra, without working to tame them, they all mellowed out once they reached adulthood.

So if you have a young gecko, sometimes the best thing to do is to give it time to grow up a bit. There's also no set amount of time required to tame a gecko, because all geckos are different. There are definitely mellow young geckos out there, but you just never know what you're going to get. I would suggest practice more patience, and not get yourself worked up over it. Definitely don't get mad at the animal because it's not their fault.

 

[WilliamTheLeopardGecko]

Wow I guess thats right it took 3 days for me pick him up. He loved me ever since and barely ever hisses. Take your chance with him.

 

[FrenzyMode]

My little sub-adult Ivory got along pretty fast. After the first week, she ate and 3 days later knew we were the food people . She has been till this week (2 weeks). (BTW, she is my first leopard gecko)