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me and my friend just bought a leopard gecko on saturday sept.8 and my friends gecko is a female and very calm mine is a male and very wild every time i hold him he ether jumps or squirms is there a way to make him calm please answer

2007-09-10 14:34:07 · 8 answers · asked by reptile lover 4 in Pets Reptiles

8 answers

First of all stop handling them. Leos should have 2 weeks to settle into their new homes and adjust. They get stressed very easily. After 2 weeks, begin by putting your hand in the tank and letting him walk on it. Be patient, and over time you will gently be able to hold him. Make sure your set up is correct:

Housing in Captivity:

The cage setup for leopard geckos can be as simple or elaborate, as you like. A single animal can be maintained in a ten gallon aquarium (though a 15 or 20 is preferred) with a paper substrate. If you prefer, they can be maintained on reptile carpet, ceramic tile, or non-adhesive shelf liner. The use of sand as a substrate is not recommended for leopard geckos. They will occasionally ingest too much sand in their craving for calcium or accidentally during hunting activities, causing a sand impaction that could become quite serious. Do not use any loose substrate at all.

Leopard geckos will choose one corner of the tank to relieve themselves, and use it solely. This facilitates cleanup. You can place a piece of paper towel in the appropriate corner, and spot-clean quickly and easily. Leopard geckos require a cage temperature about 88-91F. A heat source on one end, which will provide a thermal gradient in the cage is recommended. This is best accomplished with heat from underneath. An under the tank heat mat can be stuck to the bottom of the tank at one end. Hot rocks do not provide the necessary cage heat, and have been known to cause severe burns. Red incandescent bulbs can be placed above one end of the cage not only to provide additional heat if needed, but also provide light to view the animals in the evening when they are active. It is important that the nighttime temperature not drop too low (about 80 degrees F at the warm end) or the animals will not eat. As the geckos are nocturnal, expensive UV lights are not necessary.

In addition to hiding places at both the warm and cool ends of the cage, a plastic shoe box or small freezer container, with a hole cut in the lid or side, is provided for the geckos. Inside the box, there is a damp peat moss/vermiculite mixture or folded paper toweling. This hide box not only provides a place for females to lay eggs, but also provides the humidity required for the geckos to shed properly. Spray the hide box daily as needed to keep moist, but not drenched. If a moist area for shedding is not provided, the shed skin may remain on the toes and constrict, eventually causing the loss of the toe. Place the moist hide over the warm end of the tank.

Groups of juvenile or female leopard geckos can be maintained in the same cage. Young animals, however, must be housed with others of their own size, or the smaller animals in the cage will be dominated by the larger ones, and will not do well. Males should never be housed together as fighting will occur.

Food and Feeding:

Leopard geckos can be fed mealworms or crickets, with an occasional meal of wax worms. Prey items should be no larger than the space between the geckos eyes. Smaller geckos need smaller prey in order to prevent impaction. When maintaining a large colony of geckos, mealworms are significantly less work than crickets. There appears to be no significant difference in health or growth rate between geckos fed crickets or meal worms. Wax worms are a good supplement or treat, but are too fatty and not nutritious enough for a regular diet. Start with a feeding schedule of once daily or every other day. Babies seem to prefer to chase their meals, adults will eat mealworms out of a shallow dish. Feed early evening if possible .The geckos soon learn when it is dinner time, and will come out of their hide boxes to eat. Some appear to enjoy being hand-fed. Feed as many mealworms/crickets as they will eat in a single feeding. If the animal eats what is provided, put in a couple more food items to see if they are eaten as well, to help gauge the correct amount of food. Be sure to remove any crickets that are not eaten in a feeding, as they will annoy and unduly stress the geckos. Baby geckos that are getting enough food will shed every two weeks or so. Adults should be hefty, but not obese with a nice, fat tail. Leopard geckos require a shallow dish for water and a dish of calcium (plain). Crickets and mealworms need to be dusted with calcium; also, the leopard geckos will lick the calcium powder right out of a shallow dish if provided. The crickets themselves need to be fed a cricket gutload formula and be provided with a shallow water source. If not, they do not provide good nutrition for the gecko.

General Information:
Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) or leo for slang originated from the Middle East - Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan area. Adults can obtain lengths of 8-12 inches long and 60-100+ grams (g) in weight in captivity. Babies are around 3 inches and average 3g in weight. Leos are a terrestrial animal which means they are ground dwellers that stay on the ground. Being nocturnal they are most active at night. They are one of the most popular and easiest geckos to keep in captivity. This care sheet will give you the info you need to keep your gecko happy and healthy. And with proper care a leo can easily live up to 20 years.

Handling – When holding any animal it’s best to take it slow. When you first acquire a new animal it is best not to hold them for a few weeks. This will allow them to adjust to the new environment and get used to everything. After a few weeks, gently hold the gecko letting it walk across your hand inside the cage. Once the gecko is familiar with you, you can take it out and hold it. Remember that too much holding or too rough of holding can cause stress on the animal. Another thing to remember is to never grab the tail! If threatened, the tail will break off. It will grow back but will look nothing like the original.


http://www.drgecko.com/index.html

http://www.thegeckospot.com/index.html

2007-09-10 14:57:17 · answer #1 · answered by KimbeeJ 7 · 0 1

Leopard geckos are sexually mature at 10 months of age and usually lay their first pairs of eggs of the season from January to August. First-time females will sometimes only lay a single egg, but a sure sign that you have done a good job raising your female gecko is seen when two fertile eggs are laid in the box of mosit soil you have been providing. From then on, a clutch will always consist of two eggs unless your female is old or sick. Older females may lay 10-16 eggs per season. A fertile egg feels like a stale marshmellow while an infertile egg looks and feels like a half-filled hotwater bottle. Eggs are easy to hatch. In fact, you get to have a powerful job, if you wish, since gecko eggs are temperature sex dependent. This means that the sex of the gecko is not determined at fertilization, but is set during the first two weeks in captivity by the high daytime temperature you expose the eggs to. A daytime high that does not exceed 82 F will give you all female offspring, but if you want to make that egg a "male" then you simply place the egg where it will experience 90-92 F as a daytime high during the first two weeks of incubation. (the following line was revised 07-22-03) If you keep "male" eggs at a constant 89-91 F you may have some embryos die from heat stress or if they are exposed to temps over 92 F they may become what we call "hot" or high temperature females, which never reproduce and often bully their cage mates.

2016-04-04 01:15:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

slow and steady is the name of the game in this one. First off, leave him alone for at least a week to let him settle into his new surroundings.

Once you have done this, you need to be paitient, you are huge, and the lizard is tiny, his instincts will tell him you want to harm or eat him. You can use treats to tempt him onto your hand, like wax worms, but only in small amounts as they have a high fat content. once on your hand, use your spare hand to cup him, allowing him to move but restricting him from falling and hurting him self. Its usuall best to do this while sitting on a bed, so if he does fall its not far and its onto a soft surface.

Never hold the liard by its tail, or pick him up by his tail, infact just avoid the tail altogether, if they feed threatened they will shed their tail in order to get away. although they can re grow their tail, its never the same, and its also not a nice thing for the lizard to go through.

As i said, slow and steady, you both need to get used to each other, and this can take weeks, you can't expect him to let you handel him for the word go! if this doesn't work, then you will just have to accept that he is not a lizard to be handeled unless necessary.

Good luck!

2007-09-10 21:28:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Yeah, female lizards are always a little more calmer then males. Because he is new and prolly young he not used to being held. You have to keep holding him and getting him used to you. First hold him in your hands while in the cage then after he gets a little more used to you start taking him out of the cage, a couple of min. a day. After a while he will get used to you holding him. Hold him and stroke him on the head in between the eyes a little. That calms my Beardie down.

2007-09-10 14:44:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

Ask the employee's at the place you bought the Gecko. Chances are he's scared to death of your big hands.

2007-09-10 14:43:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

it has nothing to do with male or female just an easy hand and pations handle him alot and the warmth of your hands will help him relax. you need to stay relaxed they can feel fear and will squirm to help them selfs get away hope this helps you!

2007-09-10 14:43:07 · answer #6 · answered by countrycutie0012 2 · 0 1

no thier isnt im sorry some are just like that sometimes, i have had numorius ones that have all had differant personalitys like that, some calm. some not... ehh just have fun with it

2007-09-10 14:41:39 · answer #7 · answered by AJ 2 · 0 1

Yes, you can try putting some fruits on your hand and then when you hold him he'll eat them and he'll gain some confidence he'll see that you just want to hold him not hurt him, but you have to try this when he's really hungry.

Or put him on your chest, then he'll see that you don't want to hurt him. When you're holding him try to make him feel safe.

2007-09-10 14:44:52 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 3

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