Taming your crested gecko is a way of bonding with it and making it feel comfortable enough to be handled by you.
If you have been reading up about crested geckos, or if you are an experienced crested gecko enthusiast, you will know that crested geckos are known to be very solitary animals.
They do not prefer a lot of socializing, interactions, or handling – be it with their human pet owners or other crested gecko counterparts.
The only time a crested gecko will interact with another is during the mating season – that too for the brief period of mating.
Keeping this solitary nature of crested geckos in mind, it is important to understand that a pet crested gecko will not necessarily develop a very strong bond with its pet owner like a cat or a dog would.
However, it is still possible to tame your crested gecko just enough for it to not be threatened by you.
You will need to help your pet get accustomed to your presence and feel comfortable being held by you – and that is where knowing how to tame your crested gecko will come in handy.
What You Need To Know About Taming Crested Geckos
There are a few things that you can undertake to fasten the process of taming your pet crested gecko:
Leave it alone for the first few days.
Sounds counterintuitive and ironic – but, when you get a new crested gecko home, you need to leave it alone so that it can explore its new surroundings and get comfortable in the enclosure.
Once your crested gecko gets comfortable in the enclosure, then you need to allow it to get used to your presence.
Only when your pet crested gecko has acclimatized to its surroundings in the enclosure and gotten used to your presence, then you can start attempting to tame your crested gecko and form a bond with it.
How to tame your crested gecko
Feed your crested gecko with your hand.
One of the easiest ways to develop a bond with any animal is to feed it with your hands. The same goes with crested geckos too.
When you feed your pet crested gecko with your hand, it will start associating your presence and smell with food.
This will help your pet crested gecko let go of its fear of you and develop a positive notion of you instead.
Start by handling your crested gecko for a few minutes at a time.
Do not overhandle your crested gecko in the first go. Instead, develop a habit of handling your crested gecko every other day for just a couple of minutes.
As your pet seems to get more and more comfortable with being handled, start increasing the duration of handling.
How Easy Is It To Tame Crested Geckos?
Taming a crested gecko is as easy as you are patient. Patience is key when developing a bond with a crested gecko, or any reptile for that matter. Crested geckos are not just solitary but also skittish and easily startled.
This quick startling is a life savior for crested geckos in the wild, as they always have to be on alert in case a predator tries to ambush them.
Unfortunately, this behavior of crested geckos stays even in captivity. So, the skittish behavior of your pet crested gecko is also because of the survival instinct it has borrowed from its wild counterparts.
This makes it important for a crested gecko pet owner to have patience and not force a bond with its pet crested gecko, or else, out of skittishness, the crested gecko may jump off the hands of the owner and in the process, potentially injure itself.
That’s why, if you are patient and you let your pet crested gecko take its time to develop a positive notion of you, you may end up bonding with your pet faster. A little patience will go a long way when bonding with your pet crested gecko.
The First Time You Handle A Crested Gecko, What Should You Do?
There are a few do’s and don’ts that you need to keep in mind, especially if you are handling a crested gecko for the first time.
Take care of the duration of handling.
The first time you handle a crested gecko, do not keep it on your person for more than a minute or two.
Crested geckos are very skittish, and even though at the moment they may not express any discomfort, being handled for the first time means they can suddenly leap off your hand and accidentally injure themselves by landing on a hard surface.
It is always better and safer to hold them for a short duration and gradually increase the duration of handling. Even then, never handle a crested gecko for more than 15 minutes at a stretch.
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Be a keen observer.
Constantly observe the body language of your crested gecko when you handle it for the first time. Do not continue handling your crested gecko if it starts to show signs of discomfort.
An uncomfortable body language can be detected from behaviors such as suddenly starting to squeak or bark, moving skittishly, or suddenly becoming too inactive or too aggressive.
At the first signs of discomfort in your crested gecko, keep it back in its enclosure. This will prevent any of those sudden jumps that could injure your crested gecko gravely.
Take care of personal hygiene before and after handling.
Remember to have clean hands before you pick your crested gecko up. This way, even if your pet may have developed small scratches here and there due to playing in the foliage, it won’t be at risk of getting infected.
Moreover, after you keep your pet back in its enclosure, wash your hands thoroughly. Crested geckos live and move around in a humid enclosure with warm temperatures.
These conditions are ambient for bacterial growth. While your pet may have inherited the tolerance to a certain threshold of bacteria, you, sadly, do not have that capacity.
So, it is better to be cautious and wash your hands with an antibacterial soap. This will ensure that you do not fall sick due to any infections.
Do Crested Geckos Like To Be Held?
Crested geckos are not like traditional pets such as cats and dogs. They will not necessarily enjoy cuddling up with their pet owners as cats and dogs do.
So, it is hard to say if any crested gecko would genuinely like to be held – but the good news is that your pet crested gecko can surely get used to being held. That means, your crested gecko can get used to being held.
However, every crested gecko has its personality. So, if you are one of those lucky chosen ones, then your pet may start liking being held by you. Some signs that your crested gecko is liking being held by you are:
It comes on your hand of its own accord.
It stays on your palm for a long period, willingly.
It runs up and down from your palm to your shoulders – it is playful. Playfulness only comes when your crested gecko gets so comfortable that it likes being in those surroundings.
How Long Should You Hold It For?
Never hold a crested gecko for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a stretch. And even so, you should gradually increase the duration of handling.
Do not directly hold your crested gecko for 15 long minutes the very first time you handle it.
When you first hold your crested gecko, make sure to keep it back in the enclosure after one odd minute. Gradually, as your pet starts getting used to being held, you can start increasing the duration.
Things To Avoid While Taming A Crested Gecko
Before you start your attempts at taming your crested gecko, you should know a few important things about the nature of crested geckos:
1 – Do not start taming or handling a very young crested gecko.
Moreover, it will also be a lot weaker than an adult crested gecko. So, chances are that out of the skittish behavior, your baby crested gecko jumps off your hand and falls onto a hard surface – and owing to its physical weakness at that age, it may seriously injure itself.
That’s why, baby crested geckos, especially those below the age of 6 months, are best left alone.
Do not rush or force the process of bonding.
Getting ample personal space is not just a want but a need for crested geckos. So, if you force your pet crested gecko to bond with you even when it is clearly demanding to be left alone.
Your pet will get stressed out and start having physical and behavioral symptoms such as loss of appetite, weakness, and aggressive behavior.
Sometimes, an aggravation of these symptoms can lead to your crested gecko falling sick and requiring medical attention. That is why you need to respect the personal space of your crested gecko to ensure its good health.
Conclusion
Crested geckos are jumpy, skittish, and naturally solitary. But that should not discourage you from making a bond with your pet crested gecko.
With the right strategy, lots of patience, and a little food, you can make a good enough bond with your crested gecko. The taming may take time, but eventually, your pet crested gecko will get used to being handled by you.
Kaajal Kataria
I am a passionate pet lover and writer, dedicated to sharing tips, tricks, and stories that help pet owners provide the best possible care for their furry (or feathery or scaly) friends. Whether you're looking for advice on training, and nutrition, or simply want to read heartwarming tales of pets who've touched people's lives, this blog is the perfect place to start. When not writing, I can be found hiking, exploring new pet-friendly destinations, or cuddling up with my own beloved pets.
