Blazing Blizzard with a serious attitude.
I recently got my hands on an adult male blazing blizzard. When I first held him he was nice and calm. When I got him home I was picking him up to put him on the scale and he bit me. weighed in at 71 grams. Get him out of the weighing tub and he bites again. I get his tank setup and do a final temp check, go to pop him in, and he bites yet again. I let him be for a few days, and started offering him some supers, he takes 2. I go to pull his moist hide out, and as I approach the tank i see his tail begin to wiggle wildly. I slow down, and very slowly reach for the moist hide, he lunges out of his hide and takes another bite, and in the process almost regurgitates his supers. Easy to see that he's stressed out, so in an effort to minimize the stress on him I covered all 4 sides of his tank with black static vinyl. 4 days after this I notice some shed skin scattered around the tank. I place my hand and he comes out fast. Doesn't bite, but doesn't get on, so i try to "lead" him into my palm by very lightly petting his back. He freaks out and jumps to the other end of the tank, with his tail wiggling wildly once again.
Is this sort of behavior normal for adults during the acclimation period? I figured he would have calmed down at least a little by now, the other 3 were not like this when they were getting settled in.
Re: Blazing Blizzard with a serious attitude.
Maybe he was never handled where he came from. I have found that Leos first get used to you reaching in their cage to feed them and after a couple of weeks start to associate you with " Here comes da food!" When they get to the point that they come out to look at you in anticipation when you bring them food after dusk then they trust you enough to place your upturned palm under their noses and will usually hop on. But you cant push things.