New To Leo's: How To Handle

I just picked up a sub-adult Male Leo at the Chicgao NARBC Show. I have his environment pretty well situated, but am at a loss when it comes to handling.

I had to remove him from his enclosure due to some furniture moves and to move the temp-probe for his Ranco Temp controller and I'm totally confused on how to handle him.

I know I'm supposed to stay hands-off for a week (and I will if everything goes as planned), but when the time comes should I try to scoop him up under his chin letting his front-legs climb over me?

I'm scared TO DEATH of stressing him and having his Tail-Drop off while I'm trying to touch him.

He seems to make all the meal-worms disappear from his enclosure overnight (for the 2 nights I've had him), and makes trips to his calcium/vitamin dish and water bowl (I can see foot prints), and defecated the first night.

Signed - "How do I Pick Up Something With Legs and Eyelids"

Leo's arent terrible hard to handle, they typicaly wont drop there tail unless they are totaly freaked out and you are holding them by it. I pick mine up in the mid body and they well all but one grab hold of me and climb on.

I use thick rubber gloves...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ge/fingers.jpg
That is NOT happening to me again!!!

LMAO....good one matt :)

Not really bumping my own thread, but the new Leopard Gecko is settling in just fine, and has taken to being handled really well. Just lightly grab the little bugger and put him on my shirt, he pretty much handles himself!

New-Lizzard-Owner Paranoia is turned down at least 1/4th of one notch now.

Pictures can be seen at:

www.payneland.com/pictures/palang

i noticed you said you saw footprints. are you using sand? sand is a big no-no. it can cause impactions in leos, mostly when they lick it when they want calcium. your probably not and it's no big deal i just saw that and wanted to warn you.

Sand isn't really the best substrate for these guys (or for any reptile IMO) as long as it is the fine kinda that isnt real thick and granular; however, in my experience I've found it to just be messy and make the cage look gross. I mean, lets face it, i'm sure they would come across loose sediment in the wild and somehow they didn't eat dirt and the species survived.

One reason why sand is bad is because it pulls any and all moisture out of their skin that is always buried in the sand (their feet) thus making it very hard to shed skin on their toes. This also happens to be one of the most crucial areas for them to shed and I've seen LOTS of leos missing toes due to bad sheds on their feet.

Carpet is very nice, clean-looking, and will help you turn down your lizard paranoia one more notch. Just my .02.....

I still have no idea why they continue to sell analog thermometers and all this crappy sand substrate out there. It should be banned!!

What Ps me even worse is that they sell those stupid sand filtering scoops too. Lets JUST take the poop out and we'll leave the contaminated sand it was setting on in the cage and my animal will be fine (sarcasm). Throw it out and use newspaper :)

Leos are some of the cleanest reptiles you can get if you give them the chance to be. Put them on reptile carpet and put down a small square of paper towel where in the corner they poop in and you will hardly ever have to clean the cage out.

I saw foot prints in his Calcium supplement dish and his his repti-vite supplement dish. I use papertowles as a substrate with removeable layers in his regular poop-corner.

All of my enclosures have digital thermo/hydro indicators(a few analog may be hanging around from 'the early days' but aren't my 'real' indicators).

They all have Ranco temp-controllers with Oregon scientific probes near the substrate for checking on them from across the room.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr~python

i noticed you said you saw footprints. are you using sand? sand is a big no-no. it can cause impactions in leos, mostly when they lick it when they want calcium.

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Even the Calci-Sand is bad? I know sand is frowned upon, but the store owner assured me that this particular type was digestible and will never cause any problems. I haven't acquired my Leo yet (she's a beautiful and HUGE 1 and 1/2 year old), though the owner has kept her in Calci-Sand almost her entire life - should I return this big 25lb. bag and get carpet instead?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IamKaervek

Even the Calci-Sand is bad? I know sand is frowned upon, but the store owner assured me that this particular type was digestible and will never cause any problems. I haven't acquired my Leo yet (she's a beautiful and HUGE 1 and 1/2 year old), though the owner has kept her in Calci-Sand almost her entire life - should I return this big 25lb. bag and get carpet instead?

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yes even calci saind is bad because when the leo's want calcium they'll lick the sand and thats bad because it can cause compaction, it doesnt matter what the sand is made of, it can still cause compaction. so if you have calci-sand i would switch to paper towels.

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Originally Posted by reptile-girl

compaction

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i mean impaction

i know some people use sand with success but i prefer paper towels for babies and juvies and newspaper for adult just to be totally safe and because it works better for my rack system than sand.

Any experience with the greed carpet? The shop keeper told me that she's had problems with her Leos' claws snagging on the carpet, and causing distress in the animal. I already bought some carpet for my 20L tank, but it is about 6" short, so I figured I'd cover that part with paper-towels for the poop area. However, if the Leo is going to have issues with the carpet and her claws, I would rather not us it.

i haven't used it for leos but i did use if for my cresteds for a while and i noticed that they snagged their teeth on it a lot when hunting crickets. they would basically have to tear their teeth out of it, which sometimes looked to be a bit of a struggle. i'm all about newspaper and/or paper towels. no matter how much you might not like the sound of it now, once you try it you will appreciate how fast and easy it makes cleaning and how safe it is for your animal.