Am I too cautious?

[Tigergenesis]

When I handle my crested he'll stay still for a bit and then start climbing and jumping, etc. I'm soooo scared that he'll fall and hurt himself or get away from me and I'll lose him that as soon as he starts moving I tend to put him back in his cage. I've seen many people post pics of their cresteds sitting on their desk, in a plant outside the cage, or crawling around the outside of the cage, etc - obviously w/o worrying like I do. So I'm wondering if I'm overreacting and should let him 'explore' a bit more.

On a great note - my new little guy is eating well. He loves his baby food and his crickets. Ac ouple of nights ago I took some fresh watermelon and strawberries, diced them up real small and mashed them. Instead of feeding him from my finger I just sat it in his dish (I usually feed the baby food from my finger). He found it and gobbled it up - I think he liked it better than the babyfood! To make it easier for him to hunt (and to reduce the risk of him injesting the substrate) I put him in a Kritter Keeper to eat his crickets. Last night I gave him a couple of tiny waxworms as well (I had a couple left after feeding my skink). Once they started moving around he gobbled them up. Should I limit the number of crickets he gets in a feeding or feed him as many as he will eat?

[Marla]

I think as far as handling goes, that your comfort and his safety are paramount. If you're worried about his escaping or launching himself too far and getting hurt, why not try handling him when you have a friend over? Then you can do what I do with the girls, let him jump from one of you to the other so he gets his exercise and exploration, but you get to feel comfortable with it.

I've always let them have as much as they'll eat of each food I provide. I have yet to see a sloppy fat crestie, so I'm not too worried about it. Watermelon and strawberry does sound like a nice treat. I should try more fruit variety with my guys, I guess.

[mlededee]

i let my guys eat as much as they want. they seem to know when they are full even if they haven't eaten all of the crickets i provide, so i just take out whatever they don't eat once they lose interest. it is definitely easier to handle them with someone else present. eenie is a little calmer and i feel pretty comfortable handling her on my own, but meenie is a little more jumpy and wild, so i have only handled him when my fiance is there. meenie will jump from me to him, dash up around his shoulders, at which point i coax him back onto my hand, and then we do it all over again until he calms down enough to jump onto jeremy and just hang out.

[Tigergenesis]

Thank you for the suggestions - so I assume they pretty much know their own limits and won't try to take a jump they can't make?

[mlededee]

i think they can judge distances pretty well. most of the time you can tell by how they position their bodies that they are about to jump and you can either put your hand in front of them, or if they are going to jump on another person they can step closer if need be. when i have eenie out by myself i will sit on a chair and make kind of a small space for her to be inbetween me and the aquarium. that seems to work really well, rather than just walking out into open space with her where she could jump out into nothing if she got startled. this way she can either jump on the outside of the aquarium, onto me or stay on the table space inbetween.

[Marla]

Generally, they won't try a jump they can't land, but if you get distracted and move as they're making a jump or if they get startled/panicked, they can make a bigger jump than they really ought to. That's why I think it's best to put up furry critters before handling and to have more than one person around when possible, especially if there's more than one gecko out.

[NomadOfTheHills]

Mine are very good wit jumping, they never miss.