Anybody ever had a crestie go aggro?

[olstyn]

Our crested, who is about 4.5 years old, has recently decided that it's happy fun times to bite me. We did move a while ago, but she's had several months now to settle in, so I don't *think* it's stress based on that.

It's really odd - she'll be on my hand, seemingly fine, and then she'll just decide to chew on me. Thankfully, as a crestie, she doesn't have much in the way of teeth or jaw pressure, so she's not able to do any damage. That said, it's very frustrating because in the past, she's been completely peaceful, and now I no longer feel like I could let anyone else handle her. Tonight she bit me probably 5 or 6 times in the span of about a minute.

As far as I know, her environment is all within normal parameters: terrarium's temperature when she just bit me was 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit, she's got plenty of fake plants for cover, and she's in an 18x18x24 exo-terra, so she ought to be just fine. I had just opened up her terrarium to mist her for the night, and after she drank some water off the walls, she decided to hang out in the way of shutting the door. Wanting her to go either in or out, I basically just picked up one foot with a finger and ended up with a whole gecko on my hand, which seemed fine at first. She crawled around for a bit and then started chomping, seemingly at random.

Any ideas as to why or how I can correct this are welcome.

[AkHerps]

If she bites you, hold her for a few minutes afterwards and then put her back, she's showing you that she is not appreciating the handeling.

How often are you handeling her, maybe you will have to lessen it.

What are you feeding?

[olstyn]

I've definitely kept her out for a while post biting in order to try to send the message that biting doesn't get her anywhere, but that doesn't seem to be getting it done.

She gets handled maybe 1-2 times a week for only a few minutes at a time, so it's definitely not excessive handling.

Her diet is mainly crested gecko diet with a couple of crickets every few weeks.

[mlededee]

Are you wearing any new fragrances or using soaps or detergents or anything that like that that possibly smell stronger or different than usual and could be aggravating her? Other than some sort of stress or aggravation I'm not sure why a normally docile crested would randomly bite multiple times.

[olstyn]

I don't wear any fragrances, and using different soaps hasn't seemed to bother her in the past, but perhaps we've just managed to hit one that makes her angry. The funny thing about tonight with regard to that was that I hadn't washed my hands for a few hours prior to handling her, so realistically, I shouldn't have smelled like much of anything other than myself, and she's been smelling me since she was a juvenile. I guess I don't know how long the smell of a soap can linger on your hands, though...

[mlededee]

Well the soap thing is just a guess--maybe try switching to something else or something you used to use and see if it makes a difference?

[olstyn]

Yeah, I'll try to use some different soap and see if that helps. Certainly can't make things any worse, anyway. Worst case, she's always had a forever home with us anyway, and even if she has decided she doesn't like me anymore, I'll still take care of her just the same - I just might occasionally have to "persuade" her to let go of my knuckles. At least it's not like I've got a 15-foot burmese python that's suddenly decided to hate me.

[mlededee]

Haha, yeah crested bites luckily aren't too fierce.

[mainbutter]

I've never had a crestie go aggro on me but I've seen youtube vids of crestie bites.. they almost look kind of funny.

My personal guess? Your crestie wants to breed.

[olstyn]

The breeding theory is somewhat interesting, given how the bites went. Once she started biting, I had a very hard time getting her to get off of my hand in general. If she was scared/feeling threatened/etc, I'd expect her to want to run back into her leaves, but presented with that opportunity, she just kept on hanging on to my hand with all 4 feet and biting. In fact, I eventually had to kind of herd her off of my hand, and she wouldn't quit attempting to bite until contact was completely broken. It was a very strange experience.

My understanding was always that it was the males that did the biting in crested gecko mating, though, and she is most definitely female, having laid quite a lot of unfertilized eggs over the last several years. If it is that she wants to mate, I don't really have the option of letting her, as I have neither a male nor space for a bunch of hatchlings.

Regardless, I remain confused by it. I guess I'll report back after I buy and use some alternate soap. Here's hoping that calms her down.