Well the first thing I'd like to say is how incredibly impressed I am at your facing this fear head on like this and also in your drive to know everything you can about this species before you took on this female lizard. That's very good to see and you've already gone far beyond what most people would ever do to learn how to be a great keeper for this species. Good for you!Originally Posted by Mindibun
If anybody has words of encouragement, they'd be greatly appreciated at this point.
A large part of most fears is the unknown, the unfamilar, the uncertainty of it all and the feeling of loss of control or lack of knowledge of a situation. You're addressing the knowledge issues beautifully! The more you know, the more confident you will naturally be. Information helps calm a lot of our fears.
You've placed her in a spot where you normally relax. This will help you equate her with good things, calm things. This will help the lizard become used to your comings and goings in a fairly quiet part of your home. That's good for both of you.
Remember there's no set timeline here. There's no "you must handle this lizard by such and such date". There's no time you must handle her for. Go with your instincts, push yourself a bit but not more than you can handle. Better you have her in your hand for 2 good, calm seconds than 10 minutes of you shaking in fear is my thought on that. The next time it might be 10 calm seconds and then next time 2 minutes. Any handling where you and the animal in question are not overly stressed is good handling time I figure.
I think you're off to a very fine start and I'm looking forward to watching you develop as a keeper of this species.
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