"Bored"...?

Nimbus is bored. I've decided that I'm not over-analyzing these simple little creatures, but that he's truly bored. He has woken me up at least 5 times in the last week scratching/chewing (?) at the corner of his door....anyone else have experiences with "bored" leopard geckos? Now I'm worrying that the ones in the racks might secretly be "bored" too, but that I'm just not aware of it....

"Nimmie" is exceptionally curious & gregarious for a Leo. In fact, although he is one of the few I've actually named, Nimbus also actually comes when called with greater reliability than my cat (I'm not kidding...its quite embarrasing...) He is one of 4 special herps in a large custom display case in my bedroom. The others are in the "pet room" in other racks/cages.

Initially, I thought his "habitat" would be too large for him -- its rather huge for 1 leopard gecko on its own and I thought it might stress him out....But the black melamine enclosing it seems to give him a feeling of security and he's been quite content for the last 6 months....until NOW. Nimmie's got a beautifully maintained humid hide, a snazzy rock-cave with dual entrances that he has disappointingly designated as his toilet (at least he's neat, I suppose), a log-hide, and as of yesterday, an ultra-modern climbing structure with a hiding cave, fake-moss, and multiple climbing limbs that was NOT exactly cheap!

The other geckos at the Best Western are content with their simple lives while those at the Ritz Carlton are demanding room-service on the hour, every hour....any ideas what is going on here? The rest of them are simple little things that are quite content with a couple hides and a couple food/water bowls. I think he can perhaps smell one of his girlfriends in the room diagonally below him, but if the geckos in the racks are fine with that kind of proximity, this can't be the only thing provoking him to throw a rock-star tantrum every night....what do you all think?

Room service needs to run from 6AM to Midnight. This ain't no 7-11!!

one of the males I have is a digger every day he has his bin a mess. bored ? maybe or maybe he just likes to dig.

Well, I do have a few "Diggers" but this guy is spending WAY too much quality time hanging out by the door to his enclosure...he does like to "window shop" and just look out at the world but lately he's trying to chew/scratch through the glass & melamine for solid periods of time when his complaints are ignored....I feel like a bad keeper and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard!! But I'm still unsure how to rectify the situation...

I have a male that does that too, but he's in a rack, and digs up the paper towels and tips everything over at the same time. He's moved his hide I don't know how many times. I'm thinking about putting him in my other rack that gets a little more light around the sides. He only does this, on the light side of his tub, so maybe with the rack that gets light from all sides he'll be a little confused and stop making such a mess!

I had a male that did that, and he even had a girl with him! I tried everything, giving him more hides, things to climb on, etc. Then I thought, maybe if I put him in a rack he will calm down, nope, didn't work. I went through this for a long time. I kept feeling bad for him and was holding him a lot. It's been a few years now and he has calmed down a lot now, he still gets bored, but not nearly as bad.

How are the temps in the cage? Could he be over/under heated?

He is probably looking to breed! LOL Some of mine started doing this when the girls were starting to ovulate.

Some of them just like to rearange everything or dig, even when theres not really anything to dig. ALL of the time!

I really think the ones I have that always go under the paper towels, are the funniest. They like their 'security blanket' more than anything. And those ones paper towels ARE their hides. No other hide needed, just for those few of course

hmmmm, rearanging geckos? Maybe they want to get into interior design. Teach them to rearange furniture and take them on letterman!!!! LOL

Originally Posted by USAGECKOS

How are the temps in the cage? Could he be over/under heated?

Nope. Custom melamine display cages, heated w/flexwatt attached to several Helix therms...like little Ritz Carlton suites that are large enough to provide an awesome heat gradient.

Originally Posted by groovygeckos

I really think the ones I have that always go under the paper towels, are the funniest. They like their 'security blanket' more than anything.

LOL...yep, even though I dampen the edges to stick the paper towels to the floor, I've got several towel mongers that like to tunnel under the paper towels....the FUNNIEST thing is that they're not that smart so they follow basic gecko logic that says "If my eyes are hidden and I can't see them, I too must be equally invisible!" ... I don't have the heart to tell them that they've got legs/tails sticking out or that the giant lump in the substrate is a dead give-away. Quite endearing, really

I think he might just be spoiled enough that he realizes he's trained me to fluff over him whenever he demands an audience. *sigh*

Or maybe he's simply trying to tell me that the Feng Shui in his habitat is "off" and its ruining the flow of his 'chi'...

I had 2 males last summer who also spent much of the evenings trying to dig their way out the door of their cage. They were housed more "motel 6" than Best Western or Ritz Carlton. Interestingly,they were the 2 I wasn't breeding last summer. Both of them have been moved into (separate) enclosures that are 12" high instead of 8" high. One has a female with him this year and the other one has gotten kind of fat and lazy. He does enjoy being taken out and will sit on my shoulder for up to an hour and look around. It sounds from your description as if you take him out, but it's never enough for him. Is that right? Another idea, which I think I actually read about on this forum awhile ago is to give them a new environment to explore by letting them "visit" each other's cages (not at the same time if they're both males, and not if you are observing indefinite strict quarantine). The different smells and items could be temporarily intriguing.