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Biting leopard gecko?
In late July, I got a young leopard gecko from LLLReptiles at the San Jose convention. She----I'm just guessing at the sex----has been an absolute darling. I tong trained her with mealworms and she completely associates tongs with food now. From what I can tell, she's five months old. She usually gets around 8-12 crickets every other day, plus mealworms daily. She gets her crickets in a separate feeding bin because I don't want crickets nibbling on her in her main cage. She was sold to me as an albino, but I'm fairly certain she's a bell.
Her main cage is a 20L. Her high temps are 88-91 F and her cool side are room temp, usually around 75 F. She has plenty of hides, including a moist one that she completely ignores. I keep her on paper towels. For dusting, I switch between calcium + D3 and a multivitamin. She poops daily and they've all been healthy.
Like I said, she's been an absolute dream. Not the cuddliest of geckos, but I've been working with her steadily to get her hand tame, including the tong feeding. She's gotten much better, as she no longer runs away from me. Lately, I started putting mealworms on my hands to encourage her to walk into them, but I think it's backfired on me. Since I started doing that, she nips at my fingers. She has bitten me a few times now. But, at the same time, she's very interested in me and will follow me around if I walk by her cage. Even when I look over at her cage, she comes out of her hide to see if there's any food.
Her bites are not painful. Sometimes when she bites, she presents a defensive posture with her tail up in the air. When she does this, I back off and don't attempt to handle her again. Sometimes, it's just a matter of food confusion.
Am I doing the right thing? Should I just be persistent? Is she just entering some sort of leopard gecko puberty? Should I stop handfeeding her?
This is my first reptile, if that's not obvious.
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