male being vicious

hi all, my new male sonny is being a little sod lately, he's more thn happy to be held and he's really friendly but when i go to slide the glass doors open he strikes at my fingers repeatedly as if its food... is he just thinking its food or is her being territorial or what?

It's strange because now im getting a little nervous to pick him up or put my hand near him in case he thinks my digits are food and chows down!! any way i can get him out of the habit??

Well, it personally doesn't hurt to be bit by a Leo, but it sounds like he is a little cage aggressive. Just consistently handling will eventually wean him off it.

cage aggressive... that's my boy! ok cool, will keep up with the handling and hopefully this will subside. I'm quite glad my girls are overly docile now, can't handle being attacked by 3 geckos, even if it doesnt hurt!
thanks for that.

It could be cage aggressive... he could also just be seeing the reflection of your hand and himself in the glass as you're approaching the doors and it's freaking him out a bit thinking it's another leo or food since it's a blurred reflective image. Like Kodie said tho either way it should be straightened out with consistant handling, and I don't mean the wait till he climbs on you type of handling... just go right in and pick the lil booger up. He'll get the point you're not afraid of his threats and he will succumb to the intrusions as it's not just his home but you're an accepted participant in his home. Also how much are you feeding him now? He could just be ready for the next bump up in food depending on his age/size.

oh he eats like a monster, I've never seen anything like it, he can quite happily consume between 15-20 crickets in each sitting and still have room for his mealies. But I have noticed he is a rather large bodied little fellow, so I might try him with a few more crix tonight and see how he goes (by large bodied I mean his head and structure is massive not fat but BUILT!)

He is maybe 9months to a year I think weighing in at 57g and is around 9-10inches long, with a lovely chunky tail on him, I'll try and get a photo to show the cutie off. So maybe he could do with a few more bugs for dinner.

Yea We're at the stage where I can just grab him, because I know he is used to being handled. His readiness to being handled is the reason I ended up buying him!

At his age he is coming into sexual maturity and getting his big boy pants on... it could just be the hormone surge making him react differently to the reflection he might be seeing in the viv door. I think you're feeding him plenty, I wouldn't increase it honestly esp. if he has a nice fat tail. the next food change should actually be a DECREASE in the amount of bugs or the amount of days you feed him once he passes a year old.

Im fairly certain he's closer to the year mark, anywho he is ok with me being near the viv and looking in but I'm not allowed to touch it - here is the little dude, with his locusts!

He's got that look in his eye like, go on... just try to touch my viv... what a booger

i thought exactly the same thing. He's a nightmare, but I love him all the same. He's had maybe 10 locusts and his standard bowl of mealies. See how he gets on with this.

wow looks just like mine =) but mine is a lil girl =)

Well if you ever want a stud to breed come on over to London

hahaha that would be a real trip for her and i =p

unfortunately, sonny seems to have got worse now, to the point where I went to change his water and he lunged at me hissing, usually he's ok with me handling him but he just seems angry all the time!

Will try again with showing him who's boss but I think I'm just stuck with a grumpy little sod no matter what. shame because he was so friendly in the shop!

How come the crickets have some sort of designs on their body ?

they're locusts

It could be all chalked up to breeding season hon... don't count him in the lil bugger bin just yet. He could phase thru it. Eros got kinda snarky his first breeding season once he had his big boy pants on too, not as bad as your fella but now he's a mellow fellow.

I hope he's a mellow fellow soon! because feeding time is getting scary... well I'll see how he goes. If not, anyone up for a swap for a partially evil sunglow?

He may associate your fingers with food, I have a leo who does that because I use to hand fed her waxworms and everytime my fingers were near the glass she would run up and strike!