Leachie Hide and Seek

[SNDcrestedgeckos]

I have a funny story about my Leachie. While handling him yesterday, he jumped out of my hands and took off running. I never imagined he would be so fast, but he ran sooooo fast, I couldn't even grab him. He ran under the closet door and found a nice place to hide. I tore the closet apart trying to find him, to no avail. Finally after about five hours, I checked again and he hid between two folded shirts.

Lesson learned from this experience: Never handle leachies near places they can run and hide in, and don't underestimate their speed...LOL!!

Just a funny story I thought I'd share...goofy little leachie.

[tennisbunny]

One of my juvis took off too and hid behind the radiator box, which is fixed to the wall! Eventually my son and I worked him out with a long stick. It was hair raising though.

[tulsastorm]

OH NO! quick little guys! glad all was ok though!

[Silly-atus]

Leachies might be big, but they can run fast and hide like the smallest gecko.
A few years ago I had Lady Oscar (R. l. henkeli) out for her weekly hands-on inspection. She normally sits still while I look her over, but for some reason she decided she wanted to explore the room. It took her all of 5 seconds to disappear. She lives in my bedroom, there's not much furniture there but I do have several boxes of 'stuff' under the bed. She jumped to the floor and vanished under the bed - worst place to try and find her of all the places she could have picked in the room. It took me almost an hour to find her. She had somehow managed to get into a cardboard box with some b.a.b.y clothes that I am saving (don't ask me why I'm keeping them, I have no clue). By the time I found her, she'd managed to poop several times, made a real mess of the box contents. Her meal the day before was a pinky, so that deposit on the clothes had an extra touch of 'gross' to it.

If I were you, I'd check the closet to see if your leachie left you a present inside the neatly folded clothing.

[SNDcrestedgeckos]

Silly-atus...he did leave me a "present." but I don't mind too much because he is so little right now (about 4 months) that I would have never found him if I didn't see the little poo trail he left leading to the clothes...eewwww. It was gross, but it helped me to find him..so I forgive the little guy ;3.

It was quite an experience, that's for sure.

[genevieve]

Try getting a chahoua out of a printer...

That is all I have to say on this one .

Genevieve

[cizin]

Originally Posted by genevieve

Try getting a chahoua out of a printer...

That is all I have to say on this one .

Genevieve

Story time!!!!

[Darkice]

A friend of mine is out of town and i have to feed his small collection of adult sumatran water monitors. He has 4 of them. Also has 3 adult Blackthroat monitors. All of his reptiles are mean and bite except his adult male Sumatran.
He loves to be held like a b-a-b-y but is hard to pick up because of his weight and his claws. So i squatted down and lit him climb on my back. Was not thinking clearly i guess. And since my friend was not at home to help me i had to carry this thing around for almost an hour. He would not get off my back at all. If i tried to drop him off on the couch he would dig in his claws like crazy. If i went anywhere near his cage he would freak out. Looks like i was going to be there a while. I hold him all the time but normally Jim will peel him off me and help me get him back in the cage. After an hour or so i had to get him off me. so i layed down on the ground and slowly rolled over on him and he jumped off. That seemed easy enough. Now for the hard part. I had to get him back in the cage. Monitors are in no way stupid. When i tried to pick him up again he was like no friggan way. and he ran from me. So i chased him around to tire him out. he never got tired but i sure was. I finally cornered this little 8 foot long lizard and he let me pick him up. I had to put him in a headlock to get him back in the cage. Never in my life have i seen a water monitor this tame. After i got him in the cage he kept trying to climb back up on me. He seems lonely. I dont think he likes his mate. She will whack anything close to her with her tail. She got me in the forehead once while trying to help clip her claws. They have a small pointed ridge on top of their tail that will split skulls open like a sword.
Moral of the story. Stay home and play computer games. Much safer.

[Terri]

Thanks for sharing your adventure. Even though I probably will never own a monitor myself, it was a lot of fun to learn something about them and vicariously share your experience. I think a lot of times our scaley friends are not as dumb as we think.