u/zephyrtron

The guy has no chill

Yay! Courtney is 3, but when I adopted her she had spent almost her whole life in her humid hide and had never been handled.

For the last few weeks I’ve been talking to her, hanging out in the same room, feeding her using tongs and just once recently by hand, and putting my hand in for 5-10mins as often as I can remember.

She’s investigated and tasted my hand before but today was the first time she was brave enough to climb on up 😊

Of course then I breathed and she leapt off and zipped back into her favourite log passageway 😅 But it’s so good to feel like we’re becoming friendlier all the time.

If your gek is shy or hides away, don’t lose hope. Patience patience patience. They just need to know we can be trusted!

Bought my son a bonsai for his birthday 3 years ago, he got bored, the tree died but I got obsessed 😅

I dug out most of these from verges (seems to create the best angle of trunk) and have been experimenting with them to practice finding a shape, doing basic wiring, etc.

The one garden centre shrub (pic 1) is my favourite at the moment, I love how the lower branches are growing in orbit around the trunk and I’ve clipped back to that shape. The colour too is great and I think I might pot this one up next year, maybe a circular pot would work?

Last pic is just a treat from my visit to Greenwood last year 🥰

Am moving house this summer so next year have the chance to plant these in the ground rather than be restricted to pots. Realise they’re not the most exciting or strictly proper specimens but enjoy sharing my newish obsession 😊

I’ve inherited a real beaut (Courtney) and set her up last weekend, may have gone a bit overboard buying her more clutter after reading here and knowing her last setup was quite sparse.

After stalking the viv on her arrival she’s been camped out in the humid hide with barely a peep. Her previous owners said they hadn’t seen her in over 6 months.

So it’s lovely to have walked in after my lunch to find her basking up in the corner and apparently looking well. I’ve been trying to talk to her regularly and in a week or so I’ll try introducing my hand, hand feeding and using a clicker.

Now if she’d just eat that cricket that’s been jumping around for days… 😅

Edit: Reader, she did eat that cricket!