It's well known that male leopard geckos will fight until death. That's why even people cohabitating leopard geckos together will never suggest to have two males on the same tank.
Now, something not many people know, it's that even handling one male leopard gecko from a separate enclosure, and then picking up a second male leopard gecko, might cause the second one to bite you.
Leopard geckos overall understand what gender is the gecko in front of them by the sense of smell, so you might be smelling like the last gecko you touch, if it's a juvenile or a female, at best it'll do a 'vibrating tail" display, but!, if you smell like another adult male, you get the chance of getting bitten. This is a rare possibility, but it's a thing.
Now, I want to clarify that the leopard gecko that bite me it's EXTREMELY docile, and leopard geckos ARE extremely docile creatures. So if you house them as a pet, it's almost impossible to get bitten as seriously as I was.
So, my story is that my mom insisted (by the 900000.th time) to "help me clean my vivariums", and I don't know how, put two males together, and in less than 6 seconds, the biggest younger one, was locked on the other gecko side, bitting extremely hard.
As my mom screamed in confusion (she doesn't know anything about reptiles except for what I tell her to do, and I was a couple feet away from her, but facing the other direction), I jumped to the rescue and put my finger on the attacker mouth to release the poor old one.
As a result, I got these:
(sensitive images ahead)
![Image]()
![Image]()
Finally using a pen for it to bite because now wasn't letting go of my fingers:
![Image]()
Now, I'll be honest, it's a male "giant" type tremper albino, so it's mouth is bigger than regular size leopard geckos, still, its mouth was full of blood, and at the light of bleeding, I presume it was my blood and not his. Although I'll keep an eye on the attacker, I'm fairly more worried about the one who got attacked.
![Image]()
It took a big chunk of this guy back skin. I know the bandages will make him uncomfortable for the night, and I'll remove it tomorrow. I used some "iodine + povidone" (basic stuff) to keep it disinfected for the night.
It's a fairly health animal, and I got full trust it'll leave a scar on his back skin, but ultimately will be fine. If he isn't, I'll take him to the vet.
*(Regarding my own scars and wounds, meh, I'm though, it'll heal as many other before)
BUT, I did wanted to share my expirience since many people over the years have asked me if a leopard gecko bites, how it's the damage, and in what situations will bite. And the list it's simple. This is as bad as a leopard gecko bite on a human you'll see. Heals up in a couple days (I'll post pictures of my fingers in a couple days to show you).
It's not like a, let's say, a tegu biting (that might happen awfully more often and a lot more severe).
You might see a lot of blood, but it's just because some parts of the fingers tend to bleed a lot more than they should, overall the wounds are superficial, and didn't do more than a bit of harm to the skin (just like the wounds of a cat that scratch you).
And! It's just SO unbelievably RARE to get bitten by a leopard gecko that I had to document it! That's how rare it is!
So, I love my animals, and my primary concern is their health, but even if this only happens once in a million times it's good for you guys to see it, because you never know when that time will be (if it ever happens, it might never happen to you, in fact, that's the norm).
If it happens, try to focus the bite of the gecko towards your hand (if you're like me and don't mind to get bitten), or something small like a pen; so it releases the other poor gecko. The one attacking will be exalted, so put it back in to his enclosure, but be careful for additional bites (since at that moment he might not take lightly that you're handling it). The one who suffered the attack will be docile and scared at first, and later on agitated even on its own enclosure. Evaluate how extensive it's wounds are, if it's a bite mark, or even a little skin tearing, chances are they'll heal on its own on a sterile environment (like a tupperware or a clean viv) in a few days...if the skin doesn't stick back, it'll fall off. If it's causing troubles like infections, it's mostly because you need to cut the dead skin off. It'll leave a scar, but the animal should be fine.
If it's a wound that has penetrated the muscle, try to press something to the wound to stop the bleeding and take it as fas as you can to a specialized vet that works in exotics.
That's all I can say for now, I'll keep you posted.
Now, something not many people know, it's that even handling one male leopard gecko from a separate enclosure, and then picking up a second male leopard gecko, might cause the second one to bite you.
Leopard geckos overall understand what gender is the gecko in front of them by the sense of smell, so you might be smelling like the last gecko you touch, if it's a juvenile or a female, at best it'll do a 'vibrating tail" display, but!, if you smell like another adult male, you get the chance of getting bitten. This is a rare possibility, but it's a thing.
Now, I want to clarify that the leopard gecko that bite me it's EXTREMELY docile, and leopard geckos ARE extremely docile creatures. So if you house them as a pet, it's almost impossible to get bitten as seriously as I was.
So, my story is that my mom insisted (by the 900000.th time) to "help me clean my vivariums", and I don't know how, put two males together, and in less than 6 seconds, the biggest younger one, was locked on the other gecko side, bitting extremely hard.
As my mom screamed in confusion (she doesn't know anything about reptiles except for what I tell her to do, and I was a couple feet away from her, but facing the other direction), I jumped to the rescue and put my finger on the attacker mouth to release the poor old one.
As a result, I got these:
(sensitive images ahead)
Finally using a pen for it to bite because now wasn't letting go of my fingers:
Now, I'll be honest, it's a male "giant" type tremper albino, so it's mouth is bigger than regular size leopard geckos, still, its mouth was full of blood, and at the light of bleeding, I presume it was my blood and not his. Although I'll keep an eye on the attacker, I'm fairly more worried about the one who got attacked.
It took a big chunk of this guy back skin. I know the bandages will make him uncomfortable for the night, and I'll remove it tomorrow. I used some "iodine + povidone" (basic stuff) to keep it disinfected for the night.
It's a fairly health animal, and I got full trust it'll leave a scar on his back skin, but ultimately will be fine. If he isn't, I'll take him to the vet.
*(Regarding my own scars and wounds, meh, I'm though, it'll heal as many other before)
BUT, I did wanted to share my expirience since many people over the years have asked me if a leopard gecko bites, how it's the damage, and in what situations will bite. And the list it's simple. This is as bad as a leopard gecko bite on a human you'll see. Heals up in a couple days (I'll post pictures of my fingers in a couple days to show you).
It's not like a, let's say, a tegu biting (that might happen awfully more often and a lot more severe).
You might see a lot of blood, but it's just because some parts of the fingers tend to bleed a lot more than they should, overall the wounds are superficial, and didn't do more than a bit of harm to the skin (just like the wounds of a cat that scratch you).
And! It's just SO unbelievably RARE to get bitten by a leopard gecko that I had to document it! That's how rare it is!
So, I love my animals, and my primary concern is their health, but even if this only happens once in a million times it's good for you guys to see it, because you never know when that time will be (if it ever happens, it might never happen to you, in fact, that's the norm).
If it happens, try to focus the bite of the gecko towards your hand (if you're like me and don't mind to get bitten), or something small like a pen; so it releases the other poor gecko. The one attacking will be exalted, so put it back in to his enclosure, but be careful for additional bites (since at that moment he might not take lightly that you're handling it). The one who suffered the attack will be docile and scared at first, and later on agitated even on its own enclosure. Evaluate how extensive it's wounds are, if it's a bite mark, or even a little skin tearing, chances are they'll heal on its own on a sterile environment (like a tupperware or a clean viv) in a few days...if the skin doesn't stick back, it'll fall off. If it's causing troubles like infections, it's mostly because you need to cut the dead skin off. It'll leave a scar, but the animal should be fine.
If it's a wound that has penetrated the muscle, try to press something to the wound to stop the bleeding and take it as fas as you can to a specialized vet that works in exotics.
That's all I can say for now, I'll keep you posted.
