Jumping off hand??

[Colleen]

I was holding our new guy to move him to his new box, he was calm and slowly moving around my hand and then up my arm a bit. All of a sudden he WHIPPED himself right off of my hand!! Thank goodness that my son was standing there and he fell right into his hand. It was like he JUMPED. Is this normal behavoir? He fell about a foot to my sons' hand. Do you think he could have hurt himself?
A note- I did remember that I had spilled some steak sause on my shirt earlier and had wiped it off. Do you think he was reacting to the smell?

:confused: Thanks for any explaination,
Colleen

[Simon]

Don't worry at all....it's totally a normal reaction. Since you said that you's was a new guy....it's very stress at the time when you were holding it. It might seem very calm but then it is still in a lot of stress since it is not used to handling. Once it gets used to handling it wouldn't do that anymore.

The new guys that I got are not just jumpy.....they twiche and trys to get out of my hand. Twiching, biting, pooping, rattling, and sudden movements are very normal to new guys/gals. My new ones has done all of those things to me.

About the fall....I would say that it's going to be alright. Since in the wild they like climbing trees and they often fall from it too. They hit the hard ground and still no problem (But obviously not too big of a fall....) A feet or two and falling into your sons hand isn't going to hurt it. If you are really worried about it, just keep a close eye on it and see if it has any abnormal movements.

Good Luck and Happy Herping!