Hi again every one,
Just thought I'd let you know how I'm planning to tame Frank, my Egyptian uro. So far I've done what malve85 said (thanks again for the advice malve) and I've put two more hide spots in, making a total of three, he makes most use out of the hide at the cool end of the viv, so it's good he's taking advantage of it and I'm sure he'll feel more secure now. I also placed a towel over the front of the viv, that has been on since last Sunday and I've taken it off today as I think it would be best for the next week if he can see me so that he gets used to the fact that I'm there and what I look like and so on, during this time I'll still not be touching him or getting him out. I'm also going to put an old t-shirt I've been wearing for a couple of days in his viv some time today, I've rippedd it in half so that he can't climb inside it and get tangled up. That should help him get used to my scent over the next week so that when he starts coming out it shouldn't take him as long to get used to me (hopefully any way). The week after that I'm planning on putting some boards up so he can't get where I don't want him to go, this will be in front of his viv so that I can just open the door and let him out, I will be sat there and he will be able to climb on me, I'm not planning on touching him much if at all during this period, all I want to do is hand feed him something he likes, that way I'm hoping it will do a few things, number one he will simply like coming to see me because he gets food from me, and also he seems to be a bit jumpy when someones hand goes near him, so hopefully my hand going towards him with food will reinforce that my hand going towards him is not a bad thing. I'm hoping that just doing that may help his behaviour in more ways than one, perhaps simply getting used to me will stop him from whipping his tail in his viv so much. The next step after that will be the same as before letting him out and so on but I will also begin stroking his back to get him used to being touched more, one of the main problems he seems to have is having his tail touched, so that is last on my list of things I want to try to correct. I have been doing some research and found a site on taming reptiles, I think it was called reptile ranger.com, any way it said on there if they have a problem with their feet being touch of something then touch that area briefly and then give them a treat, and keep doing this and as he get more and more used to it do it for longer until it's second nature to him and he doesn't even think about it any more. I'm planning on using a paint brush for that as a whip form his tail even at the size he is now (aprox 16”) needs to be avoided, I'll gently brush it over his tail and then give him a treat and keep working on that.

I think that is pretty much it, so what do you all think about that? does it sound like a good plan? would you do anything different or add anything to this regime?, also what would be good to use as a teat for hand feeding? Something large enough to hand feed but also something that uro's love to eat?. I'll list his behaviour problems below so you can see more clearly what I have to achieve and then you can advice me better on each problem.

1. He whips his tail when you put your hand in his viv to put food in etc even if you don't go near him, he only seems to do it once but I'm only in there briefly so he might do it more if I was in there for longer.
2. He also whips his tail the first time you touch him when he comes out of the viv and then seems to calm down, I know this from the first and only time I got him out the day after bringing him home.

So really putting it like that It doesn't seem as bad, mainly a tail whipping problem really, I'm told he has never tried to bite his previous owners and that he never hissed at them (although he did his at me in his viv the day after bringing him home) I just hope he will respond and gradually improve and that he doesn't get worse. Any way sorry for such a long post, just wanted to run my plan by you all to see what you think, any insight and advice to the behaviour I've described would be much appreciated, ie is it a big problem and really difficult to correct or is it not as bad as I'm thinking.

Thanks for reading
Martin

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