You don’t know what I am thinking or you wouldn’t be doing that!

Did you read the post below about handling? That stress call kill a monitor, and a small one even more quickly? That monitors are born with everything they need to survive WITHOUT any help? That they HATE HATE HATE to be restrained? Sounds like it won’t be too long before you are bitten! Did you know that a monitor can crush its prey’s skull with its jaw pressure? What do you think that will do to you tender flesh? A knuckle is about the size of a mouse head, do you think he could pop it? I know you don’t believe this, but your monitor hates you more every time you do something like that, or for that matter, every time you touch it. If you have proper temperatures, proper hides, and give him privacy, he will eat all on his own.

If he is starving to death his tail will look sunken in, especially at the top. Babies grow skinny and long, most of the monitors you see in captivity are too fat from lack of good exercise. I once fostered a mangrove that was found in our local convention center. It was the dead of winter when it came stumbling out and someone saw it, cold and very very skinny. It had been over 3 months since the last the last reptile expo, so this 2 ½ foot bag of bones couldn’t have found much to survive on. What a will to survive he had! He came back from the brink really fast, I didn’t think he would make it at all. 2 months later he had a new home, and you never would have guessed the shape he had been in so recently.
Without seeing your monitors home or knowing its conditions, the only thing I can tell you are doing wrong is ** REALLY stressing him out! ** If you think he is actually sick, take him to the vet. He might need medicine.
Good luck! –H-

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