I have a pair of niles. I used to believe that with regular handling they would eventually become tame. When they were babies the male was very bitey and defensive, much moreso than the female, so I handled the female often and rarely handled the male. Funny thing was, that the more I handled the little bugger, the more shy and skittish she became. The cages were in my living room. There are kids dogs cats and the rest of the neighborhood running about the house most of the day. Once they settled in, neither of the monitors paid much attention to the noise and activity and mostly went about their happy monitor way. Anyone including my pitt-bull and my german shepard could go right up to the cage and the female would not even flinch. She would even come over to see my little pitt-bull since the dog would sit right at the cage and stare for hours. My four year old boy (very noisy) would run up to the cage and the monitor would simply look and then go back to whatever it was doing. Anyone could approach the cage except for me that is. As soon as I entered the room, that female nile would bolt and hide. I was the offender and she could easily distinguish me from the non offenders.

Now that I do not force myself upon her, she eagerly approaches me since now she knows me as the food bringer. She does not do this to anyone else when they enter the room, only me. It took the better part of a year of NEVER handling her to get to the point where she did not fear for her life when I came around. I think it's safe to say that she can distinguish me from other humans.

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