I'm the owner of a 1.1 pair of Roughnecks,and I'm going to have to agree with nat and Kai.Baby Roughnecks are notoriously shy and don't take well to handling.What you are experiencing is very common in Roughnecks.They are all wild caught and most of them do not eat and die with in the first couple months.The other problem is they do not show any signs of stress until it's to late,so you claims of him being active are right on par.



Now I'm going to give you some advice.Your 25 years of experience,throw it out the window(a lot has changed in the last 25 years)You can not put a time frame on how long it take to acclimate them.Some take a few weeks,some a few months,some it takes over a year,and some never do.I don't know what you are keeping him in,but Rudie's do better when they can get above your head,so you will need a tall cage or place it on a tall stand or something.If your keeping him in a fish tank cover the top,Rudie's like it humid and if you have a screen top your letting everything out.Your gong to need a basking site of a least 120 now that is a surface temp and you can only read that with a temp gun.As fare as ambient temp I keep mine around 85,but I prefer to give them the choice of temperatures they want 90-95 on the hot side 75 on the cool side.You will also need a deep borrowable substrate,they do like to dig.



When setting up his cage set it up so you cant see him,as I stated they can be very shy so give him lots of places to hide.Try to give him hiding spots on the hot,warm,and cool side like I said the settle down better when they cant be seen,which being us back to you problem.If you are standing there when you put the food in he might not eat because he feels to exposed.Then because hes not eating you force feed him,which causes more stress,which mean hes not going to eat which means you going to force feed again.See the cycle here.My advice to you is to make sure you have him set up properly leave him alone and let him settle in to his new home,leave the food in the cage and hopefully he will take it.





Greg
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1.1 Varanus Rudicollis(Black roughneck monitor)

1.2 Tokay gecko

0.0.1 Ornate box turtle

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