...one of the few downsides to living on the other side of the world is that these threads are finished by the time I read them and someone else has said most of what I wanted to say (thanks, Frank).



Like Frank, I don't believe croc monitors are man-eating monsters. In fact, I wasn't talking about biting out of malice, I was talking about feeding accidents. You could tell me that croc monitors hang around villages in New Guinea and feed on handouts from the locals, it wouldn't make a difference to what I am saying. You see, that's what lace monitors do here where I live and I take the same stance about hand feeding them. Even the wild ones will calmly walk around people's sandal clad feet looking for food without ever thinking about trying some of those pink tasty looking things sticking out from the sandals. Some people, apparently (I've heard about this, but haven't seen it myself), let these animals feed from their outstretched hands (it should be said that most non-herping Australians don't know about goanna teeth, they just fear the claws). I've also heard the stories that do reach the news when this all goes horribly wrong and a severe hand injury results. I am sure the animal meant no malice, it just saw food.



You responded pretty much as I had expected, telling me how 'tame' your crocky is. The most severe injury I have ever received from any reptile was from the 'tamest' reptile I have ever owned, a lace monitor just a bit bigger than crocky. He's captive bred. Had him since he was a hatchling, he used to spend hours sleeping on my back as I walked around my home. Everyone here has always said the he is the tamest monitor they have seen. I could poke him on the end of his snout with my finger and he wouldn't dream of biting it. One day, he almost removed my thumb. The details of how it happened aren't important, but I wasn't hand feeding him and he meant no malice. It was going to be a routine spot clean of the enclosure, as I do every morning before I go to work, but that morning I moved my hand a little too quickly while reaching over to pick him up and move him out of the way (otherwise he climbs on me and is quite annoying while I clean). That movement triggered a feeding response. One little tiny mistake on my part, moving my hand a bit faster than I might on any other morning (I was tired, the monitor wasn't), a split second reaction from the monitor and suddenly we are talking ambulance, microsurgery, hospitalisation, intravenous antibiotics, months of physiotherapy, permanent disfigurement and the possibility of never regaining full sensation and/or use of that thumb. Did I mention severed tendons, nerves and arteries and a partially severed joint capsule?



Let me reiterate: Tamest animal you could imagine, little guy like yours and that was WITHOUT me hand feeding him.



Now let's talk about you and your assumptions. You've made a lot of assumptions about us, Max/genuspython, but haven't really stopped to read, learn and think about what it is we are trying to say. Right about now you are going to make all sorts of new assumptions about me. You probably think I have little experience with reptiles, poor handling skills and am in some way nervous about handling them. You have already made the assumption that I must be an 'uneducated pet owner' (I think your exact words were "as you are presumably all PET-OWNERS not scientists" ). Let me tell you a little about myself. As far as I can recall, I don't think I've brought this up in any discussion here on this forum in the almost three years I've been hovering around here (mainly because I think it is irrelevant), but I AM a scientist. I have a PhD in herpetology (so it's Dr Uneducated Pet Owner to you from now on, sunshine ), which I got almost 20 years ago. Woop de do. My PhD wasn't in monitor husbandry, so it really has nothing to do with anything, but what it does say is that I have devoted a good chunk of my life to reptiles and have, let us say, had just a little bit of handling experience with them. My PhD was on estuarine crocodiles, by the way, which CAN be a big maneating reptile (like the croc monitor of myth). As Frank said, pound for pound or kilogram for kilogram, monitors can do a lot more damage. They have razor sharp teeth. They are also faster. I currently work at a public aquarium and I take a lot more chances feeding our big (very untame) estuarine crocodile than I ever would with one of my little, 'tame' lace monitors.



But I don't know why we are talking about crocodiles, or why you were talking about breeding pythons and keeping mastiffs, when the animals we should be talking about are monitors (Frank will chuckle at this statement, as I am famous for bringing other animals into the discussion). Python bites are laughable compared to monitor bites, trust me, and mastiffs are a domestic breed that, like other dogs, can be taught not to bite. I have yet to meet anyone that has actually lost fingers from a python bite (or from a dog bite, for that matter) but I can't say the same about monitor bites.



Speaking of assumptions, it would certainly be easy to make assumptions about you. The fact that you made the following two statements tells me more about you than you'll ever know:



1. "What I posses apart from big balls is ..."

2. "Why is it so difficult to believe, maybe just maybe this species of reptile posses the intelligence to not only recognise their keeper but to respond with a form of affection even physically communicate as say a domestic dog"



Well, I don't expect any of this to sink in, really, and I am not even sure why I am wasting my time typing all of this when you'll be sitting there thinking about how I don't understand how tame crocky is, about how I lack the amazing reptile handling skills you have blah blah blah...



So I'll end with this: I hope you are left handed, as you appear to be using your right hand to feed crocky. I hope nothing ever happens to your fingers, either. Honestly. If I really wished for you to get bitten, I would never have said anything, but just looked at your post and chuckled. It's possible nothing will happen and you'll never get bitten by crocky, but if you are willing to risk your fingers to prove what 'balls' you have, perhaps it's time you looked into why you need to.

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