>>Actually sand monitors are very easy to train. Your problem is,

>>you already trained them. They know where the food comes from

>>and they are not shy about it.



That's about right. Normally, I get my male sand to chase the mouse all over before letting him snag it (he is chubby, and needs the excercize). He probably thought he had to rip it out of my hands by force.



It also got me thinking about how much of this "biting the wrong thing" is because it is too dim when I feed them. Here in NY, electricity is cheaper at night than in the day (at least in winter). So, I keep the monitor lights on at night, and therefore I feed them at night. I don't think they see as good as we do in the dark. I know several times I've been in front of the cage of one of my big male arguses, and he's just sitting there basking like nothing is happening. Then I flick on the room lights, and all of a sudden he realizes I am there. He'll puff up and hiss. If I walk around his cage with the room lights on, he's all defensive. With the lights off, he is back to normal.



It is also interesting how the arguses react differently to mice than to, say, shrimp. Mice or rats, it is all grab, thrash, shake - ultra violent. A couple times I've had a bunch of freezer burned shrimp that I've given to the arguses (also scallops, chicken, turkey, etc.). The first bite they treat it like a mouse, but soon they realize that they don't need to. It isn't going anywhere. So I feed them a shrimp at a time from the hemostats and they calmly take them, one by one.



Luke

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