Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone. Today i got my baby timor monitor from lllreptile, and it is beautiful. It is also very skittih. I tried to pick him up, but ended up just stressing him out. Does anyone know how I can handle him without hurting him. To be honest I am also a little nervous about being bitten by him although i shouldnt be lol. Any tips on caring for this little guy would be a huge help.

I am no expert but I would imagine the first step would be to let him adjust to his new surroundings for a few days before trying to handle him unless absolutely necessary. I know its tempting but after the stress he's been through with the move he needs a chance to chill out. After that I would say work at it slowly and gently. I knwo the fear of being bit, our four foot BT scared the willies out of me the first six months, he hated people and would hiss and whip his tail and slam it at the cage when I would try to go to bed(his cage had to be on MY side of the room) so that we ended up having to put a blanket over the cage at night to get him to settle down. After 6 months he started to settle down and I became less fearful. I was never bit but took the chance every time I held him. After a while you start to trust them sometimes more than you should..lol. Best of luck!

Im sure being bit by a 4 foot bt would be quite painful...thank you for the tips.

Some things I used to attempt to tame down my young water monitor. I put a shirt I had worn into the cage so he could start to get used to my scent. Then I would open the cage every now and then and talk to him and hold my hand out for him to smell if he was roaming around. If he is hiding, then let him hide, because if you reach in and snatch him away from his "safe" spots it will probably stress him out more. Just give him time to adjust and slowly introduce yourself to him using as little force as possible. Its been a couple months and my little guy will walk right on onto my hand when I open the cage and put my hand out. Hope this helps, Good luck.

The Timor species is not a monitor that likes to be handled they are very skitish and rarely get to the point of settling down. They are mainly just viewed from outside the cage. The Timor was my first choice of monitor because of their small size. I wanted a monitor that I could hold in my hands but after a month of trying and some late research I discovered that I had the wrong kind of monitor to handle. I did see a very tame timor "once" at a reptile show and asked how they did it. The woman said she held it non stop from the moment it came out of the egg. I am now the owner of a 2 year old Blackthroat monitor. He is 5 ft long and weighs about 25 lbs. He was 12 inches long when I got him and now he is a big puppy, lays with me and the cat sometimes. Great pet.