Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our Black Throat Monitor, Godzilla has become quite affectionate toward me and Chuck (my fiance), after 3 mths of earning his trust. He is relatively young, between 8 and 10 mths old. I had set up his tub in our room and was letting his soak while I cleaned out his enclosure, the look of pure extacy on his face when he sinks into the warm water is so cute! I guess he was tired of soaking and came over and laid down on my feet (I was standing at his enclosure), and then all of the sudden I feel a little tickle at my ankle. I look down and he is softly kissing (nibbling) at my foot. It was in no way aggressive or a bite, the best way I can discribe it is little love pecks. I mentioned this to Chuck and he said he was doing it to him just the other day. Has anybody else seen this behavior before?? Or do we just have a very loving lizard???

i remember FR saying one time he had built up a trust with a monitor (dont know which species, i think it was an ackie) too where it would climb up his shoulder and sit there while he took care of the other monitors. he said when he put his hand infront of the monitor, blocking its path up his arm, the monitor would nip his hand. not a bite just a nip, to show that he wanted up his arm. it went something like that, maybe FR can straiten it up if i messed anything up.

but anyways, maybe he's nipping to show that he wants something? like to get back in his enclosure maybe?
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-Marshall
1.1.0 ball pythons
0.0.1 red ackie

They might smell like food but taste like crap

That would be my first guess too, but I try to hold off on walking on insects and mice untill after I feed him.

The smell triggers a response to taste it, be careful, with no warning he may grab a mouthful before you can react.
Ive seen several monitors do that with shoes, socks, feet, hands, gloves, etc. The smell of sweat triggers that response, smells to much like something edible I guess.
Dont mistake that for being affectionate. If you saw a few of mine chewing on shoes you would avoid allowing that happening.
Have you had it for 8-10 months or are you trying to guess at an age? Dont try guessing at an age, size means nothing for age in a reptile. Besides as a friend of mine who deals with reptiles on the internet as a business tells thousands of people every year who are worried about how old their wild caught reptile is, "you cannot accurately guess or tell the age of a reptile without being there when it hatched". Its been since 2002 now since the last captive breeding I know of with BTs.
Imagine having her "nibbling" on you, she could swallow my whole arm to my elbow...

Age is a total guess. We have only had him for about 3 mths. The vet couldn't tell us didally. By the way I do not recommend All Creature Animal Hospital in Georgia. They are listed as exotic and domestic animal care. Most of the questions we had they had to refur tho the internet which we had already extensivly covered, and we ordered that fecal test (for worms and such) and after a week and us constantly calling for the results they finally admit they lost his sample. It is a hour and 15 minutes to get there. We are currently looking for a more suitable vet.

Seriously harmful to that monitor during a fecal I wouldnt treat it for worms. I stopped treating my WC monitors years ago, I noticed something, they did so much better afterwards, I had some die in periods of time afterwards, this of course was partially both our faults for the treatment and husbandry. I just dont trust those meds now, they were made for mammals after all. A healthy monitor will control its own parasite population and deworm itself in time, or most of it. They live perfectly fine with them, but with bad husbandry the problem is multiplied with parasites.
Its your call, but make sure you have it set up correctly before you do so.