Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
We did our fair share of research before getting a savannah, but there is always something..

I was wondering about other peoples experiences with "breaking in" an animal such as this. We`ve had it for 10 days now, its in a glass terrarium with basking spots just in excess of 123 degrees fahrenheit. She has dirt substrate and a hiding spot in each side of the tank.

She started to eat after 6 days, she ate a few cricketts and a few pinkies. However she has changed behaviour since we bought her. In the store she seemed alert, curious and somewhat calm in our hands, but she did try to run away. Now thats just natural I guess. We have left her mostly alone to get accustomed to her new home. A couple of times I have left the tank open and she has taken a few exploring journeys around the floor etc.

I have had a few short interactions with her after she has been around on the floor, but it only lasts for a few seconds. She only wants to run and hide really. When I let her into her cage she goes straight to her hiding spot and stays there for a long time.
It kind of hard to try to handle her when she only wants to hide and I dont really want to force her out of her safe haven either. That only upsets her, understandibly enough.

She isnt really filled out physically, she is rather skinny.

I have been reading alot about behaviour lately and I get this understanding that theyre supposed to be curious after awhile when youre changing water inside their cage etc. Now I have been quite active within her cage, 2-3 times daily.

Is this normal behaviour? Do I give her X amount of time to get used to everything? Or is this just not a "good sample"? I do not know for certain if the animal is wild caught or if she is captive bred (she was bought in Denmark). Could some of you knowledgable people out there help out a fellow lizard keeper?

Many thanks in advance!

B.

Just leave the poor animal alone...

You probably already know this but, your reptile will never like you. You cannot force the animal to trust you, it will do so on its own. Force handling the animal before it trusts you is no good, and is probably making the process go backwards. You don't need to handle the animal for it to learn to trust you. I almost never handled my ackies whenever they were younger, and now the more outgoing one will climb up my arm and out of the cage by means of escape. He tolerates gentle touching and handling, and seems to trust me alright. The presumed female is completely the opposite, and never stays in the open when I am arround. However, neither likes me, or anything about me. The more outgoing one just associates me with means of escape and possibly food.

Just leave the animal in the cage until you can handle it without it freaking out. You can try feeding it by hand (preferably tongs), as this is a great way to gain the trust of your animal. It could take months or years. Then again, your animal may never trust you. It depends on the individual and the approach you take.

Sorry if the post is a little sloppy, I am pretty tired.

Ryan

OK, no law, Just a rule. Do not handle or worry about handling or taming a monitor, until its well established and thriving, In your care.

It should be growing and thriving and coming to you for food. If any monitor does not come to you for food, it has issues. A normal healthy monitor is quick to understand where the food is coming from and will learn to take advantage of it. Unless it has issues

At this time, you can form a bond and work with your monitor. If a monitor is too afraid to come to you for food, its not a canidate to be tamed. This should be clearly understood.

Its so very sad to me that people seem to treat animals like toys, or a windup doll. They somehow think these animals don't have a life of their own. They somehow think there are set times for this or that. There isn't. Each individual animals reacts to YOU, so the time depends on you. no one else. Each individual animal will react to you in its own way. Its up to you to figure out the animals individual characteristics.

They have a life, they have fears and they have a huge fear of larger animals. Humans are larger animals. Which means, captive hatched or not, they fear you. You have to gain their trust. Its not given to you.

Please understand, this post is not all about you personally, but your type of post. So many post this type of post, they researched before they acquired a monitor. I wonder what was researched? things like temps and such? But what about researching the animal. Its a living animal. Somehow this seems to get lost in all the research.

So please think of your animal, as an animal, before you think of it as a pet, or to tame, or whatever your doing. Let it be what it is first, a healthy animal first too. Cheers

In your previous post you said:

"If any monitor does not come to you for food, it has issues."

My melinus is in hiding almost every time I feed. I end up having to leave it in a dish for him to eat later. I don't want to dig him up, and he hides almost every time he sees me. Do you have any suggestions on how I can get him to figure it out?

Several months ago, I was able to feed him with tongs once in a while, and would check out my hand with his tongue sometimes when it was near him. But lately he has been hiding more often. I did change his substrate to leaves recently, and he can dig much easier now. Would that have anything to do with it?

I understand this is a shy species, I just think it's wierd that he hides more now than he used to.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for taking the time to read it.
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Slipstream Serpents

My Reptile Family:
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger, Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.2.0 Thayeri Kingsnakes (Korben, Leeloo, Artax)
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes (Beetlejuice, Kang, Maraca, Kodos)
1.1.0 Bullsnakes (Hawker, Socata)

Hi, I guess the word Shy is not so meaningful. Shy with monitors is equal to fearful.

With melinus, they do not like to be out in the open around larger animals(us)

You monitor most likely has a set routine for feeling secure. Its insecure around you, its secure while in. You most likely have provided suitable secure places. Which is a very good thing. This is your possible answer, it now has better secure places.

Most people do not understand this, they judge a monitor from an empty tank. If your monitor did not have appropriate hiding areas, it would not hide. So some would say, my monitor does not hide. The question is, is the monitor secure or insecure(stressed) A better question is, what does a monitor do when it has appropriate hiding areas, that is the real way to judge a monitor.

Sadly, melinus as a species, not as individuals, feel far more secure hiding when larger animals are around. Of course, some individuals are not so insecure.

All monitors should have the ability to attain all needed functions while hiding. That is natural. That means, they should be able to thermoregulate, feed, move around, etc, all without breaking cover. Then and only then can you really gauge how tame or bold they are. Cheers

9

I feel a little better about it now. It sounds like I provided somehing better for him, something he can actually use. I'm not too worried if he never allows me to tong feed him again, but it would be nice if it worked out in the future.

Thanks again for your helpful information!
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Slipstream Serpents

My Reptile Family:
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger, Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.2.0 Thayeri Kingsnakes (Korben, Leeloo, Artax)
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes (Beetlejuice, Kang, Maraca, Kodos)
1.1.0 Bullsnakes (Hawker, Socata)

My wife likes our male melinus for some reason and probably wishes she could cuddle him. Not much chance of that happening though.

He certainly does not tolerate touching and hisses up a storm if I get in his space. It's funny how he changes his tune when he is hungery and I have food in my hand.

I have mounted hiding places on the ceiling of the cage. They seem more secure up in a roost rather than being approached from above by a large animal (me).

Great photo! I like your "roost" idea. When I build him his larger cage, I'll be sure to incorporate a couple of those. Are yours just little boxes, or do you have another method that works better?
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Slipstream Serpents

My Reptile Family:
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger, Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.2.0 Thayeri Kingsnakes (Korben, Leeloo, Artax)
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes (Beetlejuice, Kang, Maraca, Kodos)
1.1.0 Bullsnakes (Hawker, Socata)

I add new perches and hiding places or change things around every so often.

Wooden boxes, large cork tubes, corrugated platic pipe, rubbermaid type tubs are a few things that can work.

Cheers

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Slipstream Serpents

My Reptile Family:
1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger, Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.2.0 Thayeri Kingsnakes (Korben, Leeloo, Artax)
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes (Beetlejuice, Kang, Maraca, Kodos)
1.1.0 Bullsnakes (Hawker, Socata)

Hi Neal, Hows the stone situation doing, I hope it went well. E-mail me and fill me in. Cheers

Hi,
Thanks for reply. Yea there ought to be a law. Definately.
The amount of people getting said animal without the knowledge of how to take care of it is humongous.

People read up on care sheets on the net about these animals. In most of these it says that you can use carpets, newspaper etc for substrate. It mentions a certain gradient of temperatures and then a little tidbit on feeding.

I read such care sheets. I thought I was "somewhat" ready. But not really. Its not until one digs deeper and read more from experienced breeders and such you get the real information needed. When I think about it.. none of them mention much about behaviour of the animal. How they see us. There is a serious lack of information in that area.

The creature is of course afraid. I have been worrying alot if I have done everything correctly so it will thrive in its surroundings. Of course every animals behaviour varies and maybe this one has issues. "If you want a pet to watch TV with you get a dog"... Ill leave the poor animal alone. Maybe he will get used to me in the future, maybe not.

It is a scary thought that many many peeople working in pet stores have no education whatsoever on the animals they sell.
There ought to be a law against that.

Thanks for your reply

If you work on getting your monitor healthy. That is, provide for its needs, in most cases, they become very tame, without doing anything special.

How tame or how tolerant, is entirely up to you, its keeper. Your additude/ability is what determines how good of a pet/captive your monitor becomes.

Most monitor species and most individuals are very good candidates for taming and training.

The actual facts(caresheet info)on keeping monitors is simple, a range of temps, 65F to 135F, a range of humidities, from dry, to at least 50% in burrows and hiding areas. Lots of areas to seek these things. And food and water, lots of food, any kind of food, whole foods are extremely successful. A healthy monitor will consume and do great on almost any one or combination of many whole foods.

There, your caresheet in one paragraph. You apply that and your monitor will do well. The problem with monitors is, they are behavioral. The thrive on behavior, they are behavior. Take behaviors away and you have a dead monitor, even if its heart is still beating. This monitor with a heartbeat is what most keepers call tame. Its not tame, its behaviorally dead.

To the contrary, a healthy monitor, both mentally and physically, is very entertaining, full of vim and vigor, curious to a fault and has no problem bonding and making partners with other animals(including other species of monitors), including humans. They anticipate well. They will react to your every move. All this makes them good candidates for training. But they do need to be healthy first. Cheers

hey.
i understand what you are saying.
my monitor wont eat in front of me, but when i handle her or when she is out of her cage she wont run or hde.she isnt shy when i handle her but is only shy about eating in front of me.
i have a water monitor and ive had monitors before that came to me when i had food, but this animal will only eat it if im not in the room.

have u had monitors like this before, where they are healthy and nice to be handled but wont eat in front of you?

thanks

__khai

Khai your missing the point, leave it alone, eventually he will come to you. Handling monitors only forces them into submission (not Tameness) in fact theirs no such thing as tame, there are various degrees of submission, various degrees of tolerance but healthy monitors of all species will keep away from you if they can, food is your only link to a monitor, other then this he wants nothing of you, any keeper for that matter.

If you need a pet you can handle get a puppy!

thank you jobi

hey what type of monitors do u keep?