Reptile & Amphibian Forums

With enough time and handling anyone ever heard of a friendly mangrove?

Thanks,

Matt F,

ive seen a couple of nice ones. but if u ever notice how mangroves act...they are always getting their nose into everything. pretty interesting!its rough handling them somtimes because they NEED their sharp claws to climb...so getting scratched is an issue.

Handling is not the best way to interact with a monitor. It has been covered many times previously by people with more experience than myself. Do a search and read up on how to earn the animals trust with food rather than forcing it to submit with handling. I would avoid indicus and its relatives if you are looking for an animal to interact with. There are some that seem to do better than others but generally they are flighty and prefer to hide. I have had the best experience with yellow ackies in terms of interaction. Red ackies are a close second. I would also look into the gouldii complex. I don't have any experience with them but i get the impression that they are on the more out going side. Hopefully some one that is keeping them will chime in and correct me if I am wrong.

Steve

But you have to put them in prespective. What are you expecting from any monitor that has been rough housed, shipped from country to country, tied up with rope, stuffed in bags and boxes, stuck with needles, had stuff of all kinds stuffed down their throats. Should I go on. I hope you get the point. Not all have experienced all that, but indeed most have experienced much of that.

Your expectations of any monitor that has gone thru that to be normal is not very unrealistic. You should expect any monitor you buy(particularly wild caughts/farmnot raised) to be insane and unhealthy.

Heres what you should do, First, regain the monitors health, then regain its sanity, then regain its trust. Then after that, you can think about taming it. There is a problem, once you do those things, monitors tend to be tame and you do not have to tame them.

It is really important that you understand those things I mentioned and do them. Cheers

you are asking the wrong question. perhaps-

"have you ever heard of a non-defensive Mangrove?"

no, not really. that is a skittish and defensive monitor (defensive, not aggressive), a species that is not interested in being handled. can it be kept super cooled, half dead, and not flighty? sure, for a short while (and then dead).

a healthy Mangrove is not interested in being your friend : )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

1, thats a shame, though when all a keeper is worried about is a friendly monitor.
99.9% of monitrors are not friendly by most keepers standards, this is why so many arent wanted.

I wouldn't say friendly, but certainly tolerant. When I was about 11 or 12 (about 11yrs ago already!) I had a solomon isle mangrove (Identical to the mangrove that Holly has, Scooter) that was well over 4'. I was able to handle this guy daily with no fear. The only time he made me nervous was when feeding, it was like Jekyll and Hyde and he was EXTREMELY quick. To this day he was my favorite out of all the animals (not just reptiles) I've ever had. Someday when I have my own place I hope I can get a nice group of these and raise them up, unfortunately I only see about 2 cross the classifieds each year.