Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, my Sav is about 4 months old now. Ive been having a great time watching it and learning about it. I built her a 72"x48"x28" the lower half of it being dirt. She's been growing really fast and has a great appetite.

She's been getting more comfortable with me as i reach around her cage for cleaning and feeding time. Well, she showed an interest in my wedding ring on my finger a few weeks ago so i let her look at it(still on my finger of course). she did her normal monitor check list of monitor things to do with a new object and moved on.

well tonight she showed an extreme interest in my other hand as i had it on a ledge. I made a fist as she started doing her monitor check. except she took a nip outa my thumb. I figured that was gonna happen.

SO here is the question. does she figure im food? or has she tasted and knows im not that tasty? any advice is appreciated. Thanks

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Adrian De Leon
Hissenia Reptiles

Hello,

Wow, sounds like you have shared a memorable experience with your lizard. Glad that it was just a nip... As for the question why... that is not going to be possible for me to answer from here- but I can tell you this, that monitors do lots of what appear to be the same actions for many different reasons (It was FR's explaination of this that opened my observations up ten fold). In my experience with reptiles, cold animals( or undermetabolised) are prone to make food recognition mistakes or if food is present, miss-bites. I am not qualified to give you an expert monitor bite answer as I have only had two decent bites in 15 years (sav and Tri-colored) neither of which needed more than some spit and wiping(done far worse to myself playing with sharp knives!). My savs will chase my fingers and hands around their cage testing them for food but have not bitten to date- I can wiggle my fingers in their face after handling mice thawed and live and they seem to know it is not there- this is a sure bite with any of my snakes... It would be easy to write it off as mistaking you thumb for a morsel of food but they seem to be much smarter than this... I would say that the bite was situational(go away, come back with food, are you edible-this piece maybe-hahaha!) You were there and could probably tell me... Did it hang on and bite down or just grab and release quick? Best to you- Mike

She quickly let go..just barely even a bite..got like a tiny paper cut from it... nothing too bad. Today a watched her from the open door of her cage and no running towards my hand to taste. She came over to me climbed up on a rock and put her back towards me....i almost sensed her saying... "ok...yer here now...wheres the food?.. um what are we looking at anyway?"

I love my monitor!!!
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Adrian De Leon
Hissenia Reptiles

LOL, it was probably just a love bite, but I wouldn't trust her to be that gentle on a regular basis . Besides, she's taste tested now so she knows you're not supper.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

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>>SO here is the question. does she figure im food? or has she tasted and knows im not that tasty? any advice is appreciated.

Who knows. I will say that my own savs have only bitten me 'gently' or on accident. I don't give them open opportunitys though. One bite that I considered an accident was when I was tossing in small rats and the most enthusiastic eater launched at the rat and me and got my hand instead. He immediately released and then took the rat. Bled, but nothing even warranting a big bandaid.
I have had mine bite my 18" hemostats out of what I saw as frustration. I tend to feed all three at once in the one enclosure and if one trys to take too many items from the most timid then I fend him off with the tweakers. The aggressor will bite the stainless steel. Maybe I am totally misreading it but it sure looks pissed to me.
Now my ackie will launch a foot in the air and grab whatever if it thinks I have a pinkie. Thankfully she is not big enough to do harm. Kinda like my Children's Pythons. Overenthusiastic.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny