Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question, well a few, mainly pertaining to Savs, but it likely applies to all.

1. Do they tell people apart? Like if they have to caretakers is it possible to become more trusting of one?

2. How well do they see and hear?
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1.0.0 YBS
1.2.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
cats, dog, ferret, rats and hamsters

They have excellent sight, much much better then ours. They can hear well, but not sure how well. Between the two, sight is most dominate.

Yes, captive monitors and wild lizards can without question tell humans apart. Both rely of a safty factor, they become trusting a little at a time(most, not all) and that trust is easily broken. They seem to have a very keen sense of memory. You offend them, they will remember it, for years.

But they may devert that memory to a place or situation, and not you. Or even your shirt/blouse and not you. Something to keep in mind.

So yes, there is more to them then just being able to tell us apart.

They even sense trust and security in people they have never met.

A story, I met a couple who have a reptile park in the south of germany. They came to my house and wanted to see my monitors. I went up to one of my lacie cages and opened the door, much to my surprise, the lady reached in and kissed the big male on the lips. I thought she was gonner. Then I open the croc monitor cage, she did the same with the male croc. Hmmmmmmmmmmm simply amazing. As she left, both males leaned out of their cages and watched her leave. All I could say was, I will be danged. Both males really liked her. Funny but, its the female monitors that like me. The males alway want to play testosterone games. I guess thats as it should be. The males treat me like a male, and the females treat me like a male. PERFECT. This means they understand what sex you are, you can use that. Cheers

>> A story, I met a couple who have a reptile park in the south of germany. They came to my house and wanted to see my monitors. I went up to one of my lacie cages and opened the door, much to my surprise, the lady reached in and kissed the big male on the lips. I thought she was gonner. Then I open the croc monitor cage, she did the same with the male croc. Hmmmmmmmmmmm simply amazing. As she left, both males leaned out of their cages and watched her leave. All I could say was, I will be danged. Both males really liked her. Funny but, its the female monitors that like me. The males alway want to play testosterone games. I guess thats as it should be. The males treat me like a male, and the females treat me like a male. PERFECT. This means they understand what sex you are, you can use that. Cheers

Frank I found this terribly interesting as we have this same dynamic in my home. Any female lizard living in my house WILL bite me. I have issues with my larger pythons as well. My husband on the other hand has an issue with the males. As I am primary caregiver for the reptiles here, I do tend to stick with males for my personal collection. Of course I have never seen a difference with monitors. But then again most monitors passing through my doors are severely ill savys.

I just find it a very interesting observation to see someone else make it. I have not run across many who can make this connection on their own, but I have worked with people who had the situation and didn't realize it.
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Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

As a mod here, you have most likely deleted many of my posts/threads.

If you take a look at the ones deleted, as a whole, they are male to male, testosterone masked goofyness. Yes, I admit it. Of course I admit it.

Consider, that is very very natural, even if we are suppose to be civilized(I am not so sure we are you know)

Because its natural does not make this the right place for such a thing and your right to deleted that type of stuff.

As one who works with behavior, it is what it is. Its just hard to understand in many cases.

One last story, a local biologist came over and I showed him some lacies, I went in the cage and sat down. The female saw me and walked over and put her arm on my leg, then placed her head on my leg and appeared to fall asleep. The biologist flipped out, I said, she likes me. It was actually just that simple. That female really liked me and did that all the time. I kinda think I paid too much attention to her when she was a baby. Cheers

I was gonna chime in here about same sex things like this, but I've not noticed it in reptiles yet. Birds and mammals galore, but not so much reptiles.Had a female blue front amazon that loved me but hated the ol' lady with a green passion . Was funny.

Quig

I get the feeling monitors are more similar to those types of birds, in behavior, then they are to colubrid snakes or even many other lizard families.

They flock, they pair, they nest. I think they are a bit more primitive, but similar.

Its more apparent in the larger species, and all monitors need large cages to exhibit their real behaviors. The standard, small cage syndrome, used with most reptiles severely limits varanid behavior. Cheers

I just read this whole post, and wanted to relate.

Chomper (our Sav) was purchased for my girlfriend. She had a sav for 5 years until her ex husband killed it, not poor care, he MURDERED "Barney" with a knife.

He was beating on Dorothy and the monitor was bonded with HER, so Barney busted out of his enclosure and attacked the husband.

Now she was so happy when I presented her with chomper she was nearly in tears. (and knowing I cannot even squash a spider, she is confident that her monitor will not get killed this time)

Thing is, Chomper has bonded with me! and he quickly scurries into his burrow when she tries to reach in for him.

Moments later he will run up my arm and let me handle him.

I say him, but Chomper is too young right now to tell.

When Chomper first arrived, I thought a 10 gallon would suffice for a little while, WRONG! Chomper was nuts in there, so I built him a 3 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot box, put in some river clay dirt and installed a couple toilet paper tubes to start the entrance for the burrows.

We began tearing our "extra" living room apart, Making a proper reptile room. Chomper will have his own 10x10 (extra jacks in the basement to support the dirt) with radiant heat in the floor.

Hopefully chomper will recognize her as a caretaker also, time will tell.

Any pointers on warming him up to her would be appreciated.

Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey

our critters

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1.0.0 Ball Python - Python regius "Cane" Rescue
1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garters "spot" & "Zig"
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - eastern Garter - Princess
1.0.0 Thamnophis pickeringi - Puget Sound Garter "Sky" (adult, Sky blue)
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER"
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
0.2.0. Feline"Felix"(R.I.P. 4/27/08) "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

The male albig cross I got from Rob Faust was a sweetheart to almost everyone, but went crazy like a frisky male dog over pretty women, he practically rolled over on their laps, and usually everted all over them.
Sobek seems to like everyone, shes just a bit more affectionate to men (especially myself) that she knows.
My flaviargus seems to be more apt to take food more wildly from men, and has bitten me once, never my wife.
The ackies seem to run from whoever, but I never really noticed a preference.
Ive had male monitors that seemed to prefer being around men rather than women, but they are exceptions.
Bearded dragons are a bit strange, they seem to pick individuals, not preferring sex.

I think its all quite interesting. I once had a male iguanna that I swear new when it was my menstation cycle, being completely agressive about 10 days out of the month towards me and only allowing my male roomates to handle him those days.

My Savy Ive had about 3 weeks now, almost 4. Not sure if its male or female but "he" shows a little more trust/toleration towards me. Watches me intently in the morning when I rock in a chair drinking coffee by his cage, but leaps and jumps at the cage if my husband comes by. Alternatively follows my 6 year old from one end of the cage to the other.

I am the only one who mists the cage or cleans it, and does some feeding mainly the crickets, whereas my husband feeds only mice and does nothing else
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1.0.0 YBS
1.2.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
cats, dog, ferret, rats and hamsters