Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a water monitor. Ive had him for a week yesterday, hes doing very well but i wanted all the suggestions that i could on getting him to trust me..... I'm just asking for suggestions from people who have there own. I understand that it will take some time to get him to that state of mind, like i said only had him a week i know that to get the effect that i want will not be an over night thing. So please all you monitor lovers,give me some of your tips on tamming them. Thanks

The best way is to have the monitor come to you. I purchased a Black Throat about a month ago and have not even picked him up yet. Go about cleaning your cage and feeding like normal. Hopefully after a few days (or weeks) your monitor will stop running from you and curriously watch what you do. Eventually you will be able to feed him with tongs and maybe touch him. Force handling causes stress which can be fatal. When your monitor trust you he will come to you and then you can start to think about handling him. There may be other ways that work as well, all I can tell you is that this worked for me.

Now my monitor patiently waits at his dish for feeding time when I get home from work. I probably could start handling him, but I am not sure he trusts me entirely yet and I dont want to ruin a good thing right now. Good luck!

Right now, holding your monitor should be the last thing on your mind. See if your conditions are correct and how its feeding responce is. Hopefully you got a healthy animal. Getting those things down should make your monitor feel confortable in its home and the little guy should pop out here and there. If a tame lizard is what you want you wont ever get it. the best things would leave it alone.I have a couple myself and they dont trust me,nor do they enjoy being handled. The thing wiith having a monitor trust you is that you dont know when that time will come. It may take days, weeks, months or even years. Just play your role as the food giver and go from there.

Heres a couple more w/ it being in a threat position.
you can see its tail starting to curve and its throat is puffed out. what a little punk huh hahaa.

just take it slow let him adjust to the cage and let him come to you. do it on his terms.