Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know its been asked to death but usually in regards to hatchlings. How would the experienced out there go about taming a 4 foot black throat? He obviously doesn't like being picked up (why should he) and when I hold him he calms down for a second and just sits there then he claws at me till I put him down. Should I try and sit on the couch holding him or something along these lines to get him used to me? I try not to feed him in his cage as well. And if they have nice tight places to hide is it normal for them to not burrow? How deep does the dirt need to be to promote burrowing?
Thanks
Ryan

You don't "tame" them. You can hope to gain their trust.
Picking it up when it doesn't want to be picked up will not gain that trust. What this will do is stress it out and/or make it act defensively.
I don't pick up any of my monitors unless absolutle necessary.
I have never figured out the holding thing.
To each his own I guess.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Aren't BT's supposed to burrow? mine hase plenty of hides and dirt for that matter but doesn't burrow. I just dont want to stress him out.

You are obviously using the wrong substrate. What we think is good, might not be to the lizards liking.
I know all about this, I have 3 species and 3 different substrates. It's your job as the keeper to find out what it will use. For my albigs, I use a sandy dirt. It's about 40/60 sand to dirt. I get the dirt and sand from a local sand and gravel place.
I used to use dirt from the river bank, but it's easier to load my truck at the local place.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

I have him on sandy dirt. its a mix of maby 100 or so lbs of sand(sandy dirt) from my back yard. 100 lbs of play sand(probably more I cant remember) and allot of peat moss and some cyprus mulch. It looks like it would hold a burrow but then ive never made one so. any ideas on what i could add to make it more suitable? oh and its like a foot or so deep

Take a piece of plywood and bury it at the top.
Then start a smal hole under the wood. Bury a mouse in the whole and see if it digs.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

It can also be that with so much shelter (like you said it had), your BT has no need to burrow. Mine has 3 caves half buried under the dirt, and the only excavation i would see would be to find a mouse that managed to burrow under the substrate. Other than that, he sleeps soundly and without problem in his half-buried caves.
Cheers,
Sheri