Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I am a new owner of a BT monitor. He's 16" 166 grams of fairly mellow reptile attractiveness. My question is, I'm able to pick him up some now, but he generally squirms like crazy. I can rest him against my chest and he'll calm down so I can pet him. Under careful conditions, I let him get down and explore the living room. He eventually comes back (I'm not naive--I know it's because I'm a source of heat). I want to get him accustomed to me, but I don't want to move too fast and I wondered if there was a standard or a favored method of taming your monitor on his terms. I 've read about not forcing your monitor to do what he doesn't and I assume his struggling is pretty much saying he doesn't want to do it. So how do I induce him to want to be picked up? I know it can be done, I'm just not sure how.

A few minutes ago I was sitting on the couch and he came to the corner of his aquarium closest to me and scratched at it. So I got up, put my hand down and at first he ducked away, but then crept back and flicked my fingers with his tongue. Then he startled me by resting his head on my fingertips and closing his eyes. I spent about twenty minutes petting him with my thumb while he relaxed. I assume if I keep this up I'll eventually be able to move to the next step. But how do I go about picking him up without inducing that 'predator's going to eat me' panick?

Him putting hsi head on your fingers and closing his eyes is not neccesarily a good thing... usually that is when they are stressed to the max and pretty much just give up... as someone else said "probably expecting to be eaten within a few minutes".

That could basically be saying "I know you're going to pick me up and make me do what I don't want to no matter how much I try to get out of it, so have your way with me, I give up".
From a certain point, that seems like it's a step in the right direction. But really it's not ideal at all. I can see that you want him to WANT to be held or taken out.
All I can say on that is good luck... very few monitors will actually "enjoy" that, but it's definitely possible for them t get used to it to the point that they allow it and don't mind.

You need to handle him as little as possible.... do regular cage maintenance, feed him, stand near his enclosure so he gets used to your presence.

Teach him that you're not going to rip the roof off the house a pluck him out everytime you get near the cage.

Hopefully, he'll eventually not try to hide from you, and EVENTUALLY he may crawl up into your hand. THEN! You can pick him up. Don't restrain him... let him squirm out if he changes his mind.

It could take a long time, it could never even happen to be honest... but it sounds like you have a decent chance of things working out the way you're hoping, so keep at it and have patience with him.

Good luck!