Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a Black Throat Monitor (2 Bearded Dragons, 3 Leopard Geckos, & an Albino Leopard, which makes 6 L. Geckos) that I adopted about 2 months ago from a very unhealthy enviroment. He (and yes I'm pretty sure it's a he) Is roughly 1yr old and about 3 ft long nose to tail. My recent herp experiance had only been with L. Geckos. So I did and am still doing alot of research on him. Well he is quite health now, vet assured. I have him on a mouse and boiled egg diet with a few grasshoppers (store bought) here and there. We are in the process of building his enclosure (5Lx4Hx3W), which will tide him over until we purchase our house that we plan on dedicating a room for him. Now my question, he is a quite personable animal loves to be rubbed on the top of his head or under his chin. When you open his enclosure (which is only 4Lx2Hx2W) he scurrys up to see who you are. But reciently he gets bi polor out of no where, he will be pleasent all morning and the boom, he hisses and tightens his tail if I just simply walk by his enclosure, which is currently in my room. And no, I do not bother him allday either. I say good morning and rub his head before I feed him, give him fresh water, and then after that he is not bothered until his next feeding time, except spuratically. And this behavior just recently started happening this passed week. Where is this attitude coming from???

I'm no expert, just a hobbyist, so take this with a grain of salt.

When I used to raise snakes, one cardinal rule I always followed, was never to feed the snake in their cage.

Their cage is their territory, and could get aggressive if they felt it was being "intruded" upon, by food.

I would take the snake out of his cage, feed him elsewhere (in another cage set up for feeding), and when he was done and moved out on his own, he went back to his home, thus I never had a problem with aggression (at least from that angle)

To a lesser extent I saw this behaviour with monitors. Always fed them elsewhere.

Not sure if that's what you are seeing, just an option to look into.

He always is quite pleasent when I'm feeding him. Like today he was hissing at me when ever I walked by, but when he smelled his food he sat happily as I removed his food dish, which was sitting right next to him, and returned it with food. And as he ate I sat next to his enclosure to ensure that he didn't have any problems while eating and he paid no mind to me. This was his second feeding of the day.

Maybe the hissing is his way of getting attention, something to the effect of, "Hey, I'm hungry, feed me!"

I'm totally guessing here....so don't take this post seriously.

I think that's more about conditioning. My BP knows when it's time to eat and when it's time to come out depending on a number of factors, such as time of day, time of week, what he smells, and what kind of moves I make around him. If I am going to take him out, usually he is hiding, and he knows that if the hiding spot suddenly disappears, it's me, and not a mouse, and if he does appear to think it's feeding time, I pick him up with a hook first, and then my hands.

obviously a BP is a generally calm snake though. If you look at what some of the people on the burm or retic forum do, general consensus is that it's too stressful for the snake (and sometimes dangerous for the snake and the keeper) to feed in a seperate environment, and that you just need to find ways to make sure the reptile can differentiate between feeding time and handling time.

I know on the pro exotics website they showed in the faq how you can alert a snake of your presence and prevent a suprise bite by cupping your hand over the snake's head (with large snakes).

But anyways, that's neither here nor there.

Sounds like the cage is way too small, has no substrate, has no place to hide, and is hugry more than you think, also his diet needs improvement, by this I mean drop the boiled egg or feed it very very rarely, feed whole animals for food, albigs love birds (chicken peeps, quail), some love large roaches for a while also.
Dont attempt to convert a room in a house, build a proper cage, a room is made for us, not for their needs, also a monitor that size can easily rip through drywall or paneling in no time, also destroy outlets.
What you may confuse as affectionate, or friendly is not, and when you see it defensive, its acting normal. When you approach or walk by its defending what it has, when you touch it, it gives up and plays dead (after all big predators most times leave dead food alone).
Let it learn to adjust to you, and maybe it will learn to trust you in time, maybe not. Maybe it will like you, maybe not.
This is a BT that dislikes people, he will never trust us. He is over 4ft with more than a foot of tail missing.

This is a blackthroat/whitethroat/whitethroat cross, shes a sweetheart (to me), she picks and chooses who she trusts, and does not.

2 complete different personalities, but even Sobek gets defensive, not to the extent yours may now but she still tail whipped on ocasion (man does it hurt with a 42.5 inch tail!!).

Thank you so much for your info. When I said "room" I ment a room dedicated for just his enclosure so he could have some privicy. Does he still look under weight to you?? How often should I feed him?? I have read many many care sheets and articales and it is very hard to find consistant and or factual information. I know his enclosure is not a suitable size and we a working on fixing that issue. I would have liked to be more prepared for his home coming but I could leave him at his last home any longer for fear he wouldn't last that long, or irrepitable damage would come to him. Thank you agian.

Its small, too small to say male or female, lol. Feed em alot and keep em hot, lol.