Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, im a fisrt time monitor owner with a baby water monitor... had him about a month, have the temps from 82 to 130, big water bowl, logs, hides, cypress mulch, and high humidity-feeding on pinkies/good health/good weight-thickness in the upper tail....i havent handled him.... now that thats out of the way.

....im trying to calm him down but hes very very shy. I know that with monitors especially ones as shy as mine it is near impossible to tame, i was just wondering if any others have had baby waters that were very very shy(as many are) and how long it took them to settle down and adjust... or if theres any techniques that can speed up the process...im just curious of how long if ever it will take him to tolerate my presence.

i dont feed him by hand because alot of the time hes in his hides so rather then disturbing him i just drop a few pinkies in.

i am new to waters too. i have a lot of reptiles and a savannaha who i had the same problem with. the trick is to keep them in a room that is in an area of the house that they constantly see you. all of my most skittish animals are so calm now. just because they see me every min i am home. i have only had my water a week, and he used to run everytime i walked by his cage now he just stares at me. getting them not to run when you walk by the cage is the first big step. alloways feed when you water can see you. this gives them a boand to you. if he cant see where the food is coming from he has no reason to start to like you. because all you do is try to pick him up with those huge scarry hands of yours.

then after he gets used to you walking up to his cage with out gong nuts.( he may actually start coming to the glass expecting a treat) handle handle handle. at least 15-30 mins every other day.( at least) if time allows do it everyday dont get rough just hold until it knows you mean bisnuess, then calms down. dont put it away when it is still doing the water monitor squirm. if you do this in his mind he just escaped a preditor.(you) and will for every time after try the same thing. sience you have only had him for a month or so that is not a verry long time, in terms of tameing down a monitor. most people cant tame a bearded dragon in that time. LOL

best of luck
Matt Fisher
BallisticBoas.com
Link

i still live with my parents... and isnt that wonderful.
so a water monitor in a busy part of the house is unexcpetable, because i already tried and my ma was not having it... hes in my room, and i work very long days so he can pretty much avoid humans all he wants, i havent fed him today im hoping tommorow he will go hunting and i could drop some pinks in so he sees me supplying food. thats the best i could do that i know of, and i also mist him in his hide (i dont invade it) but usually i can see his back and can mist him while talking softly, he loves water.... as the name states

All babies are skittish. Give it an article of your clothing. Gloves work well. Try not to handle it too much yet; these guys are very susceptable to stress at a young age and you want it good and healthy. Let it get used to your scent, and get used to you being in the cage working around and moving things, providing food and water and whatnot. Eventually it'll should stop evading and start ignoring you. From there you can work to gradually get it used to you being closer and closer and eventually occassionally touching it.

Thing is, it's really too early to tell sex (you said baby, I'm going by that). Behaviorally males will tame down a lot easier. They're more curious and daring, while the females are quite shy by nature and not as easy to tame down. I have a female that used to be a very consistent biter. I've worked with her continually and don't handle her more than necessary. Through that I've built up quite a bit of trust with her, so that if I'm reaching in and am forced to pick her up I allow her to know it's coming and get used to the idea first. She will calm down and allow me to pick her up now without all the hissing and biting, but she's certainly not thrilled with the idea of it.

That's just the difference between sexes. Every time I open the lid to the cage the male comes running over and scrambles up onto my chest. He's always happy to see people and ready to come out and check out the new smells in the kitchen.

Try not to always come at it from above. I learned early on that that's a predatory thing to do, and with a skittish baby you can about give the poor thing a heart attack. When you do get to the point of picking it up, come at it from the side as much as possible, let it smell you and determine (BEFORE you just grab it) that you aren't a threat. I think you may be surprised that if it learns to associate these sessions positively (a bath, or removal to a feeding area) it'll actually crawl into your hands of its own accord and be ready to go. That's how it happened for me anyway.