Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Right now I'm looking after my friend's Savannah monitor and he is a blast. Compared to mine, his is really tame. I mean he still hisses and tail whip, but never attempt to bite as I reach in to pick him to put in another container for cleaning. I did that when I first got mine and before putting him down he bit down on my index finger really hard, but luckily he was too small to do any real damage. In fact, I was startled than hurt, but my point is my Savannah monitor temperament is totally different than my friend's. My friend's monitor will relax a bit after being handle, which I don't do often, but mine will actually bite if given the opportunity. These are really intelligent lizards and they do have individuals. It's a blast taking care of them. Feeding time is especially fun. My friend's monitor will actually carefully take a mouse right off my hand. Mine will lunge at your hand if you do that and bite down on your hand if you are holding a mouse in your hand. It's like night and day between his monitor and mine.

You know, you see this with humans too.

One human raised in a very poor conditions will act much different and have different views on life than say another raised in significantly more affluent of an environment.

Now think.....what you have there is a reptile. Their conditions dicate behavior much much much more than ours do. Not to down play individualism which certainly exists as I see it thoughout my collection no question - but unless the opportunity exists in both environments for the lizards to seek conditions they want/need, when they want, then individualism is a rung down the ladder so to speak.

Takecare,
Mike.

Well, his Sav actually eats more than mine when he was that age, so I don't think he is really stress out, but he's just not mean like mine for some reason.

I have heard from breeders that female monitors tend to be less tractable. Come to think of it, all the known females in my collection are witches The female Water, she'll whirl on you like lightning and you hear an audible snap of her jaws. The female Croc, Atreelia, well...., I don't go in the cage with her. I go on the other side. I suspect my biting little Sav is a female too. It gave me a chomp on the finger yesterday as I was cleaning up droppings and thank god let go. Posssibly it mistook my finger for food. It has a very pointed snout and a fat tail base, then skinny tail flat under the vent area. These girls want to be left alone. Do male monitors seem to be more outgoing to you all?

SHvar has a female albig crossed and she is really mellow. I don't think sex has anything to do with it.

The magnificent Ms. Sobek is spayed.

my female Sav is a real witch and would love to bite me, but doesnt my husband. (however, if I have food she will take it calmly from my hand)
My male is a sweetie, but occassionally attempts to bite my husband and sons (never me).

However, with these two the female was not owned privately until 17 inches. I cant be sure how long she was in captivity.
The male was owned by a previous owner as a small sav, so that likely in my case has a lot to do with it.

My female black throat is very honory at almost 4 feet, but I do expect her to calm with age.
-----
1.1.0 YBS
1.3.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.0.1 Blackthroat monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.1.0 Mountain Horned dragon
2.1.0 Ball pythons
cats, dog, ferrets, rabbit, rats.

My big Blackthroat is 5.5', I have never seen a flowery end on her equipment nor really a full eversion in the 2 years I have kept her. The underside of the tail base has no bulge, it is flat. Her neck is long, not very thick and her nose is pointed sort of, not big and blunt. Yet she swaggers around carrying her tail off the ground, bites other monitors, shows dominance to all including me, although there is much free will visiting and following. She may lick, rub her muzzle on my legs and sometimes maybe try to give a little nip. She smells other monitor's vents. She does the side to side head shake when meeting a new monitor. Overall a pretty nice animal yet quite a bad a**. Does this sound like a male or a female to y'all?

How can he get his Sav more tractable? By doing things on it's own terms, right?

Hi,

Are you a woman or man?
FR said in one of his posts that monitors can see/smell the difference and act differently to same/opposite sex keepers.

Jasper

I'm a woman.

Yes, men do have a wonderful maddening undercurrent of tomcat pee smell. I don't know what woman pheromone smells like and don't want to know. There is something about them that make me want to run them off my teritory. Do you suppose FR thinks that monitors smell pheromones?

This albig of mine looks female but acts pretty macho.

I don't know if FR knows why they can tell the difference, they just can.
My guess is that it will have something to do with smell for the greatest part.
Just let a male friend who isn't afraid try to handle the sav, and see if there is a difference.

Jasper

Thanks Jasper. It's not the little Sav thats in question. Its the 5 and a half foot Blackthroat., I don't know anyone not afraid to handle Mama Quah, male or female.

I've never heard that. But I can see it. They do have a great sense of smell. I don't know if they can tell the difference between mamalian or reptilan gender scents though. I know dogs can. Lol. To my experience females of certain dog breeds can be very protective of their male owners. So who knows?

And male dogs can't get enough of human female scents. Lol. I'm talking about my experience though.

Ms Sobek was very calm, handleable, and easy to get along with from the beginning. She is also CBB, came from a great business that really cares about the animals they sell and sends only top shelf examples to customers.
Ive had monitors that were great handleable examples, some very friendly, some flighty, bitey, defensive, skittish, and all across the behavior spectrum. All but very few acted pretty much the same from the beginning.

You need to understand the monitors (as a generalization) before you try to understand the implications of different sexes acting different ways.

Infact I am still trying to get the first one right, maybe in another 10 or 20 years I'll be doing better hahahahaha.

Cheers,
Mike.

On average female monitors are less bitey, less adventerous, less defensive, a bit less energetic, and this seems to go along with the way they act in general in nature, males travel looking for females and food alot further. The male spends more time exposed in the wild so it would stand to reason the male would be more defensive by design.
Of the monitors Ive had over the years the males have been more bitey, flighty, and more of an escape artist, also more outgoing.

You should use some tongs. You do not want to be bitten by mistake do you?