Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is an excellent video for anyone wanting to tame any monitor, turn up the volume and really listen to what the woman is saying here about NOT grabbing the monitor from above but slideing your hand under them and not useing gloves or they will never get to know your scent and actually bond with you. Hats off to people trying to understand these amazing varanids.
Bob Copy and paste the link below, it will answer many questions for anyone new to monitors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfqWuxzxQs&NR=1

pleases refrain from the advice given here.This video was discussed on another site,and it is not the best way to work with a monitor.

greg

There is NO right way or wrong way just whatever works to get the acheived results. How does one do this? You do it by "listening to what the lizards tell you by their progress and behaviour". Results are what really count NOT methods.....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom is right, and if you look at the video the woman is reading the monitor and manipulating it in a way that she knows will make progress yet not forceing herself to much, she is not being to pushy but achieving results. Then again some people are happy with a wild monitor in a nice large terrarium for display purposes and like some of the other GTM videos the girl wants a tame monitor and she did what many people have failed at. Sooo hats off to the girl, I have a young female cousin that does the same thing with other lizards native to FL where she lives. Its all about what you want out of the monitor and how much determination you have to get there.
Bob

I prefer working with the monitor, so the monitor realises I’m not a threat & accepts me as part of the furniture, in the 3rd vid you can clearly see me lifting the smaller one off with no objection at all, the bigger one didn’t mind but wasn’t planning on letting go.

Getting my monitor used to me at feeding time 1st Sept 2009>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNNpjN4-EL8

My monitor objecting to me 13th Sept 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1m08UYW2Ps

Both my younger monitors climbing up me 5th Oct 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfprcyxt3MU

Anyway you choose to work with your monititor is totally up to you. I dont know who would object to videos disscussed on other forums being disscussed here on this forum? Many of the people here may not go to other forums? In any event I would not use food as an enticment to get a monitor to interact with you in that manner, this can be dangerous [although some keepers choose sensationalism like this SV video as more entertainment] as feeding time for larger monitors can be varacious and is all about scent, if your finger had the scent of a rodent then you are setting yourself up to get bit. I think the girl in the dumeril video had a good approach other then being in a bad area to do this which even she commented on, alot of action in a petstore can spook the monitor you are trying to tame. Food with forceps may not be so dangerous with dwarf species but I would never try that on an SV or anything as that size, to many things that could go wrong and when it ends up on the local news people pass legislation and we all suffer.
Bob

Taking advice from someone that walked into a pet store with a video camera may not be the wisest thing to do. If the monitor is cool it will appear "tame". If the monitor is tired, it will appear tame. If you take a somewhat cool monitor and tire it out, it will appear tame.

I told the person int the video that I do not feel that is the best way to "tame" the dumeril. They are rather calm monitors to begin with, especially the females. Here are some images not from a pet store, but from my house. I have never force handled them, not have I made them walk from hand to hand to tire them out.

A Little Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PsLLvvLRc

I have a pair of Tom Crutchfields dumerils, and they are great. They are both calm, eat great, and either eat from tongs or my fingers. They didn't at first, but over time that have. Manchilds's dumeril was the same way.

Here is the enclosure for the pair:

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Ed

The fact is even WILD DUMERIL MONITORS ALMOST NEVER TRY TO BITE. In the early 1980's I picked ut about a dozen lg dumerili at a hide farm about 50 miles north of Bangkok before they killed them and NOT one did anything but hiss. I've had hundreds of them I've sold and virtually none have ever been aggressive. Dumeril's are NOT a good Monitor to "tame" because they are naturally. Having said this what's wrong with letting Monitors be Monitors? My only goal is to have them not view me as a threat so I can observe and if there's a potential problem I fix it....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I believe Tom put what I was trying to say in a much better wording.
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Ed

Very well put Ed,and Tom

greg

So called taming your monitor in any way is dangerous , they can bite & scratch , starting them young with any of the methods takes most of the risk out of it. I’ve been bit 3 times in 5 years all by young monitors, I’ve had no problems with my older ones & I make a point of never touching any of their food, never.

As for the vids when I see bigger percentage of savs of a more healthier appearance then my vids can be deleted for all I care, they were done to show what a sav is capable of & the fact their not just big clumsy reptiles. Thousands of these animals die every year from misunderstanding, most pet shops don’t have a clue how to look after them, everyone thinks the sav should be pancake shape, this is just my small contribution in the process of trying change that.

So as you rightly pointed out if your use food association / reward as a form taming always use long tongs & never get the scent of your lizards dinner on you. & I’ve not discussed the said video on any other forum & wouldn’t, I like sitting on the hedge!!

Mark

Just a couple of notes on my vids, you’ll always notice it’s very obvious that my fingers/hands & head etc are always kept well out the way of the lizard whilst feeding.

Also the 4 times I’ve been bit ( sorry not three) the 1st two were with 6” hatchling monitors before I was introduced to the non intrusive method of acclimatising them to humans presence, the third & four was from my latest sav rescue which I’m pretty sure was hand fed. First time he was 11/12” and he held on for a good few mins, the 4th time he caught me at around the 20” mark at feeding time he released immediately & only left a slight red mark.

All my monitors understand I’m not food just the bolder one’s with a fast feeding response you have to watch were there mouth is when food is around. The older one in this vid always looks at the end of the tongs & is not phased at all by my hand & arm handling him.

http://www.youtube.com/MDFMONITOR?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/u/38/p-V1z8buji4

Mark

How I interact with my captives depends solely on the individual animals themselves. Having raised and kept various species, I can attest to the fact that there is no majic recipe for "tamimg" monitors. My animals know the difference between a mouse and my hands regaurdless of how they smell. They are quite intelligent. I spend a fair amount of time feeding the monitors here and am sure I probably smell like a gourmet lizard buffet by the time I get to feeding my very large niles. Funny thing is, as soon as they smell food the next cue is the sight of the food item I happen to feeding at the time. I can show them an empty hand and they will continue looking for what they know to be actual food.

I know for certain that the hand over hand "treadmill" method pictured in the video never worked for any of my animals. In fact it had the opposite effect. When I used the daily "gentle" handling method, I never saw anything but signs of activity in the cages. The monitors themselves hid when they knew humans were around. It was not untill I began using food to reverse their instinctive fear of humans that I had any measure of success at getting them comfortable with human presence.

Getting any Lizard to key on food is the BEST way to acclimate, tame, or whatever you want to call it. If your the guy or girl with the treats lizards learn to like you quick. Patty can come out and our lizards get excited hearing her voice as she gives them food and treats..Patty "the lizard whisperer"...LOL

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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I to use food to entice my dwarfs but I dont lead them out of the cage like the video shows. Food is a natural way to initially interact and my glauerti even know just the site of forceps and they are excited already, this is learned behavior and reflects their intellegence for learning, with that said if they can learn one thing then Im sure they can learn other things such as us the keepers are not the enemy [ I can only speak for myself on this one] and the video posted with the GTM and the girl with the nice legs pretty much sums up my point, that monitor that most would think is a bad choice pet species proves much different. The larger monitors like Savannahs or savs are varacious feeders and although the video does not suggest any danger to that particular keeper it does tell me that if some newcomer watched that and tried it not knowing the monitor or really how to handle it, it could lead to bad things. Forgive me for speaking out on this but when I see the legislation as its going you cannot be to cautious with a varanid that has the size and mass to really hurt someone that just does not know any better. After keeping and breeding beaded lizards for over 12 years and hatching out multiple clutches of babies I have NEVER been bit or even close to being bit, I just never put myself in a situation for it to happen and thats all.

I tong feed my albigs and have found it to be the most helpful tool for working with them. I've NEVER handled/held my big male and have no desire to. He's too big and too heavy for me to hold, but had I not started tong feeding him from the minute I got him, I would most likely have a very pushy and potentially dangerous 6' monster in my home. As it is, we have a level of trust now and I can go in with him and do whatever I need to.

I never really wanted a 'tame' monitor, but more importantly, I didn't want a wild animal I had to throw food at to stop it getting too close to me.

Different strokes for different folks. You do what works best for you and your animals

AMEN to that!! Do what you feel comfortable with and more impotantly what the monitor feels comfortable with. It was nice to see the GTM video just to show the guy who got such inaccurate advice on the species that YES, you can get them dog tame if thats what your intent is. I would never do that, just dont have the time or lay in the sun like the girl in the video was doing, that video answered real questions with answers as solid as you can get. And besides my legs arent that nice:}
Bob

Bob do you have a leg fetish? Every post you're mentioning her legs...LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Hhahhaha, She shows her face in photos too. She defintly isnt ugly. Bob speaks the truth.

You men are all alike

I notice you posted the same pic twice and it def has legs in it!

Oh well, boys will be boys *thank goodness!

I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!!!!LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Me 2
Bob

Tom, yes, nothin wrong with nice legs as long as the word prior to legs is ''HER' :}
Bob

You haven't posted the video, but I've seen the one you're talkin about and the prasinus seemed really docile that didnt see the girl as much of a threat. I can't get those results as she did being outside in the grass and exposed to a lot of flight distance. The first time I tried that a month ago with this melinus, he started to flip out, lunge to bite, tailwhip and walk puffed up with his toungue flaring out after he made a dash for it. By the video, my melinus seems really calm, so I tried to take advantage one day to see how he would be outside... that was a mistake.

From day one, this animal hasn't been agressive at all besides his exposure to natural uvb, but trying to work with him and interact is pretty hard to do. I can follow his photoperiod, but I have to be silent and still in the room, or else he goes to hide. He doesn't seem like he's the type to be really shy in the vid.
fun times

YELLOW MONITORS ARE EXTREMELY SHY EVEN COMPARED TO TREE MONITORS...THANKS
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Nice video and monitor, If you kept doing this handeling routine everyday it would be interesting to see how relaxed this monitor would eventually become? Tom knows way more about the Indo monitors then I do for sure. With the differances in species this forum is a good place to pool together alot of info for anyone wanting a monitor and how tame they would like to get it along with size and their own expectations and time willing to put in to reach their goals. I never really handeled my helodermas that much, after breeding the beadeds for many years I have had calls from people who have been bit and it was always their lack of understanding what they were dealing with. Alot of people try to assosiate the level of tameness to a dog or cat which may be achieved in some cases but rare none the less.
Good luck, Bob