Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a week ago i bought a few months old savanah monitor. at the store he was as nice as can be and let me hold him for like 30 minutes with out hissing. ever since i took him home he has been afraid of me. he now hisses and wips when ever i get close to him. i work all day so i changed his sleep schedual for the day time so i can spend time with him at night. ive heard its easy for them to gain your trust by having them swim in shallow water in your bath tub with your hand and by hand feeding them. i plan on keeping him for a long time so i am up for any suggestion on making him trust me more. i look foward to all your advise.

I would highly suggest leaving him alone for a while. Allow him to settle in, it's only been a week. I know you want to handle him but you need to be patient if you want him to tolerate your presence. You are a huge, unknown creature, he is a prey animal, if he thinks you are going to grab him every time you walk up to his box, of course he's going to struggle. If a predator grabs you, you go into fight or flight mode. If you can't flee, you better damn well fight your ass off if you want to live.

That said, let him relax in his new digs. Change his water, monitor the temps, that's it. Allow him to become comfortable in his own area, let him feed in peace, and once he will bask in your presence without startling, you can start slowly introducing yourself in a non-threatening manner.

First just stand by the cage. Then, after a few days of that, open up the door for a few minutes, close it, walk away. Then, eventually, place your hand inside NOT neat the lizard. Then place your hand inside and offer food (as in dump a few crickets or what have you). Then place your hand inside and offer food from tongs. Don't be pushy, move at the lizard's pace. If he runs, try again in a couple days. It can take weeks.

My Savannah with come up to me if I open the door (not because I'm interesting or her buddy, she just knows that ME OPEN DOOR often = FOOD. The trick is to make your presence reinforcing. Get over any notions that your lizard will be your friend. They will tolerate your presence, they will tolerate being handled, but if they could, they'd probably avoid you at all costs.

Now, since most people don't know what they're doing when it comes to these beasts, please share a description of your monitor's enclosure so the forum can help educate you on proper husbandry. There is a ton of information to be absorbed if you're open to it.

Best wishes.

Please excuse all of the typos. I was trying to write a lot within a very short period of time and didn't have time to do a once over before submitting.

Your monitor needs time. The more you rush the "taming process" the longer it will take. He needs to learn that your presence isn't something to fear. This will happen more quickly if you do things gradually. It's called desensitizing. Imagine if someone was deathly afraid of spiders. Then imagine putting a large tarantula on their shirt. Do you expect them to stop freaking out since the spider isn't hurting them? No. They won't stop freaking out because they are too caught up in their fear to learn anything.

This is most likely what happens every time you pick the lizard up. With this method, one of two things will happen. First, the lizard will fight and bite and tail whip until you put him down. Thus, lizard learns that fighting will fend you off. On the other hand, if you continue to hold him and tolerate the fighting, the lizard will shut down mentally and live in a state of learned helplessness. No use fighting since I can't win. I can't flee so I better just accept that I am helpless. This method does not allow for a thinking creature you can interact with.

Now, back to the hypothetical situation, imagine that same person with arachnophobia. Put them in a room with a picture of a small, beautiful spider. Let them get used to that at their own pace. After a few days of that, show them a movie of the spider moving. After a few days of that, show them a spider in a container across the room and allow their natural curiosity to draw them to it. And so on and so forth.

Which method is better? The first method might obtain results faster, in that your lizard no longer thrashes and fights when you handle him. However, he'll constantly live in fear. Instead, slowly increasing the "criteria" only when the person is comfortable with the last set, and making each experience reinforcing is the key.

Good advice!

you have to look at what you need as a pet and find a pet that meets those requirements.i personally respect what monitors are,and can't expect them to be different than that.what appears to be an animal, nice and tame in someones lap is a highly stressed out animal in a play dead mode.this is not to say they don't learn to tolerate humans but it needs to be on their terms.if you are serious about Sav's still,you have to research hard,because alot of advice you will get is from people who aren't keeping them properly-99% of all imported Sav's will be dead in the first year-and Sav's are easy to keep,but aren't cheap to keep,need quite abit of room.the hard part is figuring out who knows what they are talking about-the people that breed monitors in general over multi generations-ask their advise

No species of monitors are easy to keep until you have learned their basic husbandry and KEPT them. There is some stuff you have to learn from the school of hard knocks that no care sheet can cover. Also many people do not provide a proper nesting spot for females and many die that way. Even though everything else they are doing is right on. Those are the type of things a person has to figure out with monitors before taming can become a focus. They become less shy with age thats how I experience them. They still see me as a giant two legged thing that feeds them though.

you're right,but the fundamentals of monitor husbandry are not complicated.there are some species of monitors where you need experience to tinker with some of the basics of husbandry-such as the forest monitors.but what part of keeping a Sav is difficult when you apply proper husbandry.The people who could have success breeding Sav's are just working with other species whether it be personal preference or monetary value.

I would say the hardest part with them for me is the soil. Finding the right kind and getting it deep enough for the female to lay eggs. Very little is written on how to build a proper nesting area for females. Of course they build the nest but you know what I mean. That can lead to serious health issues with the females.

Monitors are just not easy reptiles to raise they are in the intermediate to advanced category...... depending on the species. Savs and ackies are probably intermediate from my POV.

If one does not get their husbandry right they die. Thats probably the most important thing with monitors. Even more important then diet. Other species of reptiles can be more forgiving of bad husbandry like say bearded dragons, kingsnakes, ball pythongs,corn snakes, argentine tegus, most aquatic turtles, are probably all easier to raise then savannah monitors.

Of course all reptiles need good husbandry but if its a little off many will do ok. Monitors no. Thats more important to know then taming IMO.

As already mentioned, the first thing is to allow the animal time to acclimate to the new surroundings, until he/she feels completely safe in the enclosure, (especially if you`re in view), the animal will not calm down,so no handling whatsoever for the time being, just leave food, water, cage cleaning etc.

Just to add to the advice given earlier (allowing for the settling period etc) i always did my taming as they call it this way follow link.

Only difference would be i'd wear welders gloves on bigger lizards or lizards with a fast feeding response, just make sure gloves are covered in your scent & use them till the captive understands your fingers aren't food!
Always on their terms, if it goes wrong go back to the beginning & start again!
good luck!!

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