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Question on monitor taming:

Have a 1 year old male varanus salvator macromaculatus. Captive bred - 3rd generation - New Hampshire product. HET albino FWIW. Growing & eating very well.

Following the 'never grab, let him come to you' school of thought w/r/t taming. He has become exceptionally inquisitive and seems to seek interaction - approaching me anytime I'm inside his enclosure. When my hands are open & outstretched at the entrance of his enclosure - he has learned to reliably climb up & out - after which he remains quite calm..for 20 seconds or so. The he wants down.

His enclosure is in a large dedicated room where he can safely run about. Once you let him down, he becomes flighty, twitchy and independent. Since I do not attempt to grab him - I can't comment on whether or not he becomes aggressive. A bit of throat puffing, a his or two perhaps, that's it. Yet - if I leave him alone for 45 mins or so - he's simmered down - and can be safely scooped up & returned to his enclosure w/ no drama - perfectly calm & compliant again - at least as far as monitors are concerned.

Ambient temp in this room stays at 75F. It has a large window where he basks.

Should I avoid giving him the run of the room to avoid this reaction? Or is this just a healthy monitor show of independence? If so - why does he revert to a calm state upon my return?

Thanks -

Jimmy at Pro Exotics is very good at taming monitors. It's been a decade since I've worked there and Jimmy is still there, so I imagine he is even better now.

Perhaps Robyn can get him to post his methods?

I will reach out to Jimmy. Have worked with them in the past. Thanks --

The behavior is rather typical and rather calm compared to some of my waters. Personally unless you have decided to remodel this room into a room sized monitor enclosure I would advise against letting it run loose in a room. Loose monitors can do a lot of damage to the room and to anything in it. I have learned this the hard way a couple of times ( do you want to hear about ripping out a wall to extract one or do you want to hear about when two of them flooded my upstairs when I decided to use a bathroom as a makeshift cage while I did cage repairs...few other times as well....never pretty).
The ambient temp in the room is a little low for long term keeping for my taste, it would be fine for one part of the room or for night time temps but I would want it warmer, and a window is an inadequate basking spot not only for the temps that cam vary widely, but because you don't really want a water monitor to figure out that window is a path to outdoors (and they can they are quite smart.) a full grown water can go through typical window glass quite easily. I actually had a large adult bust through 1/8 inch plexi glass before I upgraded to thicker plexi after that.
As far as tameness goes some are more people friendly than others, but I have found that dogs are very good if you want tame pets although they do tend to take up the bed more often than waters do.

Appreciate the response, Calparsoni - and the hard lessons shared in home remodeling. Will be sure to monitor-proof the room accordingly.

FWIW - tame was perhaps not the best word choice on my part. Looking to provide for the animal's needs properly - while promoting safe and reasonably manageable interactions go forward. Manageable anyway to the extent possible.

Thanks --

I have kept several Salvators over the years and some are definately more tolerable of people than others but have found most will settle down the larger they get. I currently got one last December that was 11-12 inches head to tail and now pushing 3.5 feet but still very jittery. Comes to me for feedings when ever I approach the cage but does not like to be held or scooped up for more than a minute or so. Loves to tail whip and huff and hiss if too much is pushed on him/her but this is typical of a hot happy monitor! I am going to continue to interact with maintainance and feeding but not be too pushy and hope he/she comes more tolerant of me as she matures. If not.....hey that tail leaves a pretty cool whelt on you for hours that you can show your friends hahaha!