Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what should i do? please reply....

At the very least give them a couple weeks to get acclimated to their new cage. When they are feeding regularly and don't try to run up the walls when you walk into the room you can probably start working with them. This may take months and not weeks but you will have to be the proper judge. Make sure you are gradual in your increased interactions... I would recommend starting off by feeding with tongs, and maybe move to trying to pet them in their cage (with a gloved hand!). Just remembe be patient, and never force the issue or you will have a stressed resentful animal.

Good luck...

ok manybe a month, but my timor monitor are like 8-9" long, should i still use tongs, but that sounds alittle over the top!
thanks for the info can i have anyone ellses opion.

If yours are CB then I think you have hope. Mine is WC LTC and I've pretty much given up. I'm not sure I'd ever expect them to sit quietly when you pick them up, though. Gloves aren't necessary if you don't mind a few scratches and are very careful about keeping your fingers away from their mouths. They bite hard for little lizards. When you handle them I'd stuff a towel under the door, so if they get away they can't squeeze under it. They're very fast and good at hiding.

Depends on the individual animal. I recently acquired a group of WC timors, and one of the females is very tolerant of being pet after only a few days (still won't let me pick her up though). Of course, the others are significantly more skittish, but they have calmed down in the past couple of weeks.

yah i know when i walk in to my room they go crazy runing in to the walls of the cage. but it looks to me that they are geting used to me and not doing that that often. but thats a newbies opion.

He doesn't dive for cover as FAST as he used to, is that progress?
Mine won't eat until I'm far out of the room anyway, so I just drop the food in. But if he was trying to grab the mice from me, tongs would be a must.

Hi
You do not want your lizards to associate fingers with food. Really. They will remember it, and when monitors go into "food mode" they are very serious about it. They won't look at you with affection because you gave them something to eat. They will want to rip open that hand to see if it contains more food.
When in food mode, mine bite at any movement, just in case that is the source of the food they smell on the air. Once it was my fingers. And once it was almost my toes. They normally ignore fingers and toes. Mine are more pleasant to interact with, as long as food is not around.

As far as handling goes, there are two big schools of thought on the forum.
Some say no touching, but let them see you and be around you a lot. Some say touch them and get them used to it. I have no idea which is "better". It all depends on what you want the end result to be. An animal that trusts you or is resigned to you. They're your pets, its your personal decision.

One thing to point out, touching doesn't seem to be as pleasant a thing to them as it is with a mammal. Mammals groom each other and are very touchy feely, so they readily accept it from people. Reptiles are of a different mindset about that. I am new to reptiles, so don't presume to know how they feel,- I don't. But I do know my docile female rudi will touch me when she is walking around, sometimes even climbing on me. She's fine with that, but for ME to touch HER, offends her much. So I don't do it often.
Good luck. D.

You are correct that a bite from a cute 8" monitor will be more funny than anything, but these guys are pretty smart and will form food associations quickly. Tongs being associated with food is good, fingers being associated with food will put you in the emergency room when they get bigger. Good luck!

I don't think a bite from an adult timor could put you in the emergency room unless they got you on the nose or something. Mine's gotten me and my vet, and though it really hurt, it wasn't anything that needed stitches. He's 24 inches.

thanks
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Varanus Creations

Sigh, no digital camera....and actually no monitors right now, which I assume is what you were getting at. All I am currently keeping is a fat and happy blue tegu. I don't breed them or claim to, and I don't give incubation temperature advice. I don't claim to be an expert, but feel I have learned enough to answer the "easy husbandry" questions as you put it. If you think I have ever led anyone astray with one of my posts feel free to call me on it.

-Nick

thanks for being honest. not having monitors is not the bad part. daniel bennet has no monitors. it could just get bad for you to give husbandry advice you are not practicing. the only advice i give people (or try to anyway) is what i practice daily and what is working now. but hell, what i am doing now will be different most likely down the road. if it doesn't work i fix it, if it does i don't, wierd huh, no, it makes sense. its a fun game anyhow. cheers
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Varanus Creations