Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have heard from alot of people use the term "Typical Nile attitude"
This is what I think of when I hear typical Nile. I have had 30 plus niles all from Juv. to adult and only one was nasty or didn't like to associate with humans. I don't know if it is because I associate with all of our animals on a daily basis ir if I have just been lucky. Oh the way I pick my babies is by sticking my hand in the tank and which ever one bites and doesn't let go comes home with me. I figure that this way they are sure to feed. Oh well I guess I have been lucky, LOL I will probably lose a finger next time I handle Mason(in the PIC) because of this post.LOL

Well, your fingers do look like round fat plump mice, I bet many of your pets go after them. Anyhow, there are better ways than letting them bite you to see if they are worth buying, probably throw in a food item or so and see who gets to it fastest or whose more allert when food is dropped in.

I sense a form of sarcasium when you said, its either because you play with your animals daily or because you're just lucky. Might be wrong but I have a sense for these things. Its obviously because u play with them all daily.

Cute monitor by the way.

I was just joking about the bitting part. Anyway I just think it is strange that my niles have always been really good about being handled, however my one water is as nasty as the day is long. Go figure.LOL

"I was just joking about the bitting part. Anyway I just think it is strange that my niles have always been really good about being handled, however my one water is as nasty as the day is long. Go figure.LOL"

Well, that is totally different from what I experienced. Man, I got two nile monitors they all freaken ran away from me. I'll explain why later. Anyways, had 1 for like 5 months, didn't change one bit. One thing I found that is different from my currently asian monitor compared to the niles is that niles don't really bite, I mean I got bitten by one 7 times or so and it was when I tried to grab him while he was snoozing in the water. He never bit me on land. He would either run or puff up (which is extremely cute!). My asian monitor's first defense of course is run, after that he just gives up running and stand his ground and bite. He bit me like 6 times already! And thats me going gradually towards him in a non threatening manner. He just takes one flick of his tongue, I always think its his way of getting use to me, well, he always ends up lunging at my fingers with bull dog death grips. Vinegar doesn't even faze him and its kind of useless but wait it out, which ends up with me getting a major infection which burns and iches for days. However, I've finally tamed him so that he doesn't bite no more, he still runs, however, but its an improvement. It's weird, though, its like monitors from different parts of the world seem to be different. Like your niles seem to get tamed more easily than the ones I get here. Shrug, its just a thought, bored lol.

From what I've seen from a few years on the forum and raising one to adulthood, is that you really have to handle them alot, or not at all. Handling them *sometimes* does more harm than good. I don't handle my monitor ever, and she really appreciates that. We interact at feeding time, and she's always fairly relaxed. All of the pictures I've seen of *tame* niles, usually come from people who have large families who all handle the monitor, or people who don't have jobs.

That's funny because I am the only person that handles the nile in the pic. Occassionally someone else will get him out or I'll hand him to someone for a bit, but I am the one who handles him. We do have children, butit is just my husband and I that have handled our niles as I don't feel comfortable with young children handling any monitor. And it is also funny that even when I come home from work I find the time to handle all of my monitors/lizards on a pretty daily basis. Wow, I guess that makes me superwoman then huh? Kids, work, lizards? Yep...

work, lizards(tame niles even), KIDS too? Yes, that does make you superwoman.