Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, my little one is prob about 18 inches or so, not to sure how old he is, but is still very timid and shy around people. He does not like to be handled regardless of how often i do, do these suckers chill out when they grow older, or is this temperment going to last his whole life, any tips would be great thanks guys

As they grow they do get less timid... My girl is around 30 inches or so now and is no longer timid but still hates to be handled. She doesn't mind being touched on her own terms but once she's had enough of it you'll know it. Your little one could hate you for the rest of its life. It could attempt to bite and whip and charge you always just because every monitor has a different personality regardless of species. My Savannah will tolerate my presence and beg for food... and sometimes tolerate being stroked.. but pick her up and she'll snap at you quick as anything.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

It will get used to you eventually. Something you mnay want to try is to show it you are not trying to hurt it, but to help it. I do this by making sure it is watching me and then leaving it a yummy treat. It will start to recongize you are bringing it food and this may help it calmn down. It has worked with me to help a monitor be less shy.

Keep in mind what you are doing and to whom you are doing it.

You are picking up a small lizard that is pretty much completely defenseless against you. You are harassing it despite its efforts to avoid you. You are stressing it out.

You are doing this to an animal that instict has told anything larger than it is a predator. Predators are bad. Instinct says get away from the predator by whatever means necessary. Savannahs who do not possess this instinct are eaten or killed more readily than those who possess this instinct.

You and I know you are not a predator (let's not get into conservation here) to the savannah. He does not know this to be true. Your task is to teach him that you are merely a fact of his life. Your success will depend upon your ability to teach this lesson and his willingness and ability to learn this lesson.

As he gets older and, more importantly, bigger he may calm down. As he gets bigger, you look a bit less like a predator. He becomes more confident in his ability to defend himself. He does not need to fear everything around him since he can assert himself over things more readily than can a baby. He also learns about you. He learns that you bring food and that makes you good. He learns what to expect from you - assuming you are consistent. He learns the good and the bad though, so keep in mind what you are doing.

There are two general approaches to teaching the monitor. The hands off approach teaches them that you will not, for the most part, harass them physically. This tends to get quite a few monitors to tolerate your presence and allow you quite a bit of freedom to do things near them, so long as you do not violate them physically. They tend to react differently if contacted physically. Some of them do not mind it, some of them get really irritated and resort to defense. Most of mine tend to be somewhere in the middle of that range. They do not care for being handled, but they will tolerate it. The hands on approach involves daily handling, frequent interaction, and so on. This approach gets them used to being harassed physically. However, their response varies greatly. Some monitors turn into very manageable animals that give the appearance of desiring physical interaction with people (who knows if that is true, we assign our own interpretations to their behaviors). However, quite a few of them turn into very ill-tempered animals who are passive as babies because they learn that struggling is of little use against you. That is not "tameness" but stress and resignation. As these animals get bigger and more confident in themselves, they become irritable animals that start to resist the not-so-large-anymore human who has probably also become a bit overly complacent with the "tame" animal. Some animals end in the middle of this category and tolerate people sometimes.

I prefer the hands off approach. I do not need to handle my animals often enough to justify trying to "tame" them as hatchlings and expose them to that stress. For me, the hands off approach makes predicting their end disposition more reliable. I know that over time chances are the monitor will not flip out in fear when I enter its enclosure because I rarely do anything to them. We hear quite often of the keeper who constantly interacted with their baby animal only to end up with a very ill-tempered adult animal.

It is a gamble either way. Place your bet and be observant. Your ability to adapt to the monitor will go a long way toward getting it to adapt to you.
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^

I found the best way with my savs is to use food, break off some chick heads and whilst he is wandering around the front room offer them to him but make him come to you if you are sitting on the settee get him to climb up on to your lap and whilst he's there feed it to him but then don't try to touch him make a fist and place it under his head and normally they will rest there heads on your hand and after a while (can take months or longer)they start to seek you out anyway and seem to want to come to you.

Or you could let him assert his /hers dominance over you slowly crawl up to where they are when they are on the floor but make sure they can see you coming and lie next to them (head to head) if they puff themselves up and start looking as though they are going to tailwhip lower your head and body look away from them and get as low to the floor as possible normally they will either climb on your back, (whilst they are on your back they ay scratch at you with there claws but try to keep as still as possible) or they may carry on doing whatever they were doing regardless of you being there (you may have to do this numerous times)I have had very good results with aggressive male savs using this method but be sensible and weigh up the risks involved exactly as your face is only going to be a few inches away from his whilst you are lying down and you have to stay perfectly calm as any jerky movements can spook them and make the whole process take longer, This works best with savs around 2.5 ft i very recently used this method to tame a 33" male who was v.aggressive and now he his very calm and seems to seek out company . REMEMBER EXERCISE CAUION WHILST USING THIS METHOD AS (luckily i have never been bitten on the face) BUT A BITE TO THE FACE COULD CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY but personally i think it is worth the risk for the success i have had with it.
Hope this helpa
mat

it takes some dedicated time with your savannah and a whole lot of doing nothing except leting them get used to you this is how you get them like pusscats as the get bigger try to start getting your hand closer to his or her head without him taking off or huffing at you it takes a while but take your time after he or she starts getting used to that start picking him or her up in its cage a little at a time each day or every other day if you choose every other day make sure you still go up to the cage every day and let him or her know your there so him or her will keep getting used to your being there it takes time after a while just keep taking baby steps eventually you will be careing him or her all trough the house..i have raised 7 savannahs this way and all were like puppy dogs ....i hope this will help you out ...

JODY T...