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how big of a black throated monitor would it take to bite through a welders glove? and once i start handling him without the gloves will he start biting me again? thanx for your help.

Almost any monitor over 3' in length can get a tooth or two through welders' gloves, and most 4' monitors can shred them. Above that size, the surgeon gets to pick the bits of leather out of your hand while cleaning you up. Even species that develop blunter teeth with age can do a lot of crushing damage if they get a solid bite.

Gloves will certainly deflect some of the glancing bites monitors use to say "leave me alone", and long cuffs certainly help maintain your focus by preventing nasty scratches, but gloves are not an antidote to bites. It is far more important to hold the animal correctly than to wear gloves and just fumble with it. More importantly, the fact that an animal is seeking to bite you indicates that it is not at all comfortable with your presence or approach. Forcing handling under those conditions is not going to "tame" it -- instead, you are reinforcing its fear of you.

I'd suggest that you take a less forward approach, by leting the animal learn that you do not represent a mortal threat. Most (but sadly, not all) monitors will come to accept you being around in a fairly short time, and not long after that will start to become curious about you. That's the point when handling can start, but let the monitor initiate it, and back off at any sign of having taken things too far too fast. It's important to have caging that allows the animal to settle in and develop some sense of security, and not good (for different reasons) to drag it out of a hide, or to try to handle it with either gloves or bare hands that smell of monitor food.

Some people think that gloves just make you foolish by letting you imagine that you can't get hurt if the animal bites. That's only partly true, but be realistic about what monitor teeth can do.

I use welding gloves with my blackthroat. They are not to reduce biting, they are to reduce scratches from the claws when it desides it wants to leave. I try to keep the mouth and it's crushing force away from my body parts.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

From other reptiles, not from monitor bites. My 4 ft male albig got my finger just for a split second when feeding him, it broke a chip of bone off of my knuckle on the side even though no damage to the skin, Ive had a piece of bone floating in my finger ever since, the lump is definitely visible. Gloves wont protect you from an albigs bite, especially if they get mad and actually bite down and "bull dog" you, youll learn what pain is, they usually hang on a long time. Try to prevent being bit, even a 2ft whitethroat I was checking out years ago broke the skin and flesh deeply, then refused to release for more than 20 minutes.

When your talking about Albigs and welders gloves, try testing it in this manner.

Get a nice hammer and a vice. Put your finger on the vise and smack it with the hammer, you know, a pretty good smack. Now, put the welders glove on and put a finger on the vise, please use a different finger. Now smack it the same as you smacked the first finger.

Now, compare the first finger to the second. Compare the pain, the bleeding, and of course the swelling, also, whether the fingernail fell off or not.

The point of this experiment is, the difference between the two fingers will be very similar to the difference you would see if you let an Albig bite your finger, with and without welders gloves. Its a good apples to apples experiment.

Welders gloves are very good to use when welding. Thanks and please take this with some humor. FR

>> how big of a black throated monitor would it take to bite
>> through a welders glove? and once i start handling him without
>> the gloves will he start biting me again? thanx for your help.

Black throats are pressure biters. They won't really bite through gloves so much as crush your fingers inside the gloves. I think Frank described this very well in his post. To really protect yourself, you'd probably need plate armor gauntlets. Your local medival re-encatment society would probably be able to help you acquire some of thse, although they might be pricey.

Monitors bite either out of fear or because you are doing something stupid while feeding them (also, females that have just layed eggs will sometimes bite and even chase people - I've got some funny stories about this. However, you probably don't need to worry about this yet). The presence or absence of gloves will really make no difference to this. I'll spare you the lecture on forced handling as a method of 'taming' monitors, since it looks like Sam beat me to it, but also take care when feeding. A pair of 24 inch or longer hemostats are a must-have tool for caring for monitors - it gives a comfortable separation between your hands and the food and greatly reduces the number of bite incidents you need to worry about. Also use barriers to your advantage - making sure the glass door is between you and the monitor when you stick the hemostats around the door, dangling the mouse on the end will just about eliminate the danger of bites. Finally, always wear shoes when a monitor is on the floor!

Learning from other people's mistakes is always better than learning from your own. Here's your opportunity to learn from mine.

Good luck,

Luke

about the learning from your mistakes and the shoes thing. Seems like too good a story to pass up on

-Andrew

>>about the learning from your mistakes and the shoes thing. Seems like too good a story to pass up on

Well, there are more cases than I can remember of me walking barefoot into a room with monitors in it, and then being forced to do some sort of dance to avoid curiously hungry lizards. Arguses, niles, savannas, all seem to be toe samplers. One time I even had a curious savanna start playing with a shoe as if it were a chew toy. Just today, a flavie tried to eat my stocking feet (and my fingers, too, what's up with that?)

Perhaps my best bare foot story is when I was cleaning one of my argus cages. I let the lizards out to roam while I did my work. Unbenownst to me, my girlfriend (now wife) was cooking in the kitchen with bare feet. To hear her tell it, she was innocently minding her own business when this "thing" came dashing out from behind one of the counters aiming for her feet. She was just able to barely scramble up onto the back of the couch to get away from the slavering, snapping jaws. The first I heard of it was a cry from the living room "Luke! Come get your lizard!"

In any event, I rescued the fair maiden from the ravenous dragon, and now we're doing a fair approximation of happily ever after.

Luke

np

No joke on the shoes. My Argus cross ran me right out of his room. Just came stomping after me with his head pointed right at my bare tootsies. Yikes. Funny, but Yikes.

LOL! When my rescue savannah started to feel and act like a monitor should, that's the first thing my husband offered me... his SCA fighting gauntlets! As to the toes, fingers and toes have a suspicious resemblance to large pinkie mice!

"Anyone with a lot of patience and a well stocked first aid kit can eventually tame a monitor."

Leslie

n/p

I have been bitten by a couple of smaller Waters. The worse is by 3.5'. It got me on my bare thumb and held for 15 mins. or so(It seems like forever). I tried to grab it while it was trying to flee. Now, this monitor can be picked up most of the time. Anyway, one of its teeth almost pierces my nail! Ouch!