Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just don't get all the facination with wanting to hold a monitor. It's a lizard people, If I want to hold something, I will find my wife (she's soft)or a teddy bear.
The only times I handle any of my scaley friends is when I do cage cleaning or maintenance or the dreaded vet visit.
Please someone, tell me why a monitor must be held and turned into a puppy.

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

i can understand where your coming from with that but i do not completely agree. although there is no real need to turn your monitor into a puppy, it is not something that is easily accomplished and can be looked at as something of value. more importantly having a monitor that is not only accustomed to dealing with humans but is some what 'tame' will make everyday life of both you and the animal easier. i have found that my animals appear to be less stressed by human presence (which is a common accurance in their living conditions) as well as the fact that they are much easier for me to deal with when caring for them. its not so much fun to try to reach in a cage to change a water bowl with a nice sized lizard feeling threatened and contemplating stepping up his territory defence to a bite. i do not however think it is necisarry to have a monitor that is so called puppy tame if that is not the owners perogitive. it can be compared to dogs as some people have house dogs who are trained to do tricks and such and other people have hunting dogs who live outside with a wild pack like temperment. its all in the preference of the owner.

I can enter all my cages without problems. My savs and argus will come over and check me out. The argus will climb all over me rooting in my shirt and pockets looking for food.
The savs always come over to see what I am doing and probaly hoping for food too. Once they figure out I didn't bring food, they go back to doing whatever they were doing.
Now, my blackthroat never liked humans, considering what he has gone through in his life, I don't blame him.
I can go into his cage, I just have to respect his space.
As far as an accomplishment. I see them being able to act like monitors as the ultimate accomplishment.

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

Monitors seem to naturally become quite easy to work with, unless they've been mistreated (which the import process is). I have never gotten a defensive bite from any monitor where I wasn't trying to restrain it. Sure there is lots of bluff, but if you respect them, it seems they would rather avoid a fight that wasn't necessary.

Some of my favorite monitors are hands off types. And I have no problems maintaining their cages, some of them are more challenging to move, but most will happily jump into a bin for food.

--Robert

i didnt mean to make it sound like i felt your way of keeping mointors was wrong or not as good. just trying to explain that there are differnt ways to keep animals and some people prefer one over the other. to me it sounds like your situation is working good for you and there is no reason to try to tame them. i find that many times the taming of the animal depends more on the amount of animals an individual owns. more animals usually means the person is keeping them for the beauty of the animal itself and not to have a tame monitor. however sometimes when an individual only owns one monitor it recieves much more interaction and the tendency towards taming is greater. once again there are many ways to keep animals and i dont see any as being wrong aside from providing proper care. as far as taming goes, if that is your thing then fine, if not then thats fine too.

Newbies have this immediate impulse to handle and grope the monitors. This is not to be confused with taming. Why they think that is taming is often very confusing. Most of the time, they get that idea from other newbies. Simply put, the blind leading the blind. When people with experience tell them thats not how its done, they respond like you did.

The hard reality is, monitors when treated fairly become tame all on their own. You do not need to grope them into submission or handle them X amount of time a day. They will come to you on their own accord.

This idea, that handling them so they won't bite when they grow up thing is also dumb as a stone. Again in reality, monitors are not biters. Once they get used to you, biting is a very last resort. Even tame monitors will bite if severely oftened. If fact, most often bites from longterm captives are feeding related accidents. In these cases, its the keepers fault for not understanding monitors feeding responces and training. EVEN TAME MONITORS, bite in food response behaviors, that has nothing to do with taming. In fact, the tamer they are, the more often your bitten in this way.

What these monitor tamers should understand is, the first priorty with a new monitor is, to attain and maintain proper health. After that taming could start. The problem is, they tame themselves and theres usually no need to do this suedo taming junk.

The other problem is, this has been said many times, but its one of those, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT DEALS, newbies just "want" to grope these new monitors to death, it really has nothing to do with taming. Taming is only an excuse.

Your saying its about peoples different choices is totally wrong, it is about lack of experience and ignorance. Again, forced handling is not taming, its stressing. As Bob said, stressing into submission, or in most cases, stressing into Omission(which means, to death) So please understand, the folks here are only trying to help the newbies by telling them to STOP the nonsense and quit forcing yourself on a poor little scared animal. FR

OK maybe I don't know, but I will guess.

They hold them because, they do not know that there is more to monitors then holding them. They do not have their cages setup in a way that allows "that more" to be expressed. They have the standard petshop sliding top reptile tank, with a hide and bulb and water bowl and carpet for substrate(or equal). So after about ten minutes, there is nothing more to see, then the only entertainment is holding them.

You see, the pet shop setup, is static, the animals don't do anything, don't grow, no progress, heck I understand, theres nothing else to do, but hold them.

Come to think of it, if my monitors did nothing but sit there, I would hold them too. But as it is, if I hold them, it upsets all the neat stuff they do, so I like you, rarely hold them. FR

Well, I must admit, I handle my argus more than the others.
I open the door to spot clean or change water, he comes running looking for food. Once it realizes I am not offering food, it is down my shirt and rooting through my pockets. I have to get him off so I can close the cage door.
Ever have a monitor run up your pants leg while company is over?
Lets just say, I am glad I was wearing my good shorts.

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

happened to me with my black tegu. Never let go off my legs, and sometimes he even climbed into my pants. (OOOO the scratchs)

I have no idea why! But I know in some case its no good for the monitor, all monitors are curious by nature, they like to investigate everything in sight, if you respect them they will come to you on their own terms.
Rgds

To each his (or her) own!!!!

Monitors are sold in the "Pet" industry so they are treated as such. Bearded Dragons are lizards too and they are handled, and loved on by their human owners. The common monitor buyer is not educated as to what monitors or and some cases if they do know what they are they dont care. People to do not buy them as wild animals nor see them in that light. They get them as loving pets, or so they believe, and treat them as such, only to find this is an intelligent animals that bites, hisses, tails whips, poops on you, throws up on you, scatches, and requires a lot of time, money, and space for their care. But hey its a cool "pet".

Of all my monitors that I own and have owned only two I've have handled and raised them as pets. So they are handlable but 90% of monitor will never be that way.

The question you ask is not a new one and will be answered but the average monitor buyer will not care nor listen. They will go on their mary way buying and dumping several monitors when they find out they arent cool pets and dont become dog tame.
Thanks,
Christine
Tails With Scales Reptiles

Its got to be useful to have a monitor that is tolerant enough to not attack the vet or whatever but I don't think there's any need to stress it more than necessary. Also, I think "Tame" is a slightly misleading word. I recently saw a blackthroat advertised as "kitten tame". The last time I was in a room with a kitten it playfully attacked my eyes while I was sleeping.

That was funny.
-----
Ed

These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.