Went to the rocky mountain reptile expo. Never fails I see a decent sized monitor and feel bad knowing some 13 year old kid who scraped together his allowance will probably end up convincing his dad to buy the cool dinosaur for his new 20 gallon aquarium..
Anyway, found this male ornate being sold, thankfully as one of the first people in the door, I managed to snatch him up pretty quickly - and in the 5 minutes after, the rest of the monitors at the show sold out! Saved one I guess...
Anyway, he was sold to me as a sort of vicious animal who does not take well to handling. I've been working with him and trying a couple new techniques. I left him completely alone saturday night, and he was charging about like a crack addict biting things and whipping like no tomorrow. Worked with him yesterday and today. He now tolerates my presence when in the shed and he's come a long way. I brought him in to the monitor room to run around for awhile, he was less than happy when it came time to be put back in the cage and gave me a nice warning bite when I had to catch him and put him back.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16...0815011259.jpg
I've loved the look of ornates since I first got into monitors, I'm still on the fence with this one. If I'm into my new house by winter I'll probably keep him and take him with me. If not I'll at least work with him and calm him down and be able to screen through a potential list of new homes for him so I can make sure he goes to someone experienced and not an adventurous kid with his allowance money!
-Mike
