I got the water monitor......

oooh, i see. lol

Haha - you know I wouldn't "get at you" :P

Yeah, but it's all done now. He did take a frozen hopper today but he's soooooo shy. If I come in the room he scrams so fast he just about leaves his tail behind. I talked to a girl today and she said they all act like that and that I should give him 5 days and start to handle him? I want to make him super handleable but I think by his attitude I have ALOT of work ahead. In your opinion should I force handle him?

let him come to you Trey. He will get used to you being around and see you as no problem at all. Eventually he will become interested in you. Soon he won't run off and eventually you will be able to put your hands in the cage and he will explore you. Get him to a vet though to check for parasites and good luck

dont handle him at all. the best thing to do is just leave him alone as much as possible until he doesnt just scurry away as fast as he can, which is actually a good sign. if he's scurrying that means he feels that he can show you where his hiding spot his. if he freezes there and closes his eyes that meens he's so freakedout and very stressed.

anyways, leave him alone until he doesnt run from you at first sight. once you've gotten to that point start sitting by his cage and reading a book or something. dont pay any attention to him. dont even look at him. let him observe you. once you've gotten past that point you can start to stick your hand in his cage to see if he'll come to you. if he curls his tail, puffs his throat, or anything to show aggravation then take your hand out and try again the next day.

under no circumstances should you force handle him. that will break his trust in you and you'll have tp start over again.

Like Marshall and Jake said - let him get used to his new home and the new creatures he'll be sharing his environment with (i.e. you and whoever/whatever else is around). Lots of time and patience seems to be the only thing that works with monitors - just take it slow and enjoy him for being a monitor