Frustration.

[Noggy93]

Hey gang. I made a post about two months ago about the savannah monitor that I was getting. Well, I got him and he is healthy and flawless(hes a baby). BUt He is EXTREMELY cautious. As in, I walk up stairs into the room he is kept in and I see him out on his basking spot, but then he freaks out and scurries back into one of his hides. I've had him for almost two months now and I've been trying to handle him with my bare hands and with gloves on (he sorta bites too), Any tips on going at it? I'm trying to be patient but this is a bit frustrating. And I've heard that savannah monitors are the most docile type of monitor (which is one of the reasons I got him). I mean, I reach into the tank with my gloves on, slowly, and he totally freaks out and runs all over the place. Heh hes quick too so its pretty hard to catch him. If I have him cornered so he can't run, he lunges for a bite. Please help me out!

[frankykeno]

I know squat about monitors so I can't comment on that specifically but just wanted to say give it time and a ton of patience. Two months in the lifetime of your monitor (or any long living pet) is really next to no time. Remember these aren't pack/herd animals that are driven to make contact with other living things, especially human beings. We are in fact asking them to go against instinct and allow what they may well perceive as a predator, to handle them.

[CTReptileRescue]

I know squat about monitors so I can't comment on that specifically but just wanted to say give it time and a ton of patience. Two months in the lifetime of your monitor (or any long living pet) is really next to no time. Remember these aren't pack/herd animals that are driven to make contact with other living things, especially human beings. We are in fact asking them to go against instinct and allow what they may well perceive as a predator, to handle them.

Very well said Jo,
We have alot of monitors into rescue for a variety of reasons, I can tell you that none of those reasons is because the monitor wants to cuddle to much.
These are wild animals and deserve our respct.
I have worked with many different Varanids for a while now and can say that in my experience Sav's are one of the most calm. They will hiss and puff and their bite (when the animal is full grown) can pack a good punch, but they rarely bite when they are larger.
Small ones like your little guy are prone to flight.
Remember if you were that small and something human size kept reaching into the only environment they know you'd be prone to running away too, and if you were being held and unable to run you may be a little more apt to bite.
You just need to remember to go very slowly and be very patient.
He'll come around when he is ready.
At two weeks any monitors that come through here are still in quarentine and only being handled for medical reasons.
If we decide to work with an animal for our educational presentations it can take over a year to get the animal calm enough for handling.
Sav's are more likely to be calm, but that doesn't mean every single one will be. Just give him time.
You'll see he'll come around.
Rusty

[Razaiel]

Ditto that - my Sav is just about a year old now - your monitor is just being a monitor. I wrote this on another forum so apologies - I'm just going to cut and paste.


I'm not an expert - I've only ever had this one monitor and they're all different - they will never be bearded dragons. I never try to handle or touch my monitor directly after feeding - because I know he will be a bit cranky and will probably go for me as it's still in feeding mode. Mine calms down considerably quicker now after feeding than he used to (but he's getting older and used to me).

If it's any help the thing that worked for me to get mine hand-tolerant (taming isn't really a word with monitors) when he was little was to let him get used to me just putting my hand inside to fiddle with tidying up his topsoil and removing poop, changing water, rearranging greenery etc - then take it out again without touching, just talking.

Couple of weeks later I would open viv and just talk to him and stroke the side of his head (no fast moves) where he really likes to be scritched - but I didn't get him out. Later on (maybe a week or two later) once or twice a day I would get him out for "tolerating human" time and let him sit on me a bit. I stayed close to the viv so he knew he wasn't far from his territory.

He's now at the stage where I let him run around the room a bit and I've found he's really tolerant of being touched anywhere on his body will even trot up to me and climb up onto my shoulder to sit awhile - sometimes - others he just wants to head back for his nice warm viv

Like I said, I'm by no means an expert and your sav might be shyer than mine - but a flighty sav is a good thing as it means he's healthy - one that is lethargic and will just let you do anything is probably sick.

Best of luck!

(BTW - mine will still sometimes scoot to his hide when someone comes into the room - other times he'll be stood in front of his glass begging someone to let him out! - I often think monitors have definite mood swings like parrots do )