Best harness/leash for Sav. Monitor

[Tyger9791]

Vinnie has outgrown his reptile harness. he had one of these:

http://www.reptilesupply.com/images/643854800305.jpg

so now i'm looking at getting him a new harness. should i get a ferret one or a small/toy dog one?

[rebeccabecca]

I've seen pics of people using small dog/cat ones but I think the ferret ones would not fit well as they are quite skinny all of thier lifes. Buy a cheaper one thenreturn it if it doesn't fit right. BTW how do you get it to want to put on the harness??

[Tyger9791]

at first he struggled, but after doing it a few times every day for a few days, now he wants to be put in his harness. he knows if he gets his harness put on then he gets to roam around outside his enclosure. the first time i put him in one, he immediately wanted to scurry away, he didnt gator roll just tried to run. i usually put on my handling gloves when i put his harness on just so i dont get scratched up by his nails. he likes to grab onto me while i handle him.
my friend has a sav. monitor that literally when you get the leash and harness out he rolls over on his back and waits for you to put his harness on. these guys are pretty smart and respond to some training. they respond to certain cues.

[DSGB]

Me and my buddy tried to put one on his a. tegu, that didnt go as planned.

[mainbutter]

my friend has a sav. monitor that literally when you get the leash and harness out he rolls over on his back and waits for you to put his harness on. these guys are pretty smart and respond to some training. they respond to certain cues.

If it is possible do you think you could get a video of that??? I want to show my girlfriend who greatly disbelieves in any reptile intelligence that you really can compare some behaviors with that of dogs.. hence the "dog-tame monitors" people talk about.

[BSM]

all your going to due is stress the monitor out and thats not good.

"dog-tame monitors" people talk about

Those so called dog tame monitors, this is how you get them. Keep low basking temps and feed once a week, they will become lazy and guess what at the same time you will be slowing killing it. Monitors are mostly hands off animals and are more for looking/observing, if you want a healthy monitor keep the basking spot high and feed ?days (depends on size and species). They will live for 15+ years compared to the "dog tame" monitors which rarely exceed a year or two

[rebeccabecca]

They can become accostumed to you if they are healthy but they won't sit on your lap like lap dog or grr feed from your mouth. The person on the net who is teaching people that it's ok to house train them actually killed her's in less then two years ,drowned a few and needed to "break" hers in. Of course putting a leash on them so they can roam for a bit outside thier cage in my opinion is ok as long as it's not for a long time(say +3 hours unless the outside temps are hot and humid) and you read your pet's cues,like if it hisses or becomes agressive, also never take a hiding sav out of it's "safe" spot. Of course some of the sav training out there is rediculous. Paper training is honestly a waist of time as you should't have them out that long and it's stressfull, letting them sleep with you also stupid and the most idiotic thing yet is to let young kids climb on, try to kiss, and feed a sav while out of the enclosure. that's just calling for the monitor to hurt your kid as they are still considered "wild" even if they come when called!!

[Tyger9791]

i only put a leash and harness on him to take him out of his enclosure to go outside so he can run around a bit and get some sunlight and some exercise so he doesnt get fat and lazy.
i saw the videos on youtube of some lady letting a monitor feed from her mouth, she held a piece of meat in her mouth and let the monitor take it from her. there was another one of her demonstrating how she teaches a monitor to "give her kisses" for food. thats nuts to me, i wont even make my dog do that!
i feed my monitor using tongs, and he's a healthy growing boy! he has a hot basking spot and is truly spoiled.
if he hisses or thrashes about or is in shed i let him be. i want him to be tame and not overly aggressive, but i'm not going to leave him in a cool state or underfeed him so i get a sick, lethargic, "dog tame" monitor. thats cruel.
but i want to let him get exercise safely, so yes i put a leash on him so he cant run off. these guys are quick and can climb a tree pretty fast. i dont want him to get hurt or escape.

[qiksilver]

How 'bout giving him a large enough cage so you won't have to take him out like a dog?

[rebeccabecca]

A bit of "real" sunlight is good for them. Of course a big cage is good too but an occasional sunning is good. A lightbulb can't really compair to real sun and outside is good for enrichment as in the wild they travel great distances just for food. Of course you could just make a dog run and put him in it but in my area he'd be stolen.