Quote Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents View Post
Those are beautiful. I have a question for the few monitor experts we have here though.. NERD claims to have many "tame" monitors.. In this vid they talk about imprinting. How they will go to one person and not want to go to anyone else. They are petting the monitors. Playing with them. Etc...

So according to certain people on this forum, those monitors are unhealthy right? Because healthy monitors do not act like this. Am I right?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Inquiring minds want to know why some people think that a monitor enjoys being touched. Or better yet, that monitors actually enjoy the companionship of humans.

Monitors are not dogs that live by a pack hierarchy or other domesticated animals that seek our approval and attention.

Monitors do not have loyalty to anyone. They live only to eat, crap and make baby monitors. They do not behave with YOU in mind. They don't care about you, they only care that you don't pose a threat to them.

Once this is understood, then the concept of "taming" becomes laughable. A monitor may become habituated to it's owner and learn to accept the owner's presence without showing aggression. Some species of monitors are quicker to become habituated - salvators are one of those species.

Monitors live in a world where they are hunted by animals larger than them. Again, while the presence of the human owner may become accepted because the animal learns there is no threat, that does not mean that the varanid is tame or, as some people claim, enjoy the company of humans.

So someone who "tames" a monitor may have only succeeded in proving to the animal that they pose no threat. I say "may" because it's also possible that the poor animal may just be acting subdued because it's scared to death.

People often "tame" their monitors by allowing them to roam the house, putting them on leashes and treating them like big scaly dogs. This creates a stressed animal and it subjects the animal to living conditions that are not healthy. A monitor roaming your living room does not have access to an acceptable thermal gradient. A monitor on a leash is being forced into a series of stressful situations it does not understand. Just because some species outwardly handle this stress with less aggression than others does not mean that it's not unhealthy and that it won't take it's toll in the long run.

A monitor that is cold, unhealthy and stressed will behave very "tame" indeed. That's why varanid keepers always refer to healthy monitors as not acting "tame" and that once they are given a secure space of there own, with a proper diet and thermal gradient, they often act the very opposite of tame.

"Tame" is a bad word to use in conjunction with varanids. All it takes is a moment of unfamiliarity or the wrong stimulus and the word "tame" becomes a joke. A lot of people have found this out the hard way.

Then again, some people are happy to throw "tame" around in conjunction with retics and other potentially dangerous reptiles........whatever.........