black throat taming questions?

[Arvin k]

Hey Guys Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place im pretty new to forum's and any question ive left on monitor forums seemed to go unanswered and seeing how a lot of you guys on here seem pretty helpful & a lot more experienced thought maybe one of you guys can help. I got a black throat monitor last week and he was really crazy tail whipping hissing non stop he was 15 16 inches and is around 19-20 now. so far he has tamed down pretty well ive been hand feeding him since the 2nd day I had him. On Saturday he actually walked up my hand and out of his enclosure so I let him hang out in my room for a couple hours then on Sunday he did it again & I gave him a bath in the tub and after th bath he was quite docile I thought things were going pretty well until today he didnt climb out on my hand again but I left his door open for a bit and went downstairs to get something & sure enough he was out by the time i got back but for some reason this time he was hissing and tail whipping soon as he saw me so when got him on me to put him back in his enclosure he was hissing at me non stop so I didnt want to reword that by puting him back so I let him walk over my arms over & over again until he stopped hissing and relaxed then i let him go back in.

So my question is did I do something wrong or is this kind of normal behavior when taming big lizards and @ this point should I be letting him out of his enclosure by either leaving the door open or reaching in or wait until he comes out on his own again or just keep taking him out and walking over my arms.

any advice is really appreciated and also if any of you guys know a good monitor forum please let me know.
Thank you, Arvin k.

 

[snibborsirk]

Hey Guys Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place im pretty new to forum's and any question ive left on monitor forums seemed to go unanswered and seeing how a lot of you guys on here seem pretty helpful & a lot more experienced thought maybe one of you guys can help. I got a black throat monitor last week and he was really crazy tail whipping hissing non stop he was 15 16 inches and is around 19-20 now. so far he has tamed down pretty well ive been hand feeding him since the 2nd day I had him. On Saturday he actually walked up my hand and out of his enclosure so I let him hang out in my room for a couple hours then on Sunday he did it again & I gave him a bath in the tub and after th bath he was quite docile I thought things were going pretty well until today he didnt climb out on my hand again but I left his door open for a bit and went downstairs to get something & sure enough he was out by the time i got back but for some reason this time he was hissing and tail whipping soon as he saw me so when got him on me to put him back in his enclosure he was hissing at me non stop so I didnt want to reword that by puting him back so I let him walk over my arms over & over again until he stopped hissing and relaxed then i let him go back in.

So my question is did I do something wrong or is this kind of normal behavior when taming big lizards and @ this point should I be letting him out of his enclosure by either leaving the door open or reaching in or wait until he comes out on his own again or just keep taking him out and walking over my arms.

any advice is really appreciated and also if any of you guys know a good monitor forum please let me know.
Thank you, Arvin k.

Arvin - it's been a while but I had a couple of black throats and white throats about 20 yrs ago in middle/high school. Had one of each that were super tame from day 1 and then 1 of each that were very temperamental the entire time I had them. With those two I kinda just had to see what mood they were in before handling them. Some days they did as you said and crawled all over me with no hesitation, other times they were very defensive. The hissing and tail whipping will lessen as they get used to you, but just keep in mind that they may have moments or days when they want to be left alone. I'm sure with frequent handling and just hanging around him in general he'll warm up to you. I just had to learn how to read my 2 temperamental ones to see what mood they were in. Good thing though is that I've never been bitten by a black or white throat - not even by large wild caughts at the pet store I worked at. Not saying they never will bite, but from my experience they mellow out fairly quick.

As far as getting him out of the cage, I've never been a big fan of letting them crawl out themselves until they are comfortable with you and their environment. Until they are used to everything, they will prob see crawling out on their own as escaping rather than fun exploration! I don't like to let them free roam at first unless I've gotten them out myself and they have calmed down and seem relaxed with you. Even then I'd keep a close eye and maybe limit the area they can free roam in. Def keep them away from tight spaces where they can hide. It's not fun trying to get a large monitor out of a tight hiding place - especially if he's not fully used to you yet! Hope this helps a little. Happy to answer any questions if I can.

 

[Walter1]

Little to add to Snibb's advice. Only to remember that any kind of lizard, until they trust you, can be frightened by something taller than they are walking toward them while they're feeling vulnerable on the ground.

 

[Arvin k]

Hey Snibborsirk,
I really appreciate you taking your time to help me out!

Your advice really did help, when you said thinking of it as an escape rather then exploration made me think back and the way he was just staring at me and searching my room for a way out he really wasn't exploring lol he just used my arm as an escape route , whatta smart jerk lol

As far as limiting & Dino proofing it I really appreciate you mentioning it fortunately that's one thing I did cover or it would definitely be a fun time getting this guy out of a tight space specially when he's not too happy , he's limited to my room closet and bathroom doors closed & off limits but I think the room is still too big, I think I might try laying in the tub with him & see how that goes so he has almost no choice but to just climb me rather then play, chase the throat around the room.

After reading dougY's post "Tegu Taming Working" , I remember seeing Brian Gundy's video on you tube too when I was doing all my research before I got this little guy & thought I'd give it a try so I got him out today to feed him & he bit me twice lol in all honesty the first time was when I was feeding him and he thought my finger was part of the turkey mix but the second time im pretty sure he did it on purpose. It was my other hand that didn't even touch his food and he just tried to get away after. It drew a lil blood but was really nothing I don't think he was really trying to bite or at least I hope he really was lol.

After a while I started stroking his head and neck and he fell asleep for like 20-30min then woke up whipped me I repeated then he just knocked out on me for the next couple hours or so when he woke up again he was calm and cool so u put him back in his enclosure for the night
I really like this little guy so I hope your right and he will warm up to me, I can't imagine having a 6+ foot beast that doesn't like me and he's growing super fast

I did have a few questions hope you could help me out with

Force handling ? Are people referring to it as in taking him out and holding him tight so he can't move or just taking him out even tho he doesn't want to and letting them crawl arm over arm ? Because I can't imagine him just crawling on my arm and just wanting to chill and sleep on me without any regular handling but everything I've read on other monitor forums saying just leave them alone leave them alone has me wondering

how big of a mouse can I feed him, at first I got him pinkies and that was a nice snack lol , so I got him fuzzies next round & better but still seemed too easy for him. Is there a general rule of thumb , I really want to order in bulk online and don't want to feed him something too big that he can't handle either

And how long can I leave food in his cage if he's not hungry at the time I've been worried leaving them in for a long time (couple hours) they may go bad with all that heat Nd he may get sick if he eats it ?

 

[Arvin k]

Thanks Walter yea I've been trying to move almost too slow when I'm trying to pick him up or go close to give him some food & getting a much better response from him that way

 

[Arvin k]

That's a picture of him when I first got him last 2 weeks ago

That's him yesterday just to give an idea of his size (he's really scared of my phone so it's hard to take a nice pic of him

 

[Walter1]

They're a really beautiful lizard, and by our standards very intelligent.

 

[Arvin k]

That's for sure! Do you guys think Tegu's and monitors should react the same as far as taming methods and stuff go? Of course I think monitors may be a little tuffer but they are both little guys that see us as monsters just out to get them at first and grow to a decent size

 

[Walter1]

I do with the exception that some species of monitors, like argu for example, that really are best kept as display or breeding.