Ashley Bridges
New Member
- Messages
- 15
Since this is behavior related I'll try and give some backstory. I've wanted an Argentina black and white for years, have quite a bit of reptile experience including more advanced species like red foots. Finally broke down and got a 6 month old female towards the end of June. She was about 6inches and while I haven't measured her lately about a month ago was 2 ft so growing really well. She's in a 6x2x2 enclosure(temporary enclosure) currently.
The food list that's on here I keep on my phone and she's tried just about everything on it. She gets a really good variety(I'm really weird and enjoy prepping meals way to much for my animals). I haven't done it the past few weeks, I've just cut up the fruit, but before I would take different fruits and veggies(ex. mango, papaya, kale, kiwi, apple, peas) and grind it up and just mix that in with her meat(turkey, venison, beef, chicken, rabbit, cray fish,ect). Although one of my concerns is I was doing about 50% meat and 50% a mix of the fruits and veggies or just fruits, which now after some more research may be off? I've been told shes a bit on the chubby side and I should cut back the amount of meat product? So advice on that would be great
The major concern is the other night for the first time she figured out how to open her enclosure. I ended up finding her behind my 30bin breeding rack and actually had to use a thawed mouse to lure her out because moving that rack without help was to dangerous. She came right out and gobbled up the mouse. I let her poke around a bit to relax. Instead she wandered around and as I was sitting down on the floor charged me, but stopped in front of me mouth open. I ended up having to put my legs on either side of her body and press my forearm against the top of her head and used just enough pressure to hold her to the floor(no more pressure than when she burrows under my arm to snuggle). After a minute or two of trying to wrestle free, she gave a couple huffs and relaxed a bit. I sat and stroked her head down to her back as I let off her. Still cranky she did let me pick her up, but was still squirmy. I didn't want to put her back in her enclosure after that, since growing up with horses the idea was if you get thrown off, always get back on otherwise they'll learn how to get out of work. I figure it may apply here(correct me if I'm wrong though, I wasn't sure how applicable it is).
I brought her upstairs and sat on the sofa curled up in a blanket like normal and she started to doze and be herself again. Then I had to get up and go into another room, came out and she was wandering the living room so I let her for about 5 mins. Once I had to make dinner I went to get her and suddenly she was threatening to bite me again. This time I just ignored her threat and scooped her up. She got over it pretty quickly, but was still really weird for her.
The escape was all late enough that the stores were closed so I tried wedging a piece of wood against the slider on the outside of the enclosure so it would last until I got home from work. Well..she popped the board off(still amazed by that) and got out. This time only my husband was home. Luckily she was out but when e went to scoop her up she actually charged and tried to bite him, thankfully only hitting his hand. I got the lock all set now, but he had to use a bin just to get her into her enclosure.
I tried spending a lot of time working with her, every day usually for at least an hour to upwards of 3. She 's always been a bit odd if I let her roam around by herself(I tegu-proofed the office and have basking spots setup so she can get out while I'm working). But the most I get is a huff. Otherwise she's a complete puppy dog, even the other week she was wandering on the sofa and ended up coming over to me all on her own and snuggling me(yay!). I've had other people handle her, and she lets me do just about anything to her, including clip her nails. She loves head rubs and neck rubs and can be such a snuggle bug. But obviously something I'm doing is wrong because any sort of extended "freedom" seems to make her turn almost wild, but it's never been this bad.
I'm going to be changing her feeding so she never sees us involved with her food, but the only thing I can think of is the way I feed. I mix it up, sometimes in the enclosure sometimes out, sometimes hand feeding(in which even if I block her food she's very careful to move my hand and then grab the food). I had read many times that their smart enough to know the difference, and for the most part she seems to. But it's all I can think of, although some of the aggression really didn't seem to be food related the second time as there was no food involved. I'm at a loss and I don't want to do the wrong thing, I feel like I'm back at square one and it's very frustrating because I've put in so many hours trying to make her extremely tame. Any advice or feedback would me amazing. If I missed something let me know, I'll provide any extra info I can. Thank you and sorry for the long read!
The food list that's on here I keep on my phone and she's tried just about everything on it. She gets a really good variety(I'm really weird and enjoy prepping meals way to much for my animals). I haven't done it the past few weeks, I've just cut up the fruit, but before I would take different fruits and veggies(ex. mango, papaya, kale, kiwi, apple, peas) and grind it up and just mix that in with her meat(turkey, venison, beef, chicken, rabbit, cray fish,ect). Although one of my concerns is I was doing about 50% meat and 50% a mix of the fruits and veggies or just fruits, which now after some more research may be off? I've been told shes a bit on the chubby side and I should cut back the amount of meat product? So advice on that would be great
The major concern is the other night for the first time she figured out how to open her enclosure. I ended up finding her behind my 30bin breeding rack and actually had to use a thawed mouse to lure her out because moving that rack without help was to dangerous. She came right out and gobbled up the mouse. I let her poke around a bit to relax. Instead she wandered around and as I was sitting down on the floor charged me, but stopped in front of me mouth open. I ended up having to put my legs on either side of her body and press my forearm against the top of her head and used just enough pressure to hold her to the floor(no more pressure than when she burrows under my arm to snuggle). After a minute or two of trying to wrestle free, she gave a couple huffs and relaxed a bit. I sat and stroked her head down to her back as I let off her. Still cranky she did let me pick her up, but was still squirmy. I didn't want to put her back in her enclosure after that, since growing up with horses the idea was if you get thrown off, always get back on otherwise they'll learn how to get out of work. I figure it may apply here(correct me if I'm wrong though, I wasn't sure how applicable it is).
I brought her upstairs and sat on the sofa curled up in a blanket like normal and she started to doze and be herself again. Then I had to get up and go into another room, came out and she was wandering the living room so I let her for about 5 mins. Once I had to make dinner I went to get her and suddenly she was threatening to bite me again. This time I just ignored her threat and scooped her up. She got over it pretty quickly, but was still really weird for her.
The escape was all late enough that the stores were closed so I tried wedging a piece of wood against the slider on the outside of the enclosure so it would last until I got home from work. Well..she popped the board off(still amazed by that) and got out. This time only my husband was home. Luckily she was out but when e went to scoop her up she actually charged and tried to bite him, thankfully only hitting his hand. I got the lock all set now, but he had to use a bin just to get her into her enclosure.
I tried spending a lot of time working with her, every day usually for at least an hour to upwards of 3. She 's always been a bit odd if I let her roam around by herself(I tegu-proofed the office and have basking spots setup so she can get out while I'm working). But the most I get is a huff. Otherwise she's a complete puppy dog, even the other week she was wandering on the sofa and ended up coming over to me all on her own and snuggling me(yay!). I've had other people handle her, and she lets me do just about anything to her, including clip her nails. She loves head rubs and neck rubs and can be such a snuggle bug. But obviously something I'm doing is wrong because any sort of extended "freedom" seems to make her turn almost wild, but it's never been this bad.
I'm going to be changing her feeding so she never sees us involved with her food, but the only thing I can think of is the way I feed. I mix it up, sometimes in the enclosure sometimes out, sometimes hand feeding(in which even if I block her food she's very careful to move my hand and then grab the food). I had read many times that their smart enough to know the difference, and for the most part she seems to. But it's all I can think of, although some of the aggression really didn't seem to be food related the second time as there was no food involved. I'm at a loss and I don't want to do the wrong thing, I feel like I'm back at square one and it's very frustrating because I've put in so many hours trying to make her extremely tame. Any advice or feedback would me amazing. If I missed something let me know, I'll provide any extra info I can. Thank you and sorry for the long read!