Not aggressive, but not truly tame

[camb]

So, I have a female extreme giant that is around 11 months old. and she is 29 inches long and just under 2 pounds. i have had her for about 9 months now and she is by far my favorite reptile! and she is not aggressive except sometimes when food is around and has never bitten me, but she doesn't seem tame. when i pick her up she can be hard to handle because all she wants to do is get down and explore. i want her to want to be pet and held. at the moment her priorities go:
#1. FOOD!!!
#2. Exploring around
#3. me

How do i get to the top of that list?

 

[AWD247]

You might wanna try this, after your tegu stuffs it's face and is nice and fat, do your handling then, that's what I did, in a small bathroom worked best for me, not much to explore but you in a small room. Plus after being nice and full the last thing they wanna do is be overly active, which is a good time for you to introduce some nice comforting petting/stroking (always very super slow)
the more time you have the more comfortable it will get and understand your not a threat and more of a comfort.
Sounds like it just needs more one on one time with you on it's terms, meaning you can't force the handling, you need it to come to you and explore you and climb on you etc. I've found everything works better on the Gu's terms and time lol