# How to tame your monitor in 1 year 1month and 1 week



## Frozenmouse (Mar 16, 2012)

*How i tamed my monitor in 1 year 1month and 1 week*

Ok there seems to be a lot of buz about taming monitors and they seem to be gaining in popularity so i thought i would share my experience incase it helps
I had a spencers monitor that learnt how to open his cage , he would also seek out your lap on the couch and seemed to enjoy the warmth he would repeatedly find his way back to my lap and my lap only (he was a one person monitor) yes i never got video , I tamed him by using the no contact method ,.
Here is a very simplified version of the basic fundamentals i used ps would love you guys that keep tristis or ackies to try these methods and see if there is any success as i know spencerii are more forgiving or you can wait a while i have a black headed monitor on its way and i will work something out as i understand they are tricky 

Step 1 not trying to handle them until they are big enough and confident enough to basically try and attack you at feeding time (this took about 12 months) Heaps of hides in the cage and also if possible keep the cage hight where the floor would be at eye level with you standing so the monitor is looking down on you to help it not feel threatened.

Step2 Then i broke the food association by sometimes opening the cage with no food about 3-5 times a day then he was fed at the end of the day.( keep fingers out of the way) after 1 month of this move to step 3- 

Step 3 on one of the non food opening times the animal was removed for a bit of handling then placed back before he was too wound up after a week i started increasing play time.

This animal now lives at the Halls Gap Zoo and is used for public displays and is dog tame.


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## disintegratus (Mar 16, 2012)

Do you think this would work with a Mertens? I've had my little fella for about 4 months I think, and he's still skittish as all hell. I'm not looking to have him dog-tame, I've got dogs for that I just would like to be able to handle him to check him over etc without getting my fingers torn off. He's not bitey, actually never bitten, but he bolts and like to tail whip when he's cornered. It's cute right now, but he's only a baby still...


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 16, 2012)

It wont hurt so i say give it a try and get back to me , i have only ever seen wild mertins up north.


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## crocdoc (Mar 16, 2012)

The series of steps you've mentioned is pretty much what I do with lace monitors, except I don't lift them up for play time until I can get them to crawl onto my hand on their own, first. I may reach in and stroke them under the chin while they're still in the enclosure, just so they get used to touch, though.

However, I'd be happier if this thread were titled 'how I tamed my monitor in 1 year, 1 month and 1 week', rather than 'how to tame a monitor in...'. Otherwise it may give people the wrong idea that they can definitely tame theirs in that time. Every species and individual is different. Although it took one year, one month and one week for your one monitor, there's no guarantee it would take the same amount of time for the next. I've had lace monitors that were sitting out in the open and taking food from forceps from day one, crawling onto my hand after a few months and 'tame' in well under a year. I've had one that stayed hidden from my view for close to two years and that wasn't okay with crawling onto my hand until she was four years old. Pushing her in any way shape or form (such as reaching in to pick her up) would put her off her food for several days and push the 'taming' process back two steps for a while.


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 16, 2012)

I just tried to change the title, it lets me do it but then keeps the same title. You are correct I should have added a disclaimer , people love disclaimers these days. "Disclaimer must use common sense and this method may have mixed out comes"


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## moosenoose (Mar 16, 2012)

Should be "How not to lose a finger in ...etc etc..."


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## longqi (Mar 16, 2012)

An old trick is to leave a bit of your used clothing in with them
They learn to associate the scent with comfort and no danger pretty quickly


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## disintegratus (Mar 16, 2012)

I'll definitely give it a shot. I'm not sure it will work with mine though, I'm pretty sure he'll forever know me as "That awful person who trapped me in this damn glass box again" after his few days of on/off freedom...


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 16, 2012)

a method i saw on youtube is the sit in the bath tub (empty lol ) with a good pair of jeans on and let the monitor climb around on you .


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## longqi (Mar 16, 2012)

^^^^
similar to a method used here to tame wild retics

except the bath is full


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## Ramsayi (Mar 16, 2012)

longqi said:


> An old trick is to leave a bit of your used clothing in with them
> They learn to associate the scent with comfort and no danger pretty quickly



Thanks for the advice mate it just killed my lacie.I left a dirty old sock in with him and I think the smell melted his lungs.


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## JAS101 (Mar 16, 2012)

Ramsayi said:


> Thanks for the advice mate it just killed my lacie.I left a dirty old sock in with him and I think the smell melted his lungs.


lol my laice would try and eat the clothing thinking it was me he was eating .


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 16, 2012)

my spence once tore a glove off my hand and shook it does that count?


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## moosenoose (Mar 16, 2012)

longqi said:


> An old trick is to leave a bit of your used clothing in with them
> They learn to associate the scent with comfort and no danger pretty quickly



I do that with my old jocks. The tiger snakes don't like me much


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## disintegratus (Mar 16, 2012)

Frozenmouse said:


> my spence once tore a glove off my hand and shook it does that count?



He was just being friendly and trying to shake your hand to say hello.


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