Frozenmouse
Very Well-Known Member
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.
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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