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Blackthroat questions...

Valley Dragons

Valley Dragons

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I just aquired my first blackthroat monitor. He is somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 years old. He appears to be about 2 1/2 - 3 feet long. I have not measured or weighed him yet, so this is a guesstimation. I am assuming he is male, based on his head shape and size and a pair of obvious hemipenal bulges.

I am a bit confused about proper feeding and handling techniques. I have been given advice by people on another forum, but to be honest, I don't know that I trust the information that I have been getting. Is it better to feed the monitor inside the cage, or outside the cage in a different location, such as a large tub? I feed my large snakes in a different container to help prevent cage aggression (that way every time I open the cage they don't expect to be fed), and I was wondering if it was advisible for large monitors. My other question involves handling. I have been told to just leave him in his cage and to avoid handling him as much as possible because it will stress him out. Okay...my line of thinking is that if you have a monitor with the potential to be quite large, it seems that you would want him to be accustomed to human handling. I understand giving him his space for a while to get adjusted to his new home, but...

So what are your thoughts on these two questions?

Thanks!

Jamie
 
I have a large blackthroat, and I've had her(him) since she was about 18 inchs. She's close to 5 ft now.
I do not expect for her to like handling. I "can" pick her up, and carry her from place to place. I "can" handle her. She would bite me if she felt like it, but hasn't managed it so far. It's not a 'she likes it' or a 'she's puppy-tame'.
I expect for her to be a monitor lizard. She's cranky, she's aggressive at times.
I feed her in her pen, so I don't stress her by moving her from pen to pen, but I understand the meaning behind never feeding in the pen. I also always feed off tongs, not ever from a hand.
Give yours plenty of time to settle in and the proper husbandry. You'll get a lot of different opinions on how to "tame" it, or that you can't tame it, and that you shouldn't want to tame it.

I have been told by others that they had puppy tame blackthroats, but mine is not, she tolerates the handling only. I'm perfectly happy with her being her, not being any more tame than she is. I don't want to force her to be handled. I adore her as what she is, a mostly wild reptile monitor lizard.
Best of luck with yours, and we all want PICTURES!
Wolfy
 
hi i have had blackthroats since 96 and find that they do well with people they see like a frog so movement is what they see best what i try to do is let the montior "sniff" my hand with their tongue this is better then their vision and aquaints them better with their human friends i have 20 or more never had any biting problems but tail whipping is normal but can be stopped
 
Valley Dragons said:
I just aquired my first blackthroat monitor. He is somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 years old. He appears to be about 2 1/2 - 3 feet long. I have not measured or weighed him yet, so this is a guesstimation. I am assuming he is male, based on his head shape and size and a pair of obvious hemipenal bulges.

I am a bit confused about proper feeding and handling techniques. I have been given advice by people on another forum, but to be honest, I don't know that I trust the information that I have been getting. Is it better to feed the monitor inside the cage, or outside the cage in a different location, such as a large tub? I feed my large snakes in a different container to help prevent cage aggression (that way every time I open the cage they don't expect to be fed), and I was wondering if it was advisible for large monitors. My other question involves handling. I have been told to just leave him in his cage and to avoid handling him as much as possible because it will stress him out. Okay...my line of thinking is that if you have a monitor with the potential to be quite large, it seems that you would want him to be accustomed to human handling. I understand giving him his space for a while to get adjusted to his new home, but...

So what are your thoughts on these two questions?

Thanks!

Jamie
Click to expand...

Feed inside the cage as food aggression in monitors is nothing like it is in snakes. It's honestly the safest method. There is no "off" button with monitors and where a snake will usually calm down a monitor won't. It's not fun having a five foot monitor coming at you trying to bite thinking your still holding something to eat.

I STRONGLY suggest you buy tongs.

Adult monitors can be fed a staple diet of frozen-thawed mice, rats, chicks, who fishes and shelfish and bunny kits every other day.

When given the choice most monitors will not choose to be handled or even be in close quarters with a human. Yes you want safe interactions but making a monitor be force handled especially an adult more often then not can cause more harm then good and make a monitor very fearful and so seem aggressive.

Any photos?
 
i dont like tongs but to each their own and i would like to say i handle all reptiles i own bare handed but i have 40 years experience and if your not at ease with your animals you should use tongs i guess but i can usually stop a lizard from biting within a day or to at least but it takes years to train lizards and snakes i do have to say i have been bitten several times but i still like the hands on method poisonous reptiles can do great harm and if you are bitten u should see a doctor been tere done that
 
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