Mental stimulation?

[boosh96]

What do you all do to keep your monitors mentally stimulated? I'm thinking about saving up for an Ackie and I'd like to know what I can do to prevent boredom and stuff. Do monItors play with objects to any extent or do they just investigate things?

[DeadlyDesires]

just fill their cage with enough stuff to hide and climb all over and you wont have to do anything else.

[Lankyrob]

Release some roaches or other insects into their cage for them to hunt during the day

[Pirarucu]

There are (unsubstantiated) reports of Komodos playing, but all monitors will investigate new things. Adding fresh leaf litter and other new things in the cage will provide mental stimulation, as will a more varied diet. Providing puzzles and tasks to solve will do the same thing. Mental stimulation is very important to intelligent animals. Most zoos are required to offer some form of enrichment for birds and mammals, and more are offering it to reptiles as well.

[boosh96]

There are (unsubstantiated) reports of Komodos playing, but all monitors will investigate new things. Adding fresh leaf litter and other new things in the cage will provide mental stimulation, as will a more varied diet. Providing puzzles and tasks to solve will do the same thing. Mental stimulation is very important to intelligent animals. Most zoos are required to offer some form of enrichment for birds and mammals, and more are offering it to reptiles as well.

I have some good ideas for puzzles and stuff that encourage foraging. Should I run them by the folks on the forum before I actually try them out?

[Pirarucu]

Unless there's a possibility they would be dangerous, go for it. I would be interested in hearing what you've come up with though.

[smy_749]

Unless there's a possibility they would be dangerous, go for it. I would be interested in hearing what you've come up with though.

The one from lizard kings is a good one in my opinion. Learn to target train him to associate a specific color. Then just make a contraption with 2 triggers, and one of them is the target color. Then when he masters it, get creative, and offer different targets for different food items and what he chooses first hahahahahah

[boosh96]

What I think I'll do is get one of those toys inside a plastic capsule you can get for, like, a quarter at Walmart. I'll pitch the toy and put a cricket in the capsule, and put it in there for the monitor to figure out how to get the cricket. I'm aware that this idea will only really be stimulating one or two times.

My second idea is to take a used paper towel roll, and stuff it with both paper towels and bugs. Just for good measure, I'll also poke a few holes in the roll so the monitor can smell the bugs inside upon investigation.

I'd also like to try a counting experiment-that is, if I can get my monitor to become tractable. I'm not sure how I'd go about doing this, but I'd love to see if my monitor would be able to associate numbers (I doubt we'll go higher than three) with words and pictures and stuff, and do a little target training exercise in return for, say, a waxworm or something.

Can anyone help me think of more foraging puzzles and "activities" and stuff? I know I'm dealing with a reptile and not, like, a dog or a parrot or something, but still. Maybe "activities" isn't the right word.

[Pirarucu]

I like those..
The best sort of puzzle is going to be one where the monitor has to figure out how to get at some food. One thought that crossed my mind would be to make a box with one side as a window, and a small door on the other side that they can't see through, and see if they give up on the window to look for another way inside, despite not being able to see the food once they leave the window.

[_Varanidae_]

This brief article might give you some ideas:

http://robertmendyk.com/Mendyk_2012_Reaching_out_for_enrichment_in_arborea l_monitor_lizards_Animal_Keepers_Forum_39_1_33-36.pdf

[Starbuck]

i really like the target training idea; not only can you use it in novel ways (come here/touch this/follow this, etc) but it is also a really relevant skill for a monitor to have, to help them to be more tractable and more comfortable around novel situations.
This method of training is used for captive raptors (mostly owls, not so much hawks etc), zoo animals (giraffes, big cats, and alligators), horses, and can also be seen in the movie how to train your dragon ;)

To make it more enriching, you could cue different actions in series and see how long of a 'task list' he can complete before losing interest/needing food reinforcement. best of luck!

[Zoo Nanny]

Target training is used on the majority of animals in good zoos. It's used to help train animals to accept veterinary intervention without having to drug the animal. Once target training is successful you begin to pair it with a desired behavior like mouth opening, presenting hands, feet, paws, wings etc. A good number of animals in the zoos will present shoulders, buttocks, legs for injection through bars. It's used to also do weekly/monthly weights on animals. Raptors including hawks, eagles and condors are trained along with owls. If you go to a raptor show you'll see just how much can be accomplished when you begin with target training. The only reptiles that I have actually seen being trained or assisted with were iguanas and crocs. I'm sure that there are others that can be trained as well. Training can be one of the most enriching activities you can do with any animal.
Some good foraging puzzles are very simple. You can take a piece of bamboo and drill holes in it and put meal worms inside. Just be sure to cut the bamboo section on the outside of the sections so that you have solid ends to them. A food item wrapped in newspaper and attached in different locales through out the enclosure can keep an animal active for a bit of time. Most of the newspapers are made with soy ink and are safe just avoid using paper with colored ink. Telephone books are good too just remove the outer covers. You can hide food items through out it or use scents on different pages. Logs can be used for foraging by drilling random size holes around the log. We used to add a bit of peanut butter on the inside of the hole and then stick meal worms to the pn butter. A nice round branch can be drilled at the top to add a chain to hang it in the enclosure making it a little more difficult for the animal to get the worm.
Enriching activities can also include adding scents to the animals current environment. Small dabs of a new scent on logs, rocks or a pile of hay will send the animal running like crazy smelling everything. Just be sure if using scents that you do not use a predator scent in a prey animals enclosure. Most hunting supply stores will carry animal scents or you can use small amounts of extracts. We even used diluted perfumes all canines and cats regardless of size will roll around on scents looking like a goof ball.

[DragonsEye]

What I think I'll do is get one of those toys inside a plastic capsule you can get for, like, a quarter at Walmart. I'll pitch the toy and put a cricket in the capsule, and put it in there for the monitor to figure out how to get the cricket.

First I will preface this with saying that I have ZERO experience with monitors so I might be seeing a potential problem where one does not exist. However, one concern I would have with the above idea would be that of the monitor choking if it tries to swallow the capsule or if it cracks the capsule open and lacerates its mouth/throat/gut linings on any sharp edges or pieces swallowed as a result of cracking or breaking the capsule.

I had noticed, back when I had my leopard gecko, that even something as simple as moving around the "furniture" in her enclosure every so often would stimulate renewed investigation on her part. In addition, every so often I would add or remove some pieces to change the scene up for her.

[smy_749]

It doesn't take much honestly. Hang his food from a string on the ceiling, and let him figure out that he has to climb on his tree to reach it. Hide a mouse in a corner, let him roam around. Throw new leaf litter and soil like wayne does, let him sniff around. Take him out of the enclosure, let him roam in a controlled area where he can't get away. Target train him with colors, try to target train him with a specific shape, test the boundaries of target training all together. Teach him to respond to clapping. Put a TV infront of his enclosure. Throw insects around for him to dig up. You'll figure it out, be creative, just keep his well being in mind. About the plastic breaking and causing a laceration, if it was like a hamster ball, depending on the diameter, I think he would have a hard time getting a hold of it with his jaws and he would probably just push it around.

[boosh96]

Yeah, I think I might trash the capsule idea for fear of the monitor hurting itself.. Now, here's a question that's somewhat loosely tied to this topic-would an Ackie be happy living by itself if it gets plenty of mental stimulation and (depending on the lizard's personality) interaction with people?

[smy_749]

I don't know of monitors can feel "happy". But if you provide proper husbandry and food with mental stimulation of some sort, then he will be healthy, which I guess means happy? Interaction with people is negligible, and the social behavior in the wild is a topic of debate. Some who think outside the box, and outside the realm of science in general, focused mainly on "ethology" would say they are social creatures, even in the wild. Others would disagree.

[nepoez]

for a small creature the sav is pretty smart. Here's a story, when my guy was just a week old, I put a tong in front of him and he had no clue what it was... I picked up a silkworm(frozen unthawed) in front of him and he had no clue..then he licked it and right away decided it was food and ate it. From then on he knew white floppy worms are yummy. I stopped tong feeding him for a while because I infested the cage with crickets and superworms, super worms are breeding 1.5 generation now so there's always food to dig up and crickets to hunt for between log gaps. I also leave dead mouse in the cage so he can search for it so I just never really feed him to prevent him from being lazy. But he's kind of grown a little the past month and exterminated the cricket infestation lol.. so I thought I'd tong feed him a cricket for fun.. as soon as I put a tong around there with no food on it.. he remembered from 5 weeks ago that tong means food and he chased it around. hahah

I wasn't even trying to train him, but he learned.. so I think there can def be more cool tricks you can teach.

[smy_749]

for a small creature the sav is pretty smart. Here's a story, when my guy was just a week old, I put a tong in front of him and he had no clue what it was... I picked up a silkworm(frozen unthawed) in front of him and he had no clue..then he licked it and right away decided it was food and ate it. From then on he knew white floppy worms are yummy. I stopped tong feeding him for a while because I infested the cage with crickets and superworms, super worms are breeding 1.5 generation now so there's always food to dig up and crickets to hunt for between log gaps. I also leave dead mouse in the cage so he can search for it so I just never really feed him to prevent him from being lazy. But he's kind of grown a little the past month and exterminated the cricket infestation lol.. so I thought I'd tong feed him a cricket for fun.. as soon as I put a tong around there with no food on it.. he remembered from 5 weeks ago that tong means food and he chased it around. hahah

I wasn't even trying to train him, but he learned.. so I think there can def be more cool tricks you can teach.

I think tasting the super worm and deciding it was food, is more of instinct than just pure whit. Especially since most reptiles know whats food for them and what isn't. The tong thing is cool because it shows the ability to associate an object with something else.

[nepoez]

I think tasting the super worm and deciding it was food, is more of instinct than just pure whit. Especially since most reptiles know whats food for them and what isn't. The tong thing is cool because it shows the ability to associate an object with something else.

Well the fact that he had no idea a silkworm was food at first, then after the first taste he associated it, then subsequent silk works that he sees he knows it's food by sight without needing to taste it again is kind of cool.

But yeah the tong is def more cool. I'd like to associate clapping with food too as u suggested, that's be kinda fun. Also I do like watching him dig for food..

Oh here's one thing.. he'd only dig for worms if he sees it wiggling.. I thought that if he's hungry he would be able to smell the worms that are underground and dig for it, but he's never done that.. only if he sees the worm emerge a little then he's dig to eat it. You'd think they be better hunters than that.

[murrindindi]

Well the fact that he had no idea a silkworm was food at first, then after the first taste he associated it, then subsequent silk works that he sees he knows it's food by sight without needing to taste it again is kind of cool.

But yeah the tong is def more cool. I'd like to associate clapping with food too as u suggested, that's be kinda fun. Also I do like watching him dig for food..

Oh here's one thing.. he'd only dig for worms if he sees it wiggling.. I thought that if he's hungry he would be able to smell the worms that are underground and dig for it, but he's never done that.. only if he sees the worm emerge a little then he's dig to eat it. You'd think they be better hunters than that.


Hi, once they reach the juvenile/adult stage it`s hardly worth the effort of digging/actively searching for an earthworm (not to suggest they wouldn`t ever), in their natural habitat there are far more "worthwhile" prey items. They are formidable hunters!

[Pirarucu]

Oh here's one thing.. he'd only dig for worms if he sees it wiggling.. I thought that if he's hungry he would be able to smell the worms that are underground and dig for it, but he's never done that.. only if he sees the worm emerge a little then he's dig to eat it. You'd think they be better hunters than that.That wouldn't be energy efficient enough to be worthwhile. It is far easier to simply eat what is easily accessible rather than digging a hole every time they smell something. If you stopped feeding him I imagine he would do a lot more digging.

[jarich]

Mine often digs for worms.

[smy_749]

Mine often digs for worms.

Maybe your monitor is "special" and can't weigh the cost to benefit

[Pirarucu]

Or, it could just be personal preference.

[boosh96]

Would grass add anything to the "interesting-ness" of the setup? I'm thinking I'll plant some and wait for it to grow before I get my monitor. I kinda figured the monitor might do some extra foraging through the grass or something. Any thoughts?

[smy_749]

Would grass add anything to the "interesting-ness" of the setup? I'm thinking I'll plant some and wait for it to grow before I get my monitor. I kinda figured the monitor might do some extra foraging through the grass or something. Any thoughts?

Just go outside with a shovel, and cut a few big square outlines with it. Grab the edge and you can just peel the grass up like turf and throw it in there. Just don't do it to your front yard.

[franks]

I throw a bunch of roaches in while he is sleeping so they have time to go hide. Generally during the day he will roam around wrecking stuff and eating. Also, like jarich mentioned, once your monitor learns that there are worms in the ground, he will be a backhoe.

[Pirarucu]

Anything that creates visual barriers is a good thing.