Savanah Thats Hard To Handle

[RJ_45]

My freind had got a savanah monitor on a guy who abanduned his house, and is now having trouble handling it. If you have some tips they would be greatly appreciated.

[crocdoc]

Easy. Tell him not to handle it.

Animals that are hard to handle are telling you they don't want to be handled. There are ways of calming down monitors (force handling is not one of them), but if your friend wants an animal guaranteed to be handleable, tell him/her to get a dog or a cat.

[RJ_45]

LOL Thanks i will tell him

[crocdoc]

There have been a number of threads on this and other forums on the proper way to calm a monitor, but the short version is that if you leave them alone other than the usual interactions (feeding, cleaning etc) they'll get used to your presence. Eventually you can try a gentle stroke under the chin, then slowly progress from there, as long as you don't pick it up. When it starts to climb onto your hand voluntarily, then you can start picking it up.

[lonewulf]

Crocdoc mo truer ( is that a word lol ) have been spoken .. my female Sav whom I have had now for getting close to a year was near impossible to handle let alone even look at so I just plain quit doing it .. I now have a pair a male and a female and the female is still very agressive when fed but other than that she is not har to handle at all .. she will even come to the openingwhen I open the enclosure .. mind you I am sure she thinks it is feeding time everytime lol ... but she was never even close to friendly and nowshe is tolerable .. or I am tolerable to her I guess I should say .. brings a tear to my eye and makes me as happy as can be ..
patience young grasshopper patience ..

[RJ_45]

Thanks for the tips crocdoc il tell him what you said

[spidersweb]

crocdoc is right i have 2 savannahs and my male is a big suck but my female hates being handled if ur friend wahts to get rid of the savannah i might think of taking him

[RJ_45]

Sorry he already gave it away to somebody

[spidersweb]

damnit
oh well