V. Melinus Taming

[KennyG]

Hello, I aquired a V. Melinus in May and I wanted to get your guys opinions on his taming process!

Before you ask about his cage, he is in a temporary place right now with proper temperatures and humidity so no need to ask :P I am in the process of building his proper cage soon!

Now he is maybe 3 months old around a foot long, still small. He is a very voracious eater, will take anything from tong and even my fingers but I stopped doing that because I dont want him seeing my fingers as food when her gets bigger :P

He will let me stoke him while he is in his cage "sometimes", he sometimes sits on my hand and looks at me like hes waiting for food :P, he will even accept food from the tong while on my hand. I havent really handled him that much but when I do he does try to walk away, normal stuff. He has only puffed up once at me but that was because I dug him out of his cage... last time i did that!

He will bask and watch me while im sitting infront of his cage, he doesnt run away or dart in his hide so I take it that is a good sign!

Does everything sound good? am I on the right track for getting him really tame? or is he too young to tell and may do a 180 as time goes on?

[marvelfreak]

Hello and welcome! Wish i could help you but snakes are my thing. But i am sure some one on here can help.

[sharthun]

Hey and Welcome!

[Trent]

hi and welcome!

[franks]

Hey! Welcome. If you YouTube search "MDFmonitor" you will find a series of videos regarding the process of getting a monitor tractable. I am not trying to differ your questions but Mark's method is one that pretty much most of the serious varanid keepers on here practice. I have personally had great success with it as well. Check it out and jump on with your questions- we love talking monitors. So far your practice seems right on. The basic principle is to interact with your monitor on his terms to build trust.

[jpsteele80]

^agreed, mark does have really great methods, the videos on the nile monitor are awesome and really shows how they can come around

[Toothless]

Agree with what has already been said. Those videos will show you how to go about earning it's trust. It's an amazing process .