Mental stimulation?

boosh96 · 05-03-13, 07:05 AM

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 · 05-03-13, 11:36 AM

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

Lankyrob · 05-03-13, 01:05 PM

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

Pirarucu · 05-03-13, 02:23 PM

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 · 05-03-13, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 05-03-13, 05:09 PM

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 · 05-03-13, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 05-03-13, 05:29 PM

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 · 05-03-13, 05:59 PM

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_ · 05-03-13, 06:13 PM

This brief article might give you some ideas:

http://robertmendyk.com/Mendyk_2012_...39_1_33-36.pdf

Starbuck · 05-03-13, 06:13 PM

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 · 05-04-13, 01:22 PM

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 · 05-05-13, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 05-05-13, 12:12 PM

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 · 05-06-13, 05:59 AM

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?