My new yearling is a handful..

[E_M]

I've read tons of taming threads but I still don't know what to do here.. I got my yearling, that probably was sold because he wouldn't tame down very well, some days ago. I've had some time to observe him and somewhat interact with him and he doesn't like me at all. I know everything still is new to him, but I know that he's been a handful in his last home as well.

I try to hang out by his enclosure, poking around his cage and trying to move my hands closer to him. Sometimes he runs, sometimes he buffs up and walks away with a threatening look, sometimes he lays flat with his eyes closed, but he still wont let me touch him. Yeah, he's stressed out and pissed off and I'm trying not to mess with him too much. He's whipped me a couple of times and I used a thick leather glove to see how close I could get to him and if he would bite. And yes, he would. He was flicking at it, took a bite and tried to jerk it from my hand.

My biggest problem here is the feeding. I'm having a hard time picking him up, yesterday it was impossible and if I DO catch him he's struggling for his life before he gives up. This only results in him despising me even more. Should I give up and put food in his enclosure before he gets up? That eliminates the force handling but then I don't get to handle him at all either. And I really wanted to go for this whole thing where the enclosure never gets associated with food.

I'm trying to use my hands in a non-threatening way, just trying to get him to accept them being near him but those few times he let's them near him, it's only a short time before he get's mad. He's mostly just up for basking, rest of the time he spends in his hide. So that only gives me so much to work with..

Any tips or anyone who've been in the same situation?

 

[Odonata]

I initially went with feeding in a bin outside of the enclosure, but found that this caused my tegu stress, and she actually ate less than tong feeding in the enclosure. I found tong feeding very successful and a good way to have your tegu associate you with positive things. I also never saw this translate into my tegu thinking that my hands were food....tongs mean food, not hands. It may help to tame your tegu down, and is a good step in my opinion. You could leave food in the enclosure, lots of people seem to do this, but you are missing an opportunity to interact by doing so. In the end it comes down to how much you interact with your tegu in a positive non threatening way. It can take a long time to overcome a background of bad experiences (for people as well as tegus!). Good luck with it, take your time, build on positive experiences, baby steps.

 

[E_M]

Yeah, I think you're right.. Clearly he isn't associating handling with anything positive. He's clearly not that afraid of people, I can walk up to the enclosure and open it and he just looks at me, relaxed. It's the minute I try to approach him that he flips out.

I wont do the tong feeding though, had a Savannah monitor under a year of age that I tong fed and he quickly learned to associate my presence in the room with food. Minute I walked through the door he got overly excited if he was hungry. So my experience with tong feeding isn't the best. I'll leave food in his enclosure before I go to work, for now.

Also I will remove his big cave and put a smaller hide in there, he disappears behind it the minute he's getting weary. He'll still have a safe place, but the cave is too much I think, I rarely see him.

 

[karljr2k4]

i had the same problem with my sai. so i totally re did his enclosure. i took out his dirt and put down repti-carpet, i took away his big hide and replaced it with a shirt i had worn so he has my sent. and i usually feed him before i go to work as well. i also started taking him out to petsmart and pet co and letting people other than me touch and interact with him. all these thing seem to work. when i open his enclosure i pick up the shirt he is under then i pick him up. he will not crawl on top my hand but does not mind being picked up! these things helped big time.