# black throat monitor vs tegu personality



## #1 tegu (Jan 28, 2021)

I was wondering if tegu and black throat monitors have similar personalities can they bond with you like a tegu can ?


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## Lady2Lucky (Feb 3, 2021)

I've owned both and they're certainly similar in the ways that all lizards are similar. Beyond that, they tend to have similar reactions to stimuli (individuals excepted). Monitors can bond with you to the extent that they will recognize that food comes from you and avoid trying to bite you. That said, if they do bite you, they will attempt to keep on going, you are exactly what they're looking for in food and that instinct is hard to overcome when they're hungry. 


My black-throated monitor (Loki) liked to climb things and jump off. Repeatedly. As far as we can tell, it was pretty entertaining for him. Never seen a tegu do that. Pretty unusual for a black throat too though. He did not cuddle. He did like to explore, especially in the same room or outdoor environment as us. We clearly made him feel safer, though he wanted his alone time. Loki was pretty brilliant in the reptilian waiting way. He was FAR less willing to be trained than our tegu. More stubborn than a mule. Still, he knew his name. He would come to it if we also had food. He would usually twitch with recognition in any circumstance. He liked watching us and watching others. (They don't really burrow, I assumed that you knew this.)

My red argentine (Atasi) after a year of ownership comes to his name with frequency. He also comes to a knock that we trained him to. He is pretty petulant about doing what you want unless he also wants to do it. Much more cuddly (burrowing instinct). He's way more concerned about us and loud noises my 3-year-old makes than Loki ever was. I suppose some of that is his age and size. Loki was nearly 6 feet. Atasi's only 2.5. Big difference in how concerned they are about noises around them. 

We did physically SEE Loki (black throat) more. Because he didn't burrow. And he slept less as an adult. Because black-throats have fewer humidity needs, we were happy to let him roam the house with us freely. His enclosure was huge 6' x 6' x 6', and we'd put him in it at night. Mind you, he always seemed to get a little overly excited about bare feet and bit our young daughter's once after she was playing outside. And they sleep with all their legs stretched out so when someone visits, their first reaction is "your lizard died!". Hahaha.

We see Atasi (red argentine tegu) less. He spends most of his time burrowed into his substrate. He needs high humidity that we don't have, so he only gets to enjoy relatively brief (2hrs) sojurns into the house. Because his cage is in our dining room, he seems to have memorized our meal times and often joins us for breakfast, lunch and dinner by himself, sunning, basking, or just blatantly watching his humans. Loki watched us, but it was less clear how intentional that was. 

We fed Loki rats. For this we kept our own rat colony since pet feeders infected him a few times. Sucked. We'd smack the rats lightly to stun them so Loki wouldn't get too bit up, and then let Loki finish them. Which he did. Brutally. We feed Atasi mixed foods, he loves fish and blueberries. Rolling blueberries across the floor as he chases them makes us all happy. Harder to do with the fish.  We do like the Reptilinks too. Overall, I'm much happier feeding our Tegu.

We took Loki out and about in a backpack. That was super fun. You could take him anywhere, he was big enough that he'd go into a small mammal harness easily. Poops are huge, but also only 2 - 3 per week. So less likely. And his environmental restrictions were light, so he could go anywhere and just be there. Obviously haven't been getting out much with Atasi due to the pandemic, but I also live in an area with pretty harsh winters, so I think if we can take him out in the same way, it will still be seasonal. It's unclear how much he'll tolerate it. 

Whelp, I hope that answers a lot of your questions! We enjoyed having both, but I'd go with a tegu with younger children because of the black monitor foot fetish.


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## #1 tegu (Feb 4, 2021)

ok thanks for the info c:


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