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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tensleep" data-source="post: 81455" data-attributes="member: 2380">RE: food aggression<hr class="bbc-hr bbc-hr--3" />It sounds like very typical cage aggression. You stated previously that you feed in his cage. Virtually all animals will learn by association and patterns. Your pattern of feeding associates you with food, simple enough. Your Tegu doesn't storm around his enclosure jumping and biting at inanimate objects does he?. He sees you coming and knows it is time to turn on the feeding behavior from his past experience. "You = food". A hungry animal will not act aggressive until they see the opportunity to feed. Hungry animals are not aggressive, they are just hungry. I do not believe his behavior is a hunger issue. Perhaps you shall have to change your feeding pattern entirely. Change the time of day you feed? A cool reptile is easier to manage than one that has warmed up. If you let him out when his has just woken and leave him outside his cage and let him warm up a bit and then offer food outside his cage, it may make it easier for you to approach the situation. And as far as association goes, many of us have heard of the "clicker" training method. It works the same as ringing a dinner bell. When the dinner bell rings it means time for dinner. A clicker is the same but clicks instead of ringing. So picture this: Your cool Tegu out of his cage, no food for a few minutes as you bond with him, then after a few minutes of "warm up" you click, ring a bell or whistle (it doesn't matter what you do) and present a plate of food. If you stick with it, your tegu will no longer associate "you" with food but rather the ring of the dinner bell. Just a thought that may be helpful or not. Hope it all works out!</blockquote>

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