taming question for the old pros out there

[nat]

ok so I have had my little red Dante since sept. He is still very small (about 6 inches SVL). He opted to semi - hibernate up until Dec. so I opted to leave him alone rather than try to acclimate him to handling. Well the beginning of Dec. he decided to not hibernate anymore and I am now in the process of trying to tame a semi-wild little red.

I have read all materials available about taming and he now tolerates my hands near him in his cage (and even comes closer to see if its anything edible). Now I want to start feeding him out of his cage to both reduce food aggression and also to allow more handling and interaction. The problem is that I know everyone recomends NOT to man handle the tegu or force him to be held while trying to tame them. I don't know how to get him into a seperate feeding container without manhandling him as he does not want anything to do with being touched, held, etc. So how do I handle this situation. Do I continue to feed him in his enclosure, or do I pick him up whether he likes it or not to put him in his seperate container.

I ask because I tried once to just pick him up and put him in his feeding container and it resulted in him liking me less rather than more by the time the whole debacule was over. He now likes my hands in his enclosure less than he did before, despite getting food out of the deal.

I guess I am just wondering how others would be handling this situation as my red is still fairly wild acting at this point and I would like to see some progress !

thanks

 

[redtail2426]

Hmm If you have doors in the front of the enclosure you can do like I do and just put a plate of food on the carpet outside his door but I am thinking you have a door on the top and the only thing I can think of is maybe to try wearing oven mits and see if he reacts any differently and maybe you can get him to walk up on your mit voluntarily. Or get a decent size pan and put the food on it and wait for him to walk on it and then pick it up which I dont know how much it will help with the cage aggression because your still putting food in there but its a start. I would definately not force handle him because like you said you will be taking steps backwards.

 

[AB^]

I have always fed mine in their cages. Cage agression can be overcome and still use cage feeding. You can put food in a dish before the tegu wakes. you can tap on the glass or side of the cage with a certain something to let them know it's feeding time (like tapping glass with fish).
I use dishes for both my tegus now, they know and recognize their dishes. They would charge the dishes back when I started, but now I just put food in the cage before they even wake up, so now im not associated with food at all.

 

[redtail2426]

You run the risk of them ingesting substrate that way though, but hell even if you dont feed in the cage your tegu can eat substrate like my guy has been doing for the past week.

 

[KoreanDeathKid]

my friend tired this method with his savannah monitor and it worked, I was able to make this into a tegu version and plan on doing this Vegas, so here it is
starve him for the next week or more, make sure that he is hungry enough to eat anything. then put some worms or fruits in your hand and offer it to him, it should work without the tegu attacking your hand. do this a couple more times, until you are sure that the tegu trusts you and that you are his or her owner that feeds you.
then put him in a small glass tank and let him look at other animals, like dogs, cats, or even other reptiles. make sure that he does not break the tank. do this until he understands that the animals around him is your pets also. and when he stops going crazy, and tring to kill your pets, let him out and see how he does with other animals. he should get along with cats, dogs, and other animals that you've shown him. than he will calm down, and relize that every living things in the house is harmless. this should help the animal socilize with other animals and humans without a problem, you can even let the tegu hang out with other reptiles.
try taking him out around 3 times a day, and handle him gently, and don't let him out of your hands. show him that you are the boss, and the owner, then the tegu is going to settle down and will eventually become tame and will enjoy human attention and their handling.
do all this steps until he calms down perfectly.
my tegu is around 19 inchs now, and he's learning already , he eats eggs from my hand, and tolerates handling better than he used to

 

[Mike]

I've never fed any lizard out of it's cage, ever. No problems so far.

 

[nat]

korean, while I appreciate your advice, I have concerns about methods that involve starvation and "showing him whose boss". While I appreciate your desire to help, I think as a new tegu owner yourself, perhaps familiarize yourself with some of the more humane methods of taming (Bobby has some excellant advice on taming that does not require starvation or force handling). Again, I don't want to talk down to you or hurt your feelings in any way but some of the methods you mentioned concern me.

 

[nat]

re: feeding inside the tank - I realize a lot of people don't have issues with feeding in the cage but my little red is already charging my hand because he has learned to associate my hand with food. I have placed food inside the cage while he is sleeping but then he managed to dirty it up while throwing his substrate about the tank in his daily adventures. I also really hoped to use out of the tank time to get him more acclimated to me and would really love to utilize it in order to get my guy more trusting of me. I

 

[AB^]

my friend tired this method with his savannah monitor and it worked, I was able to make this into a tegu version and plan on doing this Vegas, so here it is
starve him for the next week or more, make sure that he is hungry enough to eat anything. then put some worms or fruits in your hand and offer it to him, it should work without the tegu attacking your hand. do this a couple more times, until you are sure that the tegu trusts you and that you are his or her owner that feeds you.
then put him in a small glass tank and let him look at other animals, like dogs, cats, or even other reptiles. make sure that he does not break the tank. do this until he understands that the animals around him is your pets also. and when he stops going crazy, and tring to kill your pets, let him out and see how he does with other animals. he should get along with cats, dogs, and other animals that you've shown him. than he will calm down, and relize that every living things in the house is harmless. this should help the animal socilize with other animals and humans without a problem, you can even let the tegu hang out with other reptiles.
try taking him out around 3 times a day, and handle him gently, and don't let him out of your hands. show him that you are the boss, and the owner, then the tegu is going to settle down and will eventually become tame and will enjoy human attention and their handling.
do all this steps until he calms down perfectly.
my tegu is around 19 inchs now, and he's learning already , he eats eggs from my hand, and tolerates handling better than he used to

Kinda sounds like breaking the animal :?

 

[AB^]

re: feeding inside the tank - I realize a lot of people don't have issues with feeding in the cage but my little red is already charging my hand because he has learned to associate my hand with food. I have placed food inside the cage while he is sleeping but then he managed to dirty it up while throwing his substrate about the tank in his daily adventures. I also really hoped to use out of the tank time to get him more acclimated to me and would really love to utilize it in order to get my guy more trusting of me. I

You need to move your hand around the cage when you dont have food. Work inside the cage set your hand near him just have your hand be present for food and non food, kinda break the circuit.
I've been there, it takes some patience and occasional ingenuity to outsmart a lizard haha

 

[nat]

I have been trying to do that but maybe not enough perhaps? So so far the census seems to suggest just to keep on doing what I am doing and not trying to feed him in another tank? well its feeding time right now so I guess its another night of eat in. ha ha. I look forward more on this discussion though!

 

[Swtbrat]

I have 12 reptiles and I always feed them inside cage.
I had one cage aggressive reptile and its a BTS but he isn't anymore.
I do try to add the tegus food before they are awake but doesn't always work.I now use a clicker to let everyone know its dinner time.

Brat!

 

[nat]

ha ha my bts male is that way to, he always charges my hand when I am feeding him. OF course he is too slow and by the time he makes to to my hand, his food is in the cage and I usually pet him on the head and he forgot what he is doing. Really funny to watch. Actually, I don't know if I would call it food aggression at all really... more like walking towards me with his mouth wide open as if the food will just magically deposit itself there.

 

[ApriliaRufo]

Alrighty. Ready for for method by Drew and Desi? This all depends on how your cage is setup, but since I've seen that nice CTS cage I'm guessing your tank is front loading yes? If so, what I do is I have a pair of gloves that I bought specifically for the tegs. I dropped it in Apollo's cage and left it there for 3 days. I got the primary whip hiss and weave on the glove, but he soon decided to ignore it. When he was asleep I took it out, and I woke to see him what looked like searching for his gloves. I put the glove on and laid my hand under the entrance so he would have to step on it to get out. His curiosity got the best of him. I walk hand under hand so he can walk but he doesn't go anywhere. Have a friend with you after you've had some time together and done this a number of days in a row. While walking him hand under hand have the friend pull off one glove quickly and continue the march. He won't notice at first, but he will see that his walking area has got soft, give it a smell, and continue walking. After lots of tries with the switcharoo, try your bare hand, but tough it out, if he bites, he bites, don't jerk your hand back. That will upset em and you'll get the whip, which can surprisingly do some serious damage. Apollo eventually figured it out with lots of practice, and venus is in the stage of coming out bare handed but a little nervously. It worked on both of ours, so give it a shot, couldn't hurt? Well.. maybe a little bit.

 

[DaveDragon]

Alrighty. Ready for for method by Drew and Desi? This all depends on how your cage is setup, but since I've seen that nice CTS cage I'm guessing your tank is front loading yes? If so, what I do is I have a pair of gloves that I bought specifically for the tegs. I dropped it in Apollo's cage and left it there for 3 days. I got the primary whip hiss and weave on the glove, but he soon decided to ignore it. When he was asleep I took it out, and I woke to see him what looked like searching for his gloves. I put the glove on and laid my hand under the entrance so he would have to step on it to get out. His curiosity got the best of him. I walk hand under hand so he can walk but he doesn't go anywhere. Have a friend with you after you've had some time together and done this a number of days in a row. While walking him hand under hand have the friend pull off one glove quickly and continue the march. He won't notice at first, but he will see that his walking area has got soft, give it a smell, and continue walking. After lots of tries with the switcharoo, try your bare hand, but tough it out, if he bites, he bites, don't jerk your hand back. That will upset em and you'll get the whip, which can surprisingly do some serious damage. Apollo eventually figured it out with lots of practice, and venus is in the stage of coming out bare handed but a little nervously. It worked on both of ours, so give it a shot, couldn't hurt? Well.. maybe a little bit.

I like it!!

We got 3 of our Tegu's as adults. They had some to moderate cage aggression. They get their fruit & veggies in a bowl in their tank, before they get up. Rodents are fed in their bowl on the kitchen floor. No exceptions. Of course, being adults they aren't afraid of anything, including our dog and 3 cats. So they never run away. They just like to wander around the house.

The 9 month old (we've had since he was 2 months old) gets all of his food in his bowl (including rodents) in his cage before he gets up. He went through a wild aggressive phase around 5 months until almost 8 months. anything that entered his domain was toast!!! KILL, KILL, KILL!!! I could never remove his bowl while he was up, he'd fly across and attack me! When I tried to slowly put my hand in for him to check it out, he knudged it twice and then chomped down hard!! Sometimes he'd even lunge at the glass if I got too close! Then he magically calmed down. I can take him out without a problem. On the weekends we put a harness on him (a struggle) and feed him in the kitchen. Sometimes he'll eat but most of the time he's looking for a dark corner to hide in. We let him hide a little and carefully pull him out. He'll sit on my hand but can get flightly at any time.

The moral of my long winded story is they will calm down with age. If you can get him to accept you as something that isn't trying to eat him, that great!! Just take it slow and don't lose his trust. He'll come around sooner or later.

 

[KoreanDeathKid]

blah, may be that was kinda breakin the animal, aw well, just gonna have to learn from you guys before my tegu gets out of hibernation

 

[ApriliaRufo]

my friend tired this method with his savannah monitor and it worked, I was able to make this into a tegu version and plan on doing this Vegas, so here it is
starve him for the next week or more, make sure that he is hungry enough to eat anything. then put some worms or fruits in your hand and offer it to him, it should work without the tegu attacking your hand. do this a couple more times, until you are sure that the tegu trusts you and that you are his or her owner that feeds you.
then put him in a small glass tank and let him look at other animals, like dogs, cats, or even other reptiles. make sure that he does not break the tank. do this until he understands that the animals around him is your pets also. and when he stops going crazy, and tring to kill your pets, let him out and see how he does with other animals. he should get along with cats, dogs, and other animals that you've shown him. than he will calm down, and relize that every living things in the house is harmless. this should help the animal socilize with other animals and humans without a problem, you can even let the tegu hang out with other reptiles.
try taking him out around 3 times a day, and handle him gently, and don't let him out of your hands. show him that you are the boss, and the owner, then the tegu is going to settle down and will eventually become tame and will enjoy human attention and their handling.
do all this steps until he calms down perfectly.
my tegu is around 19 inchs now, and he's learning already , he eats eggs from my hand, and tolerates handling better than he used to

I would dump that plan immediately. Apollo will eat out of my hand now, though I don't recommend it. I spend up to 5 hours each day with him and Venus. Apollo, of course being farther along, has no problems eating out of my hand, but it's a risk I take and I would never force his hunger to the point where he would HAVE to eat out of my hand. Venus is still working on not being afraid of the barehanded exit, but eventually she will get it.

So called "taming" tegus is really just a matter of how much energy, time, and money you have. I work 60 hours a week climbing telephone poles, then do maintenance repairs for 110 apartments on call, but still each night, is dedicated to them. I don't want Apollo to jump through hoops, I don't want him to beg for food, I don't even want him to be the terror some call "free-roaming" tegus in the house. He can explore, but it's all up to them.

It's really that easy for me. Tegus are tegus. I am the intruder on their lifestyle, not the other way around, remember that everyone. You are the intruder, you are the stressor, and you are responsible. Don't treat them like children, or wild animals, treat them like peers. They have a lot you can learn from them.

 

[greentriple]

Wonderful infromation in this thread. Most have great stuff to take away and use. I too feed in cage, this started mostly because he was down and out when I was up, and he's doing well with it, no attacks to date. I'm not a fan of "breaking" an animal, but understand that for some this is a normal way of establishing human dominance over a pet. I've seen it used on dogs and young people in the military.

The diversity of sucess stories goes to the diversity of those here. What's great is if one thing is not working there are so many options to try, gloves, t-shirts, feeding in cage, feeding outside of cage, etc....

I only wish more people spent time learning this stuff before buying a baby anything, but I'm glad this and other sites exist to help along the way.
:wink:

 

[VARNYARD]

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this thread, I wanted to make a video to show how to remove the tegu that is not tame for feeding:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6U_3NCDot8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6U_3NCDot8</a><!-- m -->

Here is part 2:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zlWvpgYzFOE">http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zlWvpgYzFOE</a><!-- m -->

I removed all of my babies from outside due to the very cold temps we have been having here. So I decided to make these videos to help show what I am talking about on the removal for feeding. I will let them return to hibernation in a cool room, I just got worried about my babies.

Let me know if this helps, and what you think of the way this is done.

 

[AB^]

I like the videos,
so much can be said for coming at your animal in a non threatening manner