Thor won't stop biting.

[SkyeYvonne]

Hello all!

Thor has been a bad little gu here lately and I'm not entirely sure how to break her of her little biting habit. She used to be the sweetest little girl but now all she wants to do is bite me. It doesn't matter if I'm trying to handle her or if I'm working inside her tank; she charges at my hand and bites me. I've given her clothes of mine to sleep with (she currently has four of my socks inside her tank that she will not let me have back...every time I go to take them she charges, grabs them, and yanks them out of my hands. Lol.) and someone recommended I sit with her in my bathtub so that she can't get away from me like she's so good at doing. She's still small so the bites don't hurt but it's kind of getting frustrating that she won't stop. I've had her since April 5th of this year and she couldn't have been but a month or two old when I got her, so I don't think she's a year old yet. I've read that they go through a "terrible 1" phase but I still thought I had a while before she got to that. Any recommendations on what else I can do to make her stop trying to take a bite out of my hand?

 

[sphenodon]

Do you pull away when she bites? Maybe she's learning that if she charges and bites, you go away, so she's being reinforced for it. I'm still new to tegus but for other animals, I've worn gloves and let them bite so they learn biting gets them nothing. I've also worn latex gloves because they would taste gross (not sure how a lizard does with that though).

When I tamed my current lizard (not tegu), I would put my hand in until I saw it start breathing a little heavier, but not hissing or striking. I'd keep it there til it calmed down. Then took my hand away. To them, the reward is being calm = hand goes away. I did this repeatedly throughout the day and moved closer and closer each time, pending his comfort level. it seemed to work fairly quickly. But, I have a blue tongue skink, which is fairly tame normally. within a few days, I was able to put my hand right in front of him without him freaking out. I'd slide my hand under and pick him up once a day to handle but more often, I'd just pull away.

I don't remember anymore but it probably took at least a couple months for him to completely stop throwing his pretend strikes. Couple more to stop hissing. And now he just huffs at me and will actually crawl into my lap looking for food. That was about 5 months of almost daily work, lol. I know it's been awhile since you posted, hope you've had better experiences since then!

 

[SkyeYvonne]

Do you pull away when she bites? Maybe she's learning that if she charges and bites, you go away, so she's being reinforced for it. I'm still new to tegus but for other animals, I've worn gloves and let them bite so they learn biting gets them nothing. I've also worn latex gloves because they would taste gross (not sure how a lizard does with that though).

When I tamed my current lizard (not tegu), I would put my hand in until I saw it start breathing a little heavier, but not hissing or striking. I'd keep it there til it calmed down. Then took my hand away. To them, the reward is being calm = hand goes away. I did this repeatedly throughout the day and moved closer and closer each time, pending his comfort level. it seemed to work fairly quickly. But, I have a blue tongue skink, which is fairly tame normally. within a few days, I was able to put my hand right in front of him without him freaking out. I'd slide my hand under and pick him up once a day to handle but more often, I'd just pull away.

I don't remember anymore but it probably took at least a couple months for him to completely stop throwing his pretend strikes. Couple more to stop hissing. And now he just huffs at me and will actually crawl into my lap looking for food. That was about 5 months of almost daily work, lol. I know it's been awhile since you posted, hope you've had better experiences since then!

She's actually stopped biting! Occasionally she'll nip at my fingers now but that's usually around dinner time and she knows she's about to be fed. I think it's her way of telling me to hurry up and give her food. Lol. I'm not sure what the deal was in general with the biting though. I would never pull my hand away or anything...I'd kind of just keep my hand there until she let go and then would take my hand away and either go back to what I was doing before she bit or I'd wait until she'd calm down and then would pick back up wherever I left off. She's alright now though. Now she'll charge at me whenever I'm in the tank but instead of biting she crawls up my arm for me to take her out.

I have a blue tongue, too, though! You're lucky. I have one of the very rare unfriendly ones. Lol. I bought her from a reptile show over the summer and I have my doubts that the previous owner was very good to her because she doesn't trust me at all. Poor little thing. She runs away if she even sees me walk into the room and then will start breathing really hard and will hiss at me whenever I'm working in the tank or trying to handle her. I just kind of let her do her own thing to keep from stressing her.

 

[sphenodon]

Yeah blue tongues can be pretty shy! I think it took mine a few months to stop running and hiding as soon as I came in too. He still hides now when he hears loud noises even outside of the room. I've had him since he was a few days old but he's the offspring of WC adults so he's probably not as chill as some of the ones a few generations away from wild specimens. The breeder said her WC adults tamed down pretty easily over time. I think a lot of it is just bringing food and getting them used to seeing you. I'm sure yours will come around. I was so psyched the day he crawled into my lap, presumably looking for food, but I didn't even actually have any food in the room that might have lured him onto my lap!

If I actually get a tegu, I kind of wonder whether this method would work: http://reptilerevolution.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-tame-your-reptile
I think the author recommends not picking your lizard up until at least a month or more after you get it. In theory, it makes sense and sounds the least stressful for your lizard. But at the same time, I'd be worried about NOT handling for that long. I don't have enough experience with large/aggressive lizards to know whether this would work. No idea on the author's credibility either.

Glad to hear your tegu is better! She sounds pretty cute. I'm obsessively reading as much as possible on them and spend ridiculous amounts of time looking at instagram pictures lol!

 

[Skeep]

Basically I think that method of taming isn't a bad idea, just go slow and you and your tegu can work out the pace. From what I hear, and my experience, I doubt your tegu would wait a month before wanting to climb up you! My hatchling was climbing onto my hand by the second day, mostly because she learned that that was a good way to escape her cage ;-)

 

[Alliocha]

Eventhough it might be tough: If your Tegu bites you, don't jump away. Let him chew on your hands until he leaves them. Of course desinfect it afterwards! This is the only way he will learn that your hands are nothing to eat if he does the biting out of food curiosity.