Offering good/bad examples
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Video is a few months old (Oct). Taken on a weekday lunch break from work. Forgive the mess, room is still full of boxes and a ton of crap that went into building my large enclosure. I will be posting other videos like this from time to time as I'm going through all the videos I have looking for clips to go into my training series.
Tree Monitor
Ackie Monitor
monitor lizard taming
monitor lizard socialization
monitor lizard training
He's a beautiful lizard. I don't personally think them refusing an offer is bad, what I would condsider bad would be them fleeing or biting at an offer. You have a good boi and he really trusts you. He's very calm which shows not only that he trusts you, but that he trusts his environment. Something equally as, if not more important.
A lot of context is missing from the video. The negative aspect of a refusal has no effect on the relationship with the animal unless you are pestering them nonstop. But it absolutely has an effect on the behavioral conditioning of the animal which is what the video was trying to demo to those already following my previous videos on the subject.
You are correct that none of this would work without very high trust and socialization being present first. And you are the first person to bring up the importance of the familiarity of the environment on the animals confidence. I realized this too very early on and it's why I let them free roam any environment they are introduced to. Until they can inspect everything for themselves and ensure no dangers are lurking around any corner, they won't feel 100% secure. A lot of people never realize this and I've seen a ton of people with tree monitors specifically where they have a decent relationship with the animal at the enclosure but it's clear the animal has no confidence outside of this security space. It's easy to spot with tree monitors due to their tails serving as the perfect indication of the animals confidence and security. You will often see a lot of half spiraling in those cases as the animal is looking in all directions worried about every foreign shape and moving object in the distance.
Tree monitors are really intelligent and a ton of fun
They truly are...
I love them.
I dont know if I agree with the "bad" examples. I dont think there's a bad time to present yourself to an animal. especially when they are this social, but letting them choose is key. if you put your hand to it and they do nothing that's not a bad thing. what would be bad is if you forced it. any amount of restraint causes huge set backs. 100% agree with your approach. you're doing great. insentivising animals to use you as a vehicle to get where they want is the easiest way to begin socializing. whether that be to get to food, or to get out of the enclosure. them believing everything is their choice is spot on, but I dont think they always have a goal. I doubt even most of the time they have a goal. they just want new stimulation. good vid man
Yes, I'm not saying it's bad in that it is harming your relationship with them... It's bad for the acceptance rate which applies to the overall behavioral conditioning of the animal which increases their propensity to immediately take your offers in the future.
100% agree on forcing. To this day I have never had to pick them up since we started this training process nearly a year ago. If they don't accept an offer when I need to put them up I just wait a bit and try again at the next optimal moment. I respect their will and independence which is why they trust me so much.
When I mentioned goals, I'm referring to the next 5-10 seconds of the animal's life. Like he comes up to a gap and I can see he is going to jump from the object he is on to something else. The goal being to cross the gap. I place my arm in between the gap to give them a shorter jump. That sort of thing... Trust me I don't anthropomorphize these guys and understand their brains are working way different than ours. I exploit it all the time.
Thanks for the kind words. I know you from your posts on reddit and I know you have a ton of experience with these guys. Means a lot to hear this sort of thing when you have such little experience from someone with a lot.
@TreeMonitorTraining yeah man no problem! I can say though, when they're to this point like your guy, you can basically do whatever with them and they genuinely don't care haha. My female that produces all my hatchlings, I can (not that I do, but can) lift her up by her tail if I wanted. I can grab her face and all. No cares. I apply what you do here to the hatchlings the moment they come out of the egg. Some people will snatch them out of the incubator then try and work with them later and I think that's the biggest mistake. If I let them choose to walk up on me fresh out of the egg to get to the enclosure, that animal is instantly 10x more calm than one you snatch out but try and work with later. I have some pretty funny clips recorded of just how consistently social mine are. Trains of 4 of them jumping out to my arm one after another when I open the door. As of 2 weeks from now when my next clutch hatches, I'll have hatched about 30 prasinus. Only 2-3 have been flighty and I believe those were my fault. Once they're about 3 months old they're just like I described the mom. I can do whatever I please with them during the day. And I specify during day because any of these guys react totally differently even if social if you poke them out of a tube at night. If you dm me on IG I could send ya some videos of em
@@Ryzrr I don't use IG. But was already subscribed to your youtube with this account and even longer with my actual personal account as I consume nearly anything monitor related I come across. Back when I thought I had a female, Ajax used to be named Esme, and I remember coming across your simple nesting build when I was trying to prepare for them coming of age. I recognized your name immediately from the monitor subreddit when you posted it there. And yeah, I could immediately tell your animals are just as chill as mine. People can post short videos of a really good interaction with these guys, but once you have brought them to this level it's easy to see when someone is cherry-picking a great interaction they had or if they truly have an animal that is just 100% calm and secure. It's in the persons nonchalant behavior around the animal as much as the animal's behavior itself. I recognized it in your videos easily just as you're seeing it here in mine.
But yeah dude... from what little experience I've had with them, 1.5 yrs with 2 male VP, there is no reason why people should consider these flighty animals. I had no clue what I was doing and just watched them so intensely I was able to feel my way through it as a beginner reptile owner. I'm sure I could easily reach down and pick them up now, but why bother. I have absolute control over them without having to.
Excellent video, totally applicable to other reptiles too. I figured a lot of this stuff out by myself with my bearded dragon, but it's immensely helpful to hear someone put it in concrete verbiage.
Thanks!
This is a great video, nice insights. Also, your enclosures are well done!
Thank you. Appreciate it.
This video has some outstanding observations and I'm going to incorporate them into my own routines. I had never noticed that i could take advantage of the "looking around" clue. Kinda disappointed in myself for that. Plus I'm always happy to come across someone that knows the proper meaning of "fuckery".
In my training series I say something like... If they already trust you, your offer will be considered in those moments. Over time it will be valued.
Appreciate the kind words.
they love their daddy. I love these little guys.. I had two Savannahs. One for nearly 15 years that I raised. And the other I bought off someone that didn't know jack shit about the importance of UVB. So he was already deep into the MBD but I did what I could do to give him the best life I could. Two weeks ago I bought a Red Ackie.. What a little character he is.. He is pounding down the Crickets, Dubias and occasional Superworms.. But for some odd reason he wants nothing to do with waxworms.. Its like me with Aspargus.. Abosultely wants zero part it. lol
@rickbeezer34 Yeah, my Ackie is a food demon for everything but won't eat anything worm shaped. So no superworms etc, I got close with silk worms in that she would murder them and rub her face around in their guts but she wouldn't eat them. They all have their own little quirks.
Savannahs are such a cool species. A bit out of the size range I want to work with though. I just have the 2 trees and an ackie right now. If I get another it will be the last, maybe a Kimberly rock monitor, we'll see.
Damn, little guy got more than just looks.
Can you explain how you installed that tub of water in one of the enclosures I saw? Does it have a bulk head/ball valve to drain the water for ease?
It's fit perfectly into the rock scape and can be pulled in and out. It's empty right now as I was fighting a fungus gnat infestation recently. How I made it:
I put the tub inside a garbage bag so spray foam wouldn't stick to it. I placed it upside down onto a square piece of foam board. I smoothed out the garbage bag all over the bottom of the tub as much as possible which is facing up with the opening facing down, laying flat on the foam board. I then spray foamed all over it sealing it to the board underneath. You need to let this harden and cure for way longer than normal spray foam curing to keep the shell intact when removed.
About 5 days I'd say to be sure. So now you have a square of foam board with a hump of spray foam like a turtle shell attached to it. Underneath that foam is your tub upside down with the opening facing down on the board. Use a razor to cut around the entire hunk and then pry off the foam board. Now you should only be left with your tub inside a garbage bag and a shell attached to the bottom that perfectly fits the tub. You should be able to pull the tub/garbage bag free of the spray foam mold. Now take that mold and foam it into place inside the enclosure. After dryloking it... you now have a form fitted slot you can insert and remove your tub from.
Every few days I would go over there with another tub and remove the water, pull out the tub insert and clean it, and then just reinsert/refill. Not really feasible with a large tub, but perfect for something small like I have.
@@TreeMonitorTraining do u have a bearded dragon?
@@Jmster69 I don't. I just have the 3 monitors.
Beautiful Tree monitor , how old is your lizard ?
About a year and 4 months. This video from 2 months ago or so.
@@TreeMonitorTraining i do have experience with chinese water dragons , bearded dragons , and iguanas . but i never had monitor lizard , and this emerald tree monitor looks like a smart lizard :)
@@sebikz6402 They are insanely smart.
that xbox 360 though
I'm a PC gamer.... Those are just relics. There's a Wii there too.
4:03 is that the complete saga in VHS tape or DVD for dragon ball z
DVD lol
@@TreeMonitorTraining since its a old TV show in the DVD is a bit big so it kinda looks like a VHS
@@Jmster69 Each one of those boxes is a whole season of DVDs. Same size as each season of Sopranos right next to it.
Can I get the name of this species? It's beautiful and looks really healthy
looks like an emerald tree monitor
@@TacoCatzZ Thank you very much!
Thank you, and yes it's a green(or emerald) tree monitor as stated by Taco.
Oh wow a green monitor
Is there a way to get them to use the bathroom in a certain location?
So I'm actually fairly certain you could but it would be a ton of work. Here's why I think its possible.... They pretty much already do. In the smaller enclosure they would only come down to the floor of the enclosure initially to go to the bathroom and then climb right back up into the canopy. Later on, with them coming out so frequently, I started to realize they were holding their poo until I let them out. This led to them going on my arm frequently. I started trying to wait as long as possible until I had seen them go to the bathroom before interacting with them to stop them from shitting on me. But they would hold it so long that I'd figure they must have gone and I'd let them out only to find they would immediately shit on me. so they have some kind of aversion to soiling their living area similar to a cat or a ferret and were trying to hold it since they knew they would be let out eventually. Sounds crazy but I'm not exaggerating. I interact with these guys every day.
This was way more noticeable when they were in their smaller enclosure just because they never wanted to soil the canopy and always came down to the floor. Even in the larger enclosure Ajax shits up at the glass where he gets let out 90% of the time which shows he's trying to get out before he goes. The other 10% of the time he goes off the side of the branch(2prong branch) extending to the glass from near the water cup. Having experience with ferrets and based on the way I'm working with these guys using behavioral repetition... If I cared enough about this I would do something like:
-move them back into a smaller enclosure
-respond immediately when they come down to the bottom
-bring some sort of tray or container to the glass for them to climb on and hope they go to the bathroom
-repetition, repetition over time whatever I was using to do this.... I would assume would become a cue for them. Then I could put it inside their enclosure in a corner or something and hope they'd use it.
Something like that. I'm pretty sure it could be done based on how everything else has worked with the way I'm conditioning them. But like I said they pretty much already go in the same place most the time so It's not hard cleaning up after them and my enclosures are bioactive so anything left over gets handled by the cleanup crew.
99% of my tree monitors lift their ass off the basking spot and projectile shit on the glass lol. but my female green, in the 6 years I've had her will seemingly wait till she's let out and go straight to the nearest person wearing a hat and shit on it @@TreeMonitorTraining
All of my monitors will poop outside the enclosures if given the chance. And like you, they all avoid pooping where they sleep. My Argus has become my prime offender of waiting all day to poop till I let her out when I come home. Very frustrating when the poops are water dominant.
@@CypressWalker lol yeah man... Sometimes these guys go off the sides of the enclosures and when it is water heavy its not only brutal for cleanup but that shi sprays a good length away from the enclosure so I have to watch out.