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My animals would be considered to be very 'tame' and I interact with them a lot, but after having kept them for a good number of years I know that there's always an edge there and I am only one silly mistake away from a serious injury.
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It is sometimes surprising what triggers a feeding response in an adult lace monitor and you don't want to be in a compromising position when the surprise comes. For example, getting them to target a ball on the end of a stick and associate that with food would be dead easy and you could get a well motivated monitor to do that over the course of a single weekend, but if you think that the absence of the target ball is a guarantee the animal will not bite you're going to be in for a rude shock. However, it is very easy to teach them to do something with positive reinforcement, but much harder to teach them to not do something. I've done quite a bit of training with my monitors and can say that, without a doubt, they are smart and learn incredibly quickly, especially if there is a food reward involved. I would try crocdoc or serpentongue, those guys have hell of alot more experience in this area then me.
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Not sure if this works for you, it will depend alot on the character of your monitor, how hungry they are, the layout of your enclosure and how much patience you have, I have been trying to slowly build trust, he was pretty nervous when i first got him, Once he as the trigger for food and has been possible to move him around the enclosure or closer to me Using this method i have trialed feeding him from the same door but from different angles, i.e on the ground, half way up a branch (1.5m), on a branch at eye level (1.9m) and few in between, I started out pretty strict with target and routine as a combination,ġ) he only sees the feeding bucket and thongs if i am feeding him, otherwise i keep it in another room out of site,Ģ) i open the door and place the target next to a branch, the target is a short stick with a tennis ball on the end, whole thing is wrapped in wide electrical tape,ģ) i hold the target just in front of the food, when his nose touches the target i slowly (as not to spook him) pull the target back and move the food (using thongs) forward. I got him when he was 1.5-2yrs old, he has had two owners previous to me so age is abit of a mystery