Hand-taming Question

[Richard.C]

monitor bites are way worse than collareds,i know people whom have had multiple surgeries just from small bites,thought hand was food,not only do theu have power,they have a mouth full or razor sharp teeth,and if they latch on,they can do some considerable damage

[April_Snow]

I'm just used to quickly tamed critters. I've somewhat a gift for it. My friends would get me to handle animals they thought were 'mean' and 'cranky' and I wouldn't get bitten.

and my finger is starting to feel better. I can type with it again. Though the nailbed and fingertip area still feels really weird. Like the nerve has been damaged or something.

[Richard.C]

you would know if its nerve damage,if it was swollen it will take a bit for it to to go down,i would have thought being cracked in half it would still be quite sore,so healing well if yoir typing with it again

bluey bites when they test fingers to see if its food arent as bad as a cheesed off bluey bite,ive had alot of taste test bites and they are pretty mellow in comparison

for people who are concerned,dont stress,the majority of them just huff and puff ,it isnt overly common to have full blown biters,and alot of them are way over exagerated aggression wise

april,every animal is different,even of same species,u cant tell them to mellow and trust you over nite,it takes time,and takes patience,hassling them when there timid to begin with can actually stress them more

you mentioned trying to remove ear bag,and pointing at it or something,ad it bit your finger,even tame ones get annoyed when trying to restrain them to remove stuck shed,so a scared,stressed timid one is always going to hate it more,you also mention stroking its back,if its scared,timid ect it wont like that,its probably not used to people,being probably a wild caught import,its going to need time to learn you are not a threat,settle into its new surroundings,not to mention get used to captivity,patience is the best medicine

its about the animal,if it doesnt want to be held,stroked ect then it shouldnt be,in time,if you can be patient,im sure it will be comfortable with all that,but to expect it overnite is a bit far fetched

[Lea]

Richard is right. A cheesed off blue tongue bite is Worse than a taste tester but really, if we are doing something that aggravates them, then we've got to expect a bit of retaliation. I have an eastern, Kiah, who was mistreated as a youngster and he had a badly broken hind leg, amongst other issues, when I got him. I've had him 6 or 7 years, I think and he still hates being touched near his poor leg. Unfortunately, it healed badly and he also had a struggle with gout, so even a light touch makes him twitch. We work it out with a slightly different hold to the others. I've only had one bite, back in the early days, on my elbow, lol, when I was cleaning up a wound on his head. In my eyes, I deserved it as I was causing him discomfort. He still has pain with the leg, or looks as if he has, but I've not had a bite from him since.

So don't be discouraged by this, just be respectful of his perspective on life and you'll most likely get rewarded.

[April_Snow]

Yeah, I know I deserved the bite. I had him out of the tank and restrained since I was trying to remove 3 sheds of ear bags that are clogging him up on one side. They're still in there but I'm not sure what to do about that.

April

[James Wilson]

Yeah collareds are small, but their jaws are powerful, and they're fast (they run at 13mph)! If you talk to any person whose had a proper bite they will tell you about it. Monitor bites are bad but collared lizards' are worse, they also don't let go once they attach, you have to spray them to get them off

I have had the displeasure of being bitten by a collard, and I can testify that Collards do have powerful jaws and very sharp teeth which makes for a nasty bite. That being said I would take their bite over lots of other lizards including: Monitors, many of which have really bad bites just because of their large size and tendency of many species to lock onto you with their powerful arms and sharp claws all while clamping down hard with their powerful jaws and their bacteria infested teeth. The bite from a large Crock Monitor or Water monitor is no laughing mater and will most likely require a trip to the hospital. Green Iguanas are super underrated and have sent many careless keepers to the hospital from bites with their super sharp cutting teeth. They also have major size and jaw power to make it one of the worst bites you can get. If you want to really have some fun go with an angry Cyclura or even better yet try a testy Ctenasaura (which is like a collard lizard on steroids with a very bad disposition). Then there is always the Prehensile Tailed Skink with its vice like grip and super sharp cutting teeth. No thank you to any of these! In short, collards have a nasty bite, and pound for pound, it ranks up there with some of the worst. That being said, they are not that big, so that drastically reduces the severity or their bite. And thank goodness for that.

[El Lobo]

Yeah, I know I deserved the bite. I had him out of the tank and restrained since I was trying to remove 3 sheds of ear bags that are clogging him up on one side. They're still in there but I'm not sure what to do about that.

April

I am wondering how you know there are specifically three sheds of ear bags that haven't released through sloughing. I assume you aren't confusing the three auricular lobules/scales of the outer ear as ear bags.

[Susann]

You wrote on July 24th that you had just gotten your skink, and that he is a juvenile. Even a baby wouldn't have shed 3 times in 2 weeks. I just want to point out that there is a membrane in the ear that stays visible. It is supposed to be there; do NOT try to remove it!

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[Richard.C]

trying to remove those would seriously cheese a bluey off

[Alioop]

Even if he does have some shed stuck in there... nobody walks around the Indonesian islands with a pair of tweezers pulling the stuck shed out of the ears of wild blueys. Give him a damp hide to help with stuck shed issues and stop hassling that poor critter! The stress of what you're doing is much worse for him than some shed in the ear.

[tylociraptor]

Yep, they are going to get annoyed when you mess with them, that's for sure. Even if you're doing something like removing stuck shed from toes (I had a leopard gecko projectile poop at me... he thought he was an Avicularia sp. or something, lol!), though really you should not need to do that with blueys. They will handle it themselves, especially with the ear bags! :] Unless they seem in severe discomfort (constant scratching/rubbing), it's been said to just leave them.

As for hand taming, I have had success with Misha by feeding her small treats when I pick her up, either by hand or from tweezers (I mix it up so that she doesn't associate my fingers only with food). Not a lot, not enough to make her fat, but just a little bit so she will know "when I am picked up, good things like treats happen, so I am going to like or tolerate being handled". This way she's content about it, and I noticed her huffing go down big time even when I pick her up without treats!

[James Wilson]

I have had success with Misha by feeding her small treats when I pick her up, either by hand or from tweezers (I mix it up so that she doesn't associate my fingers only with food). Not a lot, not enough to make her fat, but just a little bit so she will know "when I am picked up, good things like treats happen, so I am going to like or tolerate being handled". This way she's content about it, and I noticed her huffing go down big time even when I pick her up without treats!

What do you mean by "mix it up"?

[tylociraptor]

I have had success with Misha by feeding her small treats when I pick her up, either by hand or from tweezers (I mix it up so that she doesn't associate my fingers only with food). Not a lot, not enough to make her fat, but just a little bit so she will know "when I am picked up, good things like treats happen, so I am going to like or tolerate being handled". This way she's content about it, and I noticed her huffing go down big time even when I pick her up without treats!

What do you mean by "mix it up"?

As in, some times i feed her treats from tweezers and sometimes I feed directly from my hand.

[James Wilson]

Either way, your skink does not draw any distinction between your fingers and the tweezers. When doing this the skink will definitely start to associate your hands and handling sessions with treats, and eventually that will most likely result in a bite. This is a practice I would not recommend. Your hand and handling is the last thing you want your skink thinking about when you are holding it. Even test bites hurt, and BTS are often so placid that it is easy to stop paying attention to what they are doing or what has caught their interest when in hand. This would be even worse with a skink that associates your hands with food and at the same time was expecting another treat while you are holding it and not paying very close attention. And having a lizard like a BTS, that is so calm and comfortable in hand that you do not have to pay constant attention to not getting bitten is one of the things that makes BTS so great. So you do not really want to mess that up.