Well today I decided to give my sav a bath in an actual bath tub. I had the water so it wasnt too cold and not too hot. I put him in there and all he wanted to do was get out. I picked him up and he actually let me, most of the time he just claws at my hand. I sat there holding him for ten minutes. I put him back in and he didnt like it. What was wrong? The water was perfect. Is it just because it was his first time? I put him in there because he has shed that hasnt come off. Please tell me what was wrong.
Nothing is wrong. Most monitors and lizards in general will try to escape a bath. First off its a new enclosure so the first thing they are going to do is find its limits. See how far they can go and try to find a way out. Second they are out in the open in a strange place so its natural for them to look for a place to hide. And finally some of them really seem to hate baths, LOL! Whenever I give one of my monitors a good soak they try to get out for a while and then settle down and just kinda sit there with a miserable look on their face if thats possible. I use plastic totes with a lid. Its normal for them to explore their surroundings. So I wouldnt worry too much. If he needs a soak give'em a soak. He may not like it but it might be for his own good. If stuck shed is a constant problem make sure the cage isnt too dry.
My Sav wasnt a massive fan of baths when we started and he still occasionally looks for escape routes. But he is more adjusted to it now and has a swim round, quite a good swimmer if I do say so myself. Might enter him in olympics. Plus he knows bath time is poop time now so he is always quite keen for bath!
monitor vision may play a part too. Monitors' eyes are 'wired' to detect moving objects. A featureless wall (such as in a tub) may quickly fade from his vision due to latency. In some cases he may not actually be trying to escape, rather simply trying to go thru something he can not really see. This has been observed in other situations outside the bath- he may sometimes walk into a wall than has no features. You will certainly see this sort of behaviour when a monitor first encounters glass or a mirror and tries to get through it. This is entirely distinct from any effort to escape. When he is in the bath, you might offer your hand as an island for him. Doing this will very quickly desensitize him to hands.
excellent tip that about using ur hand as an island seemed to work wonders wen taming my sav oh and btw mine seems to hate baths aswel
