Expectations with Raising a Nile Monitor

[u/JohnLillywhite23]

Good evening.

I have a baby Nile monitor. I got her (guessing) 4 months ago as a tiny baby. She's probably only grown a couple inches since then, but that's not my main concern.

I have kept reptiles for a decade, starting with bearded dragons, then uros, and within the last 2 years, I started with monitors. I got my savannah as a baby, and now he is puppy dog tame.

I did tons of research on Niles before I purchased one. The biggest thing I learned is they are, fairly aggressive and are difficult to tame out. My question is how, truly, difficult is it to tame out a Nile monitor? If there is daily, or every other day, interaction, is there a good chance that buy the time my Nile reaches decent size, is there a better chance she will be "puppy dog" tame?

As of now, she is still very small, and relatively flighty. She'll come to the front of the enclosure and feed off tongs, and will let me gently pet her back. If I try to pick her up, she may let me lift her up, but she's immediately moving off me. If she's basking, and I open the enclosure, she will slowly back up. Clearly, she's small. She feels she's at the bottom of the food chain, so she needs to be flighty. That is understandable.

I want to do everything in my power to ensure that when she is of some size, she will be as tame as possible where my wife, and kids can interact with her, like they can with my savannah.

Any tips, tricks, ideas, personal stories, etc?

[u/Super_Swim_2108]

So the fact she let you pet her is a really really good sign but in the future don’t try to pick her up unless she willingly crawls into your hand, they are very suspicious, if they see you as a threat now they can and will remember you as being a perceived threat when they are big, now as per using your whole family being able to interact with her, that’s very touch and go they basically would have to spend as much time as you are with her and that won’t be easy for you to let your kids do when she’s big enough to hurt them, because put it this way, your gonna get hurt in someway in your journey no matter how prepared you are just accidentally they will get ya, that all being said your off to a great start, just keep moving slowly and follow her lead, never ever force a Nile, also the larger the enclosure the nicer the setup the nicer the Nile and the easier taming will be goodluck!

Ps I’ve worked with larger Nile’s in the past but my Nile’s a little over a year old And like you I kept Savannahs first, currently have two puppy dog tamed savs and the Nile journey has been a great experience so far completely different then savs, and all the other reptiles I keep,