AAAHHH I just wrote everything out and hit the "back" button for the browser on my stupid mouse and lost it all!!! lol
So, to start again...I do want to say that I read ALL of the posts under the socialization category the past few days, and still feel I need your help here.
I am having problems with socializing my hatchling Ig, Mikki. In fact, things are getting WORSE!!! I've had him now for about 2 months, and he's probably only about 3 months old altogether, and he is now turning into this whippy, snappy, lunging, green terror from below!! I know that raising an Ig takes a ton of patience and persistence, but I feel like a complete idiot when it comes to handling him at all!!! Sometimes I feel like I have DORK written on my forehead!!!
First off, I know that he is becoming increasingly territorial over HIS cage. He has become increasingly huffy over me going in there at all, but I keep doin my thing anyway. I work diligently with him every day. I ATTEMPT to spend time just being in there period. I move slowly, trying to get in closer, come from below eye-level, talk calmly and softly to him (lately I've been telling him he'd make a tasty snack or somesuch thing) etc. Most of the time I can not come anywhere close to him without him dashing off like some maniac on drugs! On the days that I can get close enough, I am met with a serious pooattitude: Puffed up, flippin me the dew, lunging, snapping, tail-whipping.
This brings me to my second, and bigger problem. Every day when I go to get him out, he ultimately goes flying out of his cage into the living room - LITERALLY!! He has a Green-Superman complex or something!! I can not fit the cage down the hall into a room that I could close off, otherwise I would. Sometimes just opening the door is enough for him to go into a mad dash and then WWWHHHEEEE - out he goes, and the hunt is on!! In the closet, behind the bookshelf, under the couch, under the entertainment center (URGHHH), in the bathroom (easy). It is, to say the least, getting VERY old!! This happens EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! No matter what I do, if I pursue him at all in his cage, he's out. Then I have to go hunt him down, and by the time I catch (always less than 30 mins, usually about 5-10 mins) him he's usually cold and mad.
I will say that when I am trying to soc him in his cage, and can get close enough while he is being a viscious dork, I NEVER back down (sometimes even creep towards him so very slowly) rather let him cool off and eventually slowly walk away from my hand, then I go away. My logic, as inaccurate as it may be, is that maybe this helps him realize that the "hand monster" is not always out to chase him into uncharted universes!!
I tried going in after him from the other side a few times (my enclosure has a plexi-slider that can be opened from either side) and he LITERALLY kept bonking into the other side (closed) trying to get away!! That's when I figured out that he KNOWS he can get away that way!!! I used to be able to catch him in his tank sometimes when he would try to swim away in his pool, but I stopped putting so much water in there, now he uses it like a spring-board!! I guess I could buy a REALLY BIG net and cover the whole front, but that would probably freak him out even more and he would probably leave me flailing in the net while he makes his next great escape!!!
This morning, I opened the door a little after lights-on to get his food dish, he just went ZOOM right OVER my shoulder!!! OFF HE WENT!!!! I caught him fairly quickly, and he was NOT a happy camper either!!!! He was almost completely black, blacker than I have EVER seen him, and he stepped up his game from his normal wriggle and squirm. This morning he was trying to whip me repeatedly - like 30 times - in hand, and bit me a few times. Now, I know that right now he is just a little green-bean of an ig, but he won't be for long!! I didn't know what else to do, so I brought him up to my face at mouth level, opened my mouth wide, stuck my tongue out and hissed at the little demon pitching a fit in my hand!!!! He stopped trying to whip me - mostly, and did not even try to take another bite for the rest of the morning.
I had made him a hip leash out of soft, round, silky-like cord that does not constrict, holds a slip-loop in place, and doesn't ding his scales too much. So after this morning's episode, after he stopped wiggling around that is, I put his leash on, stuck him on my shoulder, and went to work. I work from home, customer service, so he got to just sit there and listen to me talk and tap away at the keyboard. I orginally put him on my left shoulder, but the headset tripped him out and he tried whipping it a few times (he got ME in the neck of course!!) so I picked him up and put him on my other shoulder. He was there for about 2 hours before I put him back in his cage. The office is about 80, so he didn't freeze - more like night-time temps. A couple of times he crawled on my head and I would let him stay there for a little bit (but reminded myself of his adult size) and put back on my shoulder. A few times he lept off my shoulder on to the key-board or toward my monitor, but I would just calmly pick him up and put him back on my shoulder. When I put him away he was just green, not dark, but definately NOT his normal super bright lime-green. He did still flip me the dew as I deposited him back on the highest branch.
I don't know what to do!!!
I really, REALLY feel like a dork here, guys and gals!! Thanks to you guys, I got the habitat right, the diet is right, he finished his shed about a week ago, is eating and defecating normally. He seems healthy; looks healthy.
As you remember, I brought the other Ig home on June 16th, but all of this started BEFORE she came here. (BTW - Named her Lilly, she's progressively getting better, and I'll do update on her in a week or so, including the legal end of things.
) And even though I am super-sterile about keeping them separate (as one can be without living in a lab!) I'm sure the smell of her is still 'there' and is probably NOT helping things. But then again, perhaps it is simply that he is becoming more confident and growing into himself, or would that be "out" because he's shedding???
My confidence is starting to lag here a bit, folks! Again, I know it can take a long time, like a year or more, to socialized these green goobers, but I feel like I am making it worse. The idea is to soc them until they realize that you aren't going to eat them, but what do I do when he is OBVIOUSLY getting more sassy about even being looked at, let alone held?!?!?
Please help me.....
BTW, unrelated question (maybe.) It was my understanding that you can't really see the femoral pores on little igs. His are visable and create wrinkles in his little legs. Is this normal for most igs, or do I potentially have a male from the great-red-beyond on my hands?!?!?!?!
Jeannie
