Lovely example Merlin! LOL

Indeed, I too believe that tone of voice is very important to communication. Good behavior gets soft, baby-like talk. Bad behavior gets loud, harsh tones. They seem to respond to that.

I just tried telling Rex in a very soft, loving tone that I will stuff him if he keeps pooping on my desk. He opened one eye, head bobbed me and went back to sleep. So, it would seem Merlin's theory holds! LMAO!

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Regards,
Dominick
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"Do you watch too much television? Did you do so as a toddler? Evidence tonight that it could be the cause of learning disorders, like attention deficit and hyperact-Ooooh, a kitty!" - Keith Olbermann

Hey there. Like I said in my other thread, my ig is finally comfortable enough to start pooping. Since then, he has become much more energetic and scrambles like crazy when I pick him up. I don't let him down until he calms down. But I have a small dilema.

When he is calm, dewlap back unflared, looking at me still etc., I talk nice to it, and then I slowly put him down. As I lower him, he starts struggling again. So I hold on and go "No! No!", he calms again, and I lower him again an he scrambles again. Seems like he is calmed down in my hand but when I want to show it that's good, and lower him down, the movement scares him and he struggles. It's a long cycle and I don't know if I am sending the wrong message as eventually I put him down calm, but he may be wanting to struggle right then and there, I don't know.

I do lower him slowly. Sometimes, when I let go of it, he will turn around and climb back onto my arm and scramble up my arm. What should I do then? Is that good or bad?

I don't know if I'm gaining its trust now or not. Today, he was finally willing to eat from my hand as I handed it food. It would alternate between eating from my hand (vegies held between fingers, not on palm) and the food bowl. Or did he just not see me? I would think this is a good sign, but he seems to struggle a little more today than before when picking up. Sending me mixed messages.

LOL! It sounds about typical! The fact that he is eating from your hand shows that he is is getting accustomed to you. When he is laying still in your hand its like, "if I am still maybe he will forget about me!". Then when you start to lower him its more like, "Ok now I can make a break for it!"
The running up your arm is also typical. In the iguana mind "up" equals safety. Your arm just happens to be the fastest way to go "up"!
Something you might try is taking him into a small room like a bathroom. Get down on the floor and mke sure that there are no openings that he can get into and get lost. Close the door and just sit in there with him and let him crawl around on you. maybe take a couple of leaves of his favoprite type and coax him into climbing up on you.

You are on your way. you just have to be patient.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

So I am on the right track! Yes!
When I lower him, and he clambers a bit, does that mean I should hold him up again until he's still, right? Even though he was calm just before and I was lowering him as a result of that?

Instead of putting him down really slowly try doing it at normal speed. Perhaps that will allow you to put him down before he realizes whats happening. However I wouldn't worry too much about it. The thing is that you chose to put him down when you want to, not when he wants you to.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I actually was wondering about the same thing when I first got Skeletor, but it seems like he is doing a lot better now. I've only had Skeletor for 4 weeks and after 2 weeks I could easily pick him up and he would kind of freak out and wiggle around a little when I was putting him down. But now he only wiggles whenever we go to put him back in the cage. I can tell he is used to being held now and actually has been very "adventurous" and likes to crawl up and down my arm and has been jumping from my shoulder onto my desk or even the floor. I don't think it's that he wants to get away from me or my wife, I just think he wants to explore his surroundings. It seems like now I have a harder time putting him back into his tank rather than taking him out. I was just curious if anyone else has experienced this also?? What I basically did was hand feed him once or twice the first week to gain his trust, and then started picking him up daily and still hand feeding him like every couple days and once it seemed like he was warming up to us, we stopped hand feeding him completely (that way WE weren't the ones being trained.).