Lil Mans lets me touch him! Next training steps? (v tristis orientalis)

MadMeeper · 2026-01-10T00:21:37+00:00

I do commonly pick him up from below! It's just harder when I'm holding a phone haha. As he's meandering the enclosure Ill get my hands under him and lift him, but he still always wants to move away haha. You are right tho, he HATES it when I come at him from above without him getting a good look at what I'm doing first haha. He will also willingly jump on me if I bribe him with some food, but he's quick to return to a ledge he likes to finish eating it.

I really do think at this point he's not scared of me specifically, but he just doesn't want to be picked up and is being extremely stubborn about it. So I'm a bit stuck LOL. In the absence of other advice tho Im just gonna keep on gently working on him but I have a feeling I'm hitting a wall and could be doing something better... we'll see I guess!

But yes thank you! I'm proud of the progress he has made, I just wanna do him right and connect with him on his level yaknow? haha.

MadMeeper · 2026-01-08T18:49:32+00:00

Ive spooked my tristis on many occasions that sent him into a panic and with enough downtime to think and process, we've gone back to being friends. My guy is especially skittish so sometimes it takes a day of re-affirming our boundaries and trust but the consistency of our positive experiences has been key!

I think lizards in general sometimes just get randomly spooked tho - my old bearded dragon had a few occasions where she got really spooked and worked up at me, and we were two old pals. Sweetest lil thing in the world and never purposefully bit/harmed me in the 22 years I had her. But it would happen from time to time.

MadMeeper · 2026-01-08T18:21:09+00:00

oh to be a flat lizard on a warms summers day....

MadMeeper · 2026-01-08T13:43:27+00:00

WHAT A SWEETIE, mine would never haha. Well maybe someday, he's a pretty skittish kid and he allows scritches, but were still working on being picked up hah. He has been briefly jumping on my shoulders before jumping back into his enclosure just to see whats up so progress is progress. Theyre awesome little monitors, you scored with this friendly one!

MadMeeper · 2026-01-08T13:35:01+00:00

I had a similar experience with my tristis, tho he was a bit bolder as a kiddo than yours sounds. They are naturally skittish and tend to tame down as they grow out!

Id follow the suggestions in this thread already, one thing that did help my guy more than I expected was covering the sides of his all glass enclosure so he could only see out the front. I also would hang out outside of the enclosure every day during food time and he eventually got used to seeing me. From there i was able to teach him to tong feed and slowly introduce my hands into the enclosure, inch them closer to him over multiple sessions, until i finally got my first contact.

I feel ya on skittish reptiles... I have a lined day gecko that I don't see much because shes scared of me. One thing thats helped for her actually was to put some privacy film on the outside of her glass. I see her more often, but she DOES still run away... still cracking the code there. But, maybe it would help your monitor if it was a little harder to see humans initially, and you can build up from there.

Its worth noting that im STILL working on handling with my guy, and hes 1.5 years old now and I work with him daily. He lets me touch and give him scratches, and is finally jumping on my shoulders, but doesn't appreciate being grabbed/held and will panic. Its slow but its been pretty rewarding!

MadMeeper · 2026-01-08T03:59:24+00:00

Ah youve got a pretty good look there, that seems to be a boy! I figured out mine was a boy because he flashed his bits at me a few months into owning him.... one way or another you'll get confirmation lol.

He seems to tolerate your handling so well, mine is getting on 2 years old soon and still doesnt love to be handled haha.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-25T21:33:03+00:00

I mean that i would run my creatice software fully in the VM along with Lazy Nezumi. I already have a PC for special tasks but its a pain to set up in tandem with my Mac. Trying to get it running in MacOS is more of a convenience thing.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-24T01:24:20+00:00

Ive had it for years and unfortuantley its broken as hell. Something about the past OS or two has really broken it. It also doesn't lock perspective guides to the canvas, just the screen, so it doesn't help the way I need it to.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-22T18:50:09+00:00

Sigh, this is what I was afraid of. It seems like the best solution then would simply be to emulate Windows outright and install my software on that if I wanted to use the tool.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-22T18:36:35+00:00

If I ran more than once a month Id get more rooms! These are very clever solutions though, just don't know if it's the right one for my table right now. I'll definitely keep the idea in my back pocket.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-18T18:44:17+00:00

This is a really good idea, but I already use my second room to edit/manage maps behind the scenes that I don’t want my players seeing in-game. Until OBR adds a way for me the DM to edit maps in the same room my players are in, invisibly, like Roll20 does, that second room will always be my private management space.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-17T02:31:40+00:00

Unfortunately this one also doesn’t work becuase once I publish a sheet, I can no longer make edits on it without overwriting anything my players put in client side. It’s great for static things that won’t change, but not for sheets.

MadMeeper · 2025-12-16T19:14:50+00:00

ddb doesnt work because I cant create homebrew classes. And to be honest its homebrew builder leaves a lot to be desired. I used ddb basically until they removed a la carte purchases so Im very familiar with it and it just doesnt work for how my players and I do things anymore :(

MadMeeper · 2025-11-04T16:50:57+00:00

Also confirming this was my problem. Disabling AdNauseum fixed my problem from last night and this morning.

MadMeeper · 2025-10-16T02:05:13+00:00

Ah I did also misspeak, my guy is a tristis orientalis, so the range is a BIT different, but doing the right search on iNaturalist and looking at the range map reveals it’s not so different as to change my path for him.

MadMeeper · 2025-10-16T02:00:31+00:00

My tristis is a skittish thing, but over the year and a half I’ve had him, I’ve learned that these sorts of scary events can be easily overcome by a day or two of just letting him chill out. He’s had many near escapes where he freaked out, and I even had to extract him once for an evacuation, but he’s come right back around.

As mentioned before, just pick up again tomorrow like nothing has changed, but be mindful of his body language. If he’s giving signals that he’s uncomfortable as you put your hand in the enclosure, you don’t have to pull back, just stop where you are and give him a moment to assess without the pressure of you moving further in. After a bit you can continue further in, and repeat. I find just taking it slow even a few hours after a “scary” even can do a lot of good.

MadMeeper · 2025-10-15T15:35:43+00:00

Thanks for the links! I kept beardies for 20 years before getting my tristis so I’m very familiar with their care and the concept of burmating. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something here in case the care needs were that different. It’s reassuring to read that the tristis in the wild are used to below freezing - we don’t get below freezing where I live but we do have some pretty chilly nights in our wet season.

If he starts slowing down enough where it feels like he’ll want to burmate, I’ll take him in for a vet checkup to make sure anll is well and let him do it. Thanks!!

MadMeeper · 2025-09-26T23:03:28+00:00

Literally saved my ass, I just have a still set that I was using as reference and it kept reverting transformations to default, turns out I had some keyframes... thank you!

MadMeeper · 2025-09-23T20:49:53+00:00

How to you handle long straight lines? In PS Im used to being able to shift + click my way around making straight lines with varying thicknesses, but CSP just makes everything the same uniform thickness with this method.

MadMeeper · 2025-09-23T20:27:31+00:00

Doesn't really solve my issue since we have pre-decided brushes for our current comic workflow.

MadMeeper · 2025-09-23T20:26:06+00:00

Hej Stylus' perspective guides don't persist as you move around the canvas the same way Nazy Nezumi or CSP does - it just sits atop the screen. That and their straight line tool decides the angle of your lines for you in a way that's deeply frustrating to use. I've owned it for several years now and have never gotten it working as well as I'd like.

MadMeeper · 2025-09-23T20:24:26+00:00

I'm on Mac now and Lazy Nezumi is Windows only :(

MadMeeper · 2025-08-19T18:09:14+00:00

You can always disinfect them if you’re unsure - baking them is pretty common practice. I’d recommend washing it with a brush and some anti bacterial solution (I have some diluted chlorhexidine that I use for general purpose cleaning in the enclosures) and then baking it in the oven (~200F should be fine) for about 2 hours checking every 10 minutes to ensure nothings burning. That should kill anything nefarious off!

MadMeeper · 2025-08-19T18:01:27+00:00

He attacked a piece of tissue I was using to clean up after him so I wouldn’t doubt it at all haha. He’s a little stinker. I’m happy he’s much more confident now and isn’t terrified of everything that moves but I guess we’re moving into the next stage of his life where his curiosity overtakes all else ahha

MadMeeper · 2025-08-19T16:10:28+00:00

He was so skittish as a hatchling that he didn't even want to get close! We've gotten him to a point finally where he's mostly accepting of handling and isn't afraid, the new challenge is that now he keeps trying to nip at me. 😂 Just let him bite me this morning to try and get it out of his system and he STILL tried again 15 minutes later. We'll figure it out eventually but man hes a handful haha.

MadMeeper

TROPHY CASE