INTRODUCTION

This page is dedicated to helping you understand how to "tame" your pet. We won't go into to detail on this page on taming any specific animal as every animal has its own special approach. Do as much research as possible to find out what techniques are used on your pet and then experiment to find out which one works best for you and your pet.

WHAT IS TAMING?

Technically all the animals in captivity are already "tame". They are in captivity and they are managed by humans and not by the "law of the jungle". A better way of describing "taming" a pet is to say that you EARN the animals trust and respect, and that you trust and respect the animal. Without this trust (on either side) neither of you will co-exists happily.

TRUST

Earning the trust take time and patience. It can't be achieved overnight.
You have to give the animal a reason to trust you. Sometimes this is done with bribes, sometimes just by grabbing the animal and holding it and petting it until it realizes that you are a friend, not an enemy. The approach that you use will depend on the type of animal, the animals personality and your confidence level.
You will never earn an animals trust by sitting back and waiting for it to come to you. Why should it come to you, you are bigger than it is and a potential threat to it. Without giving it a reason, it will never come to you.
Trust can be a very difficult thing to earn and keep. It is very much like building a relationship with your best friend, it didn't happen overnight and it keeps building over time.
Respect for each others needs is very important. An animal will trust you a lot more if you respect its wishes. If you are playing with it and it is starting to get a little edgy, it is probably tired, the respectful thing for you to do is to give it a break and play with when it is up to it. This way it will still respect you in the morning.

TRUST AND RESPECT AND THE HANDFED/BOTTLE-FED ANIMAL

The handfed/bottle-fed animal that was raised with a lot of love and affection doesn't have the fear of humans that parent raised animals do. They also learn to trust and respect their new human friend much more easily than any other animal. They also can resent the humans more vehemently if their trust is is damaged enough. The problem here with handfed/bottle-fed animals is that they have no fear of humans and if they do become aggressive, they don't hesitate to show it. On the positive side they will bond much closer to their human companion than most other animals would.
The commercial handfed/bottle-fed animal is a little different to deal with. These animals are fed, but they usually receive very little, if any, love and affection. These animals usually require as much patience and work as a parent-raised animal does. They still fear human to a degree and they have almost no trust or respect for the human species.

EMOTIONS

An animal is not very logical, but it is very emotional. When you are dealing with any animal, reading its emotions becomes second nature. This has many advantages, first you can cater to your animals needs as needed (don't forget, it can't tell you what it wants). Second you'll notice if there is something wrong with your animal that may need a Veterinarians attention much faster if you are "tuned into" you animal.
Dealing with animal's emotions is much like dealing with a small child. Because they are emotionally and hormonally driven trying to "reason" with them is impossible. The best that you can do is to react to their emotion impassively. If you react to their actions and emotions they will soon gain control over you. A good example of this is the animal that does a bad behaviour to get your attention, by reacting to this the behaviour is reinforced and the animal will do it again the next time it wants attention. Just like the child throwing a temper tantrum to get what it wants. You have to learn to control you emotions while reading and reacting accordingly to theirs.

OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR

Most people do have some level of fear when dealing with an animal for the first time. This fear is not only primitive but also experience/society driven.
You have to put your inhibitions into perspective. The animal may be able to bite or claw you (only some of the largest exotics can kill you), but you usually have more that enough power in one hand to kill the animal.
You have to realize that the when the animal bites, it is usually due to fear, intimidation, feeling threatened, protecting their territory, all trust of humans has been destroyed and so on. Not many animals bite or attack just for fun of it (this is a human trait).
Since there is a usually a reason for the animals bite (if you startled it, it will probably bite), you cannot let the bite scare you away from the animal. Instead you have to figure out why it bit and try to avoid putting the animal and yourself into that position again. If an animal bites for any reason (other than aggression), never get mad at the animal. The animal will not understand why you are getting upset. Instead you should reassure the animal that it is still loved and that an accident happened and you will try to avoid doing it again (sounds like a marriage, doesn't it?). This way the animal understands that you respect it and that you still love it, even when it has done something wrong (just like kids).
Overcoming your own fear of the animal and replacing it with respect is difficult, but it has to be done. If the animal senses fear in you, it will not trust you (would you trust someone that is obviously afraid of you?). By trading fear for respect you make trust an easier goal to achieve. Respect the animals space, bite, claws, feelings, needs and the animal will begin to respect yours.
From the animals point of view, it sees this huge beast that tries to grab it (in prey animals, this elicits a predator response - in predator animals this elicits a domination response). This can be very intimidating and threatening. Every animal requires a different approach to picking it up. Find out what is the best way with the animal of your choice and then experiment a little to find the best way with that animal.

HORMONES AND BONDING

No, this isn't kinky. The hormones and hormonal fluctuation that most animals go though are a normal fact of life. Some animals may become more aggressive during breeding season than they normally are. This is something that you may have to live with. Some animals can be "fixed" which may help with this problem. Check into whether this can affect your animal and find out if "fixing" your animal is a viable solution. Some animals the "fixing" doesn't fix the problem, and others there may be too many health risks in doing that kind of surgery.
Bonding is what happens when an animal bonds to one or more members of your household. Quite often the animal will bond with a member of the opposite sex (but not always). This can cause some interesting problems. Say you bought an animal for yourself, but it has fallen in love with your mate and will have nothing to do with you.
This bonding reaction can have a wide range of effects. From the animal that would prefer to be with its chosen human, but is fine with everybody else. To the animal that will defend its human mate jealously. Even though the latter problem is not common, if it happens it can be dangerous. Care must always be taken when dealing with animals. Animals can be unpredictable, due to their emotions (just like a child) and hormones (just like a teenager). As long as you are aware of this and exercise reasonable caution and learn to read their emotions, then everybody will be happy. At least as happy as any relationship will every be.

WORKING ON TRUST AND RESPECT

When you start working with your new pet the best thing that you can do is to convince it that you want to be its best friend. It most likely won't come to you for that friendship, you have to show it that you are worthy of being a friend. For every animal there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. We can only give you some general guidelines here.
Consistency is the key word with any animal. If the approach, handling, etc is done differently every time you deal with the animal it will become very confused. It would be like trying to re-learn math and everybody was trying to tell you how to do it, and they all told you different things. By keeping your handling consistent the animal begins to learn the routine and it knows what to expect, it will feel comfortable more quickly this way.
Not only is an animals emotion like a child's, but so is its attention span. Therefore when you are working with it, keep the sessions short, 5-15 minutes each. Just remember, don't overdo it, if you try to spend a lot of time with it when you get the animal, you'll confuse it when you go back to a regular routine.

TOP | HOME | ABOUT | GUIDE TO BUYING A PET | GUIDE TO TAMING A PET
POCKET PETS | EXOTICS | LISTS | LINKS | MAIL

© Petite Paws Exotics
Last updated