I will only say this one more time, and I promise to leave you alone after this, after all.. it's your lizard, not mine.

The animal is breathing less than ideal air.

I will explain.. Please read carefully.

Since reptiles do not have pores, they do not sweat, since they pass Urates as a solid white chalky clump, they do not urinate.

So how exactly does this slow dehydration take place?

By breathing dry air, that's how.

To put it in perspective, when we breath outside in the winter, we draw in dry winter air, and when we exhale, you can see your breath, this is because our lungs transfer water molecules to the dry air and we exhale moist air forming condensation, hence the "cloud" we see when we breath.

This same exact principal applies to Squamates (snakes and lizards). when we take an animal that has evolved over millions of years to breath damp tropical air and place it in a box that has low humidity, each and every breath the animal takes will release precious moisture into the air. Now since reptiles breath very slowly and each of those slow breaths only release minuscule amounts of body water, the process takes many months, sometimes years to bring the internal dehydration to critical levels.

This process in turn stresses the kidneys and liver eventually causing them to fail altogether, then the uric acid levels in the blood begin to rapidly escalate leading to Gout. By the time the symptoms of gout manifest and become visible, it's entirely too late to reverse it. (in virtually all cases, maybe with an odd exception)

This is where burrows come into play as a method of water conservation. If you have ever been in a dank basement you can feel the humidity in the air, it's thick. This is why the air in mines and deep basements is so heavy, suspended water molecules in the air add weight to it.

During the hottest parts of the day, droughts and dry seasons, Monitor lizards will retreat to the burrows, shady areas, hollow logs or swamps and not come back out until the conditions are more favorable.

When we keep them in boxes (Or roaming in rooms) that do not have correct humidity levels and also do not provide enough soil substrate for the animal to dig a burrow and retreat, they begin drying out slowly through respiration. (Technical term for breathing)

Misting a poorly set up cage will not prevent this, soaking the lizard in a bath tub will not prevent this, big water bowls do not prevent this, only correct humidity and offering the opportunity to burrow will prevent this. Proper caging is paramount to your lizard's heath, this cannot be stressed enough.

In conclusion, this is why keeping any monitor in conditions that do not support it's basic physiology needs will ultimately lead to failure.


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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

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