I am sorry, but can you point to any records of albigs deficating in pools of water, naturally?. Or how about soaking in pools of water.

There are two main known reasons that cause non aquatic monitors to soak. One is overheating, as in, to lower the body temps.

Two is, dehydration.

Normally monitors will choose to control hydration by not exposing themselves to drying conditions. In otherwords, during the dry periods(season) they stay underground, avoiding the heat of the day, only leaving during periods of higher humidity. Examples are, mourning, later afternoon, night, after rains, etc.

In your(all of our cages) they have no choice but to exsist in what we give them.

As for Robyn, I have addressed this with him many times. I believe he is rethinking his stance on this subject.

I am only guessing but in the case of Pro Exotics, many of their husbandry techniques were developed with keepers in mind. To control the animals to make it easy on keepers. Particularly paid help. Some of these techniques were not for the monitors sake.

What you and many others, including Robyn may forget is. A business does things in a way that benefits the business. Which may or may not be properly incorporated by the private keeper. In the case of Pro Exotics and Rare earth, they kept dry cages and moist nesting boxes in an attempt to force the monitors to nest in a predictable way. Which is fine(for the business) when you recieve lots and lots of clutches. But may not be the best thing for someone with a few pairs.

An example is colubrid breeders. They can and do breed snakes in tiny shoes boxes. But the private keeper should show some compassion and offer a much larger richer enviornments.

IF you choose to keep your monitor in a way that physically stresses it(dehydration) then fix that by forcibly soaking(rehydrating) it, causing mental stress, thats your choice. But intellectually speaking, you my friend should be better then that. On offense, its does not take a whole lot of intelligence to figure that out. Avoid the stress, both physical and mental if possible. Yes, its not only possible, but easy to do.

You see Roger, your an oxymoron, you act smart, you talk smart, but you do non-smart things. Yes, a paradox. Cheers

p.s. You do understand, defication is a known responce to stress with all kinds of animals.

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