FR, nice to hear from you, you acually appear friendlier before you have your morning coffee hehe.



I currently breed hundreds of snakes but could never see myself letting one take a mouse from my palm. Many times they are so "food crazy" once they realize it is feeding time that they miss the rodent and get my hand anyway. I just feel that monitors are so much more than snakes with legs. Now i will totally agree with you on torts and some turtle species. My leopards, sulcattas and box turtles would come running at dinner time and do about everything but roll over and shake my hand in order to get fed. My DB terrapins are the same way.



As far as being a newbie(d..., i havent been called a newbie since i was in the army back in the 70's, feels kinda good), i unfortunately have no control over my phycic ability so if i repeat something already said i apologize but as there is probably some turnover on the forum anyway, i guess it couldn't hurt too much.



As far as my caging goes, it IS all different as i make everything myself and am constantly trying to improve the habitat for all of my animals all of the time. A lot of things you take for granted (like heat tape and misting systems)are just not available to me over here so i must be a McGiver of sorts. When i first moved over here a few years ago and started back up in reptiles, even simple things like calcium supplement was unavailable. I would go to the fish market and buy cuttlefish and dry the spine in the oven and then scrape it into powder. I must hunt down and modify nearly everything i use and even simple things like vermiculite, and corkbark requires much time to track down and find a source. I do not have one stop shops like home depot and such but it actually makes it kinda fun.



As far as UVB goes I do not currently use it (for my monitors)but this summer i am planning on moving and expanding my farm and i am contemplating the use of it in my new setups along with many other modifactions and improvements but i think it is a totally personal decision and it is an issue that i simply do not endorse either way. I have a friend who produces a large amount of monitors that recieve natural sunlight all of the time so i know it cannot hurt but due to our harsh winters that is not an option for me. Besides, money is not an issue for me. I have too much anyway and nothing better to waste it on (JUST KIDDING!!)



thanks for the reply,



Don.

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