Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering about their personalities(sp?).I know all monitors vary,but are they like Perenties?(not real friendly).I realize that you don't try to "interact" with them in any way.Just wondering if they are naturally like Niles or are more calm.They are beautiful beasts.(wish I could afford one)Thanks.

i was watching "coc hunter" on animal planet and steven said that they get dog tame!!!

from Alex

NP

In my opinion, they have great personalities. Very active, curious and bold. They get used to people very quickly. Even wild ones (usually adult males) soon learn to associate people with food and will approach picnickers for handouts. Some people even hand feed the wild ones (personally, I think they are nuts). On a few occasions I have seen really large males cruising around the sandal-clad feet of oblivious people at a picnic table, looking for scraps that have fallen to the ground.

I have also heard of people getting serious injuries while hand feeding wild ones because they flinched when the monitor got close.

The four captives I have vary in personality, but even the animal that dislikes human contact the most will quietly watch me as I step into the enclosure to clean and will let me clean right around her without showing any sign of fear or defensiveness, as long as I don't actually touch her. Even if I do she just quietly moves out of the way.

Two of my animals can be described as 'tame' in that they don't mind being picked up and handled and one of them would fall into the category of 'dog tame'. According to most of my reptile keeping mates, it is one of the tamest lacies they have ever seen.

Having said all that, there is one qualifier. Lace monitors aren't dogs. Dogs can be taught that biting hands is 'bad'. Although they are disinclined to bite hands, it would never occur to a lace monitor that it might be 'bad' to bite one. Consequently, I never let them show too much interest in my hands, especially if they start nuzzling with the tip of their snout. They are EXTREMELY food focused and have an incredibly strong feeding response. Even my 'tamest' animal will react to any rapid movement, particularly when in the enclosure. Being tame, this is the very animal I am most likely to take the most risks with, which makes him doubly dangerous. Three months ago I was about to do some spot cleaning early on a Sunday morning before going to work. Like every other morning, I had to move this male out of the way first (both of my males will crawl on me as soon as I open the enclosure door). That particular morning, however, I was tired for a number of reasons, probably not completely 'with it', and I moved my hand just that little bit too quickly, right next to the animal's head. The male saw blurred movement and grabbed it. That one little mistake almost cost me my thumb, not to mention bills for ambulance, hand microsurgery and a hospital stay as I was put on intravenous antibiotics to avoid infection. The end result: Severed extensor and flexor tendons, severed radial nerve, severed radial artery and half severed joint capsule. The ambulance report said 'partially severed thumb' but the full extent of the damage wasn't completely apparent until I underwent surgery. What followed was six weeks in a full forearm cast, three weeks in a forearm splint and I still have months of physiotherapy ahead. No sensation on parts of my thumb, very little movement and it is still swollen like a gourmet sausage. This is a small male lace monitor as male lace monitors go. I still have him, I don't begrudge him a bit as it was my error, not his.

So... do lace monitors have good temperaments? Yes. Do they get 'tame'? Yes. Do you want them tame? Not necessarily. The good thing about having monitors with nasty temperaments is that you treat them accordingly and don't take chances with your body parts.

Quite dicking around on here and return my email! Ha!
Just kidding - talk to you soon.

Jim

I've been very slack with my email since I have started my new job and only log onto my home computer once a week now (I'm at work at the moment). I'll send you an email with the news of my job etc

I posted a whole selection of pics of this enclosure quite a while ago, but can't find it with the search engine used for these forums. Here's one pic, anyway (unfortunately I can't stand far enough away from the enclosure to get a shot of the whole thing, as it is fairly big)

the monitor on the floor was 4 feet long when this shot was taken

the same animal again. He'd only been in the enclosure a short while when this was taken and was still dull and dusty from wintering

this shot is a bit bleached out by the flash and basking lights

Hello,

Im speechless by how nice your cage is...bravo!

I was wondering a few things...

1. What did the whole project cost you?

2. What materials did you need (especially the rocks)?

3. What are the demensions?

Again, Just gotta say Kudos!

Rgrds,

Michelle

Thanks!

The dimensions are around 8 feet high by 8 feet long by 4 feet wide. Once the support structures and wheels are included, it is close to 9 feet tall and is just about floor to ceiling. There are glass panels on the sides as well as on the front, the glass on the front being around 5 feet high and laminated (which cuts out sound and is better insulated than single thickness glass).

The mock rock 'cliffs' were a fairly involved process, too involved to describe here, but in brief:

1. I carved a model rock out of dense polyurethane foam, as I couldn't be bothered trying to find a real rock formation that suited my very specific space and basking platform requirements. The model was carved in such a way as to look like a cliff whether right side up or upside down (see 5)

2. I made a latex mould of my model rock

3. I made a fibreglass support mould (ie mother mould) to support the latex. This was made of several pieces that could be bolted together or taken apart easily

4. using the latex mould, I built my rock out of pigmented polyurethane elastomers, throwing sand and broken rock into the mixture where appropriate. For extra strength, I filled in the back with expandable 2 part polyrethane foam and put some structural 2x4s in the foam (see 6)

5. I made 2 versions of the rock, inverting one so that I could have a cliff on either side of the tank's back wall

6. I bolted the mock rocks to the enclosure's wooden back panels, making sure the bolts were anchored into the 2x4s in the back of the rock. Using smaller moulds of flatter rock surfaces, I added rock above and below the cliffs. In the photo I am attaching one of the cliffs to the wooden back panel. Towards the top of the photo you can see bare wood that would later be covered with the flatter rock surface

Building a mould and mother mould is excessive for a one-off project, but I wanted to learn the process anyway and thought there was no better way to learn than to produce something in the process. There are many ways to achieve similar results without this involved a process.

As far as costs are concerned, I really hate to price my hobbies for fear of developing a heart condition. Let's just say it was a 'love job'. However, if I were forced to guess, it would have amounted to roughly $US1500 (going by the exchange rate of our currencies at the time I built the enclosure). That doesn't include labour costs, of course, being a love job. The laminated glass was given to me, otherwise that would add a huge additional cost to the total

Although I am very pleased with how it turned out, if I were to do it again there are a few things I would probably do differently that would shorten the construction time and reduce the cost.

Man, thats art! Your work really paid off.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain the process.

Thanks,
Michelle

the problem with doing this professionally is that I'd be competing with guys that are set up for this sort of work, with huge warehouses and spraying equipment to line the moulds quickly (mine was hand done). Talk to Frank about the business of making mock rock, as he used to do it professinally.

I do earn a living through art, but it's 2D rather than 3D.

np

I really don't understand your comparison to perenties. I have a perenty and its not nasty or aggressive.

I have lots of Lacies, and they are my favorite monitor species. They are for many many reasons.

But lets do this in a way you may understand, I keep many species of monitors, and the nastist most agressive monitors we have are without a doubt, albigs, males to be specific.

You must remember, we allow our monitors to be monitors, you know, no attempt to make them dog tame. We accept them for whatever they choose to be. With that in mind, lacies are the nicest most interactive monitors we have. Actually they are like two species, the male can give you a good scare, they like that, and females are so, so, sweet and nice. They talk with their eyes. I can tell what they are doing or want, by looking in their eyes.

Albig females are also very very nice acting.

But, you have to remember, Male lacies have the equipment to cause you a little damage, so they require respect. Then again, respect show be givin to all monitors. Cheers F

np

While we are on the topic of lacies, I was just curious if anyone is working with, or if any zoos have the belle's form of lace, I think they are one of the most beautiful varanids. Thanks in advance.

bob mendyk

I saw a few, years and years ago, but nothing lately.

We did hatch this one and one that was banded with yellow. F

have you hatched bandeds since those two? do you have pics of the banded above now as a larger monitor? I am highly interested in lacies. I plan on buying some from you next year. specifically one for Christine that she is almost dying to have. i would probably actually get killed if i bought goulds before i bought lacies, lol. maybe my breeders this year will be good enough to me that i can do both, if only they knew my evil plans they wouldn't breed anymore, hahaha.

cheers, andrew
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Varanus Creations

One of my lacies started off looking very similar to that one. Here's a pic of her when the bands first started to break up. She's now four feet long and still a very pretty animal.

This was taken late last year. Unfortunately the black bands are bleached out in this photo

Actually yours looks inbetween the grey banded one and this yellow banded one. But, i think they are not alike at all, yours and most like them, have split black bands, not solid black bands. Its the solid black bands that makes that one unquie. Do you see what I mean?

Its is very odd that some totally change their neonate colors and patterns and some do not, even from the same clutch and same genetics. Frank

The one in my photo did start off as a hatchling with solid black bands, but they had started splitting by the time the photo had been taken