Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I have a baby argus monitor that I have had for about 3 weeks. I went for to hold him today the first time and realized that I have an absulte monster on my hands. He has been striking at the tank and calculating where my hand will be- he ran the length of the tank to go after me- he is about 12-14 inches long in a 3 by onesize tank with a foot of dirt- two hideboxes and a log- i have been misting frequently as well and feeding two fuzzys like 3-5 times a week-I mean- I really dont want to get rid of this lizard, he is fascinating and his habits are great- he is thriving and stuff- has shed and eaten like a horse etcera- his temperamnet is worse that i have ever seen though- worse than a nile- I really was under the impression that they were at least reluctant to bite- Im not looking to have a cat or anything- but I am gonna have to pick him up to move him to a new cage etc-if someone could give advice that would be great- I realize this is a long message so i will give my email-
Zachary liben
-Zaccaryus@yahooo.com

Let me go out on a couple of limbs here(like monitors do)

Your poor argus is hungry, hes not mean, hes just starving. An Argus kept in half way decent conditions. And I do mean half way decent conditions, will eat you out of house and home. He most likely would eat your weekly feedings in a day. This is one of the reasons those here with experience tell you, its not the price of monitors thats expensive, its their upkeep. Lots of heat(electricity) and lots and lots and lots of food.

Then you get a species that is known to be a bottomless pit. Well, you should have done your homework first.

Please try to understand, a healthy argus can and will eat three times a day. Not 3 to 5 times a week.

So before you even go farther about attitude, learn to feed your monitor. Cheers

Mr. Retes,
Thank you Sir- i will start to feed much more. if possible coul;d you give me some advice about approaching him- I assume I will get bitten but how can I manipulate this as best as possible to attempt to have a handeable adult animal? what actually bothered me most about the encounter was that he stayed in one place for 5 or 10 minutes after striking the cage- this led me to believe it was behavioral- that was the basis for my assumptions anyway-he truly is remarkable though and i really am hoping to have a sytematic way for caring for him that will ensure both our safety over time- Thanks,
Zachary

Welcome to the world of argus. Like Frank said, it seems like a hungry argus. To handle it, you may need to invest in some heavy duty gloves, have quick reflexes, and learn to keep it's head, tail, and claws away from you. Just wait until it gets 3 or 4 feet long. FUN FUN
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Ed

Actually this species is not really much of a biting lizard. In the old days most were wild caught and wild caught adults were a handfull. Young, both wild and captive born, do not bite as a first measure. When you see an aggressive argus, you will not forget it. The stand on their hind legs, arch their back and attack sideways, hitting you with their tail and biting at the same time. Then they arch and hiss.

If your monitor is not hissing, its not being defensive, its only hungry.

Monitors of this complex(i think I am kind of an expert) are not biters, but instead claw ALOT. They get all squirmy and such. So gloves or nail clipping is in order. Even when they are tame.

In my opinion, this complex is by far the most interesting to keep, as they are so full of behaviors. They are also not prone to biting.

The best advice I can give is to give it a good home, do not worry about tame and any such misused word. In most cases and I do mean most, you can train members of this complex(gouldi) to do flips(literally) to stand, to meet you in a certain place, to follow you around, to climb up your legs(not the best trick around) All this and getting beyond tame is done using the standard reward system.

As you mentioned, its training has already begun, its learning how and where you going to feed it, and its anticipating ahead of you. Have fun, Cheers

Thank you sir,
I will definetly heed this. Although he was rather elevated when hissing and attacking I think that the fact that this wasnt an entirely prototypical behavior is good and satisfies my anxiety- I will start feeding him more immediately. If somebody could inform me of the reward method that would be great. thankyou for your time Mr. Retes I am aware of your stature in the field an realize i lucked out by getting you to respond to my post. I will also talk to a veternarian-thankyou,
Zachary

I'm laughing my butt off reading this. FR nailed the behavior 100%. They are always hungry and rapidly learn you = a feeding when near the cage. To be safe, feed with some long tongs. I've developed "cat-like speed and reflexes" working with Argus over the last 4 years. You have to distract the animal with one hand and toss the food in with the other, or feed him with tongs outside the cage. He will leap up to eat from your tongs and an accidental feed bite is possible if your not careful. But they are absolutely not defensive biters. There's an argument between me and SHvar about this somewhere on this site forum, maybe under the argus forum. Like FR said, they wiggle, hiss, and run to get away and hiss a lot. I've never had one attempt to bite me while handling it. If you have problems removing him from the cage use gloves or toss a towel over him. Putting him back in cage, you can CAREFULLY grab him by the base of his tail (never the distal or tip half!!!) once he is larger and bulkier. Just nab them when they are little. Argus are firecrackers of personality and my #1 favorite monitor species even if they eat me out of house and home. I have 3. Good luck, you'll learn to love 'em.

Here's a quick vid of the Argus feeding response i had on PB:

only the second one works, it sayes it needs a password.

That is so awesome!

I agree with Frank 100% My Argus will eat and eat. If he has the right environment you might as well start hunting deer!!!
I buy chicks for 10 cents a pice. AT least that has helped on cost. He eats more than my two tree monitors eat in a week.

Alos the more room he has the more active he will be and ...hungry
My Argus has a tail about the size of my wrist but you know what? That makes me proud because that is how a healthy monitor should look. No huge gut but thick and muscular!
Here is my guy. He goes about 5Ft and lives in a 10ft run over my bedroom. When he is active he will actually wake my wife LOL

The aspen used was long ago. I went back and forth on substrates but finally went soil/sand

you're going to have alot of fun with that monitor, this is my favorite speices of varanids.

Yes Frank nailed it. Have fun and good luck. They can be a handful at feeding time>

Dave

You're making me miss our Argus!!! They are great monitors, but as Frank says - they live to eat. Maybe if I double my rat production I can convince my wonderful hubby to build an extension on the house & get a pair of Argus

They also grow fast & if really mad... well, "what goes in..."
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Tammy

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will gladly do without the necessities." ~~ Frank Lloyd Wright