Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All,

I am interested in hearing the opinions from people that own blue tree monitors. I have heard that they are "difficult". How are they difficult? How are they in comparrison to savvys?
I saw that East Bay Vavarium has them, does anyone know if they are a good place to purchace a blue tree?
Treemonitors.com is not telling me what I am looking for. Thank you

The care required for members of the Varanus prasinus complex, which Varanus macraei (Blue Tree Monitor) is part of, is similar. Their mortality rate in captivity is among the highest of all monitors. A high percentage do not even make it from Indonesia to the pet shop. Stress and dehydration are the biggest killers. Small husbandry errors which will do short term harm to many other species will kill a member of the Varanus prasinus complex. Whereas many species of monitors are tough and hardy, monitors of the Varanus prasinus complex could be described as fragile. If you did not know enough enough about these monitors to know the answer to your original question, I definitely would not recommend them; it would most likely be a very expensive error for you to buy one.

I have never been to the East Bay Vivarium, but have heard many good things about them.

Cheers,
Michael

I am botha green and blue tree owner. The answer is really whether you get an established animal or not. My Green came from Segal Reps in Deerfield. He knows his animals and the male I bought at a show was in premo condition and established. He went right into an enclosure and began eating within days thwawed fuzzies.
My Blue Tree (Male is now three years in my hands.) I got him from Extreme Reptiles in Fla Wild Caught. He is huge running about 5ft with tail. As soon as I got him it was to the Vet for treatment for parasites and worms. After that it was give him temp, humidity and water. The day I got him it was a warm hydraytion enclosure. I kept yhim there for about a week to insure he was hydrated and I could monitor his activities. He is now in an 8ft by 5ft enclosure with plenty of hiding spots and synthetic plants for cover. He is so much more flighty than my green but that is just his personality. He will ram into the sides and leap all over sometimes just be me coming into the room where as the Green just hangs on a branch. I have seen much calmer animals but again they all have thier own personality.! Here is my Greenie!

another shot

another

5 feet!!? Damn I would like to see a picture of this monster, what is the SVL???

I think its a shame people buy treemonitors as a pet, as they are the worst pet at all. And its like this with the majority of other species. Efforts should be made to produce hatchlings so the demmand on wild animals can slow down. I think its stupid to buy an individual animal and putting it in a box and not trying to do something for the wild population.We took them from the wild, and then it only fulfill the keeper desires, and die sooner or later without giving back something from this Darwinian death.Even exanthematicus, considered like the "pet" monitor, are not produce enough in captivity, and pressure on wild population still exist.

Simon

I do not understand the post on Tree Monitors being the worst pet? According to who? What is a best pet? If you want an animal that will run to the door when you open it then yes not a tree monitor.
A tree monitor presents a unique set of challanges and that alone was attractive to me. My two are thriving and I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment knowing I have a difficult species that is thriving in my care. I hope to afford females someday so that I can try to breed them.
Again WORST PET? I would not try a tree monitor unless you have some experience and are prepared to invest time and money but a successful Tree Monitor is quite rewarding to a herptoculturist.

I'd say they are a poor choice as a pet because of the high mortality rate. Many tree monitors are killed even after acclimating to captivity -- especially females.

Didn't you have a couple of female blue tree monitors not so long ago? Where did they go?

Cheers!

measuring him would be stressful so I would not even try it. He may be 3ft snout to vent maybe less
only time I handle him is to clean enclosure

This thread just keeps getting sillier and sillier.

Now you claim that your Blue Tree Monitor might have a SVL of 3 feet????? For a species whose snout-to-vent length:total length ratio is ca. 1:3, that would make your 3' SVL Varanus macraei around 9 feet long!!! That would also make it approximately 3 times larger than any known V. macraei (the largest V. macraei recorded was well under 4ft), and the fourth largest varanid species ever recorded!!!

I've heard many "Big Fish" stories in my day, but this one has got to take the cake when it comes to Varanus!

I also do not think that you should be distributing information suggesting that they are not difficult captives to care for, and that they make excellent pets. You mention your thriving male V. prasinus and V. macraei, but what happened to the two female V. macraei that you bought and had in your collection over a year ago?

You did not mention them at all in any of your posts, which is why I am curious as to their wherabouts. Their frail nature (much more so than males), and your failure to mention them would have me to believe that they both died, as most females do that are brought into this trade- not just tree monitors, but all monitors.

I believe you even posted photographs of the two Blue Tree Monitor females when you first purchased them:

Your new female macraei photographs- April 2005

Once I had insurted my guy was treated by a VET He has done great and you can learn everything you need to from sites like treemonitors.com
It is not that difficult!!!
I did it with a Green and Blue
Cheers
Tony
Batlizard.com

Thank you everyone for your opinions and information. I am just educating myself about tree monitors in general. I am not planning buying one next week. I do not support the wild caught pet trade so I would only get one if it were captive bred. I did email East Bay and asked them if their Blues were CB and they have not responded. Thank agian yall'

About the Easy Bay Vivarium,

I lived in SF the last few years and used to go there pretty regularly. As far as I know, they had 2 captive bred blue tree monitor babies a little more than a year ago. They informed me that they were the first babies they had produced and I have not seen any more since. They were sold for 2000 each.
Good luck