Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have tegus right now and a sav. I am interested in getting another monitor, preferably large. I don't have the money/space for tree monitors. I worked in a small herp store when I was younger and I tamed down their "evil" argus montitor and got her harnesh trained and handleable. However, she had TONS of energy and I don't think any cage is large enough for an argus.

I was considering black throat or white throat monitors. I want something I can obtain as a captive bred hatchling. If anyone has any personal experience with either species, I would love to hear about it. Or, if you have had a monitor you enjoyed, I'm open to suggestions about species

I have a BT and I love her. Her behavior is just like my old sav. She is active, inquisitive, smart, and beautiful. She is a large one too. She is growing like a weed. I just measured her at 40 inches, and she is just a year old. I feel she would be bigger, but she has been through a lot of stress,l and had some trouble feeding for a while. But now she is back to the norm, and I expect several more inches to a foot more out of her. BT's are great. If you are looking for a nice large animal, get a blackthroat.
In the simplest terms, picture your sav at 5' , and there you go!!

i'm a little confused. you say you don't have the space for tree monitors, so instead you want to get a black throat monitor. what are your ideas of proper sized cages for tree monitors and BT's?

not sure what you mean by taming down an argus monitor, or harnis training. can you explain?

Tree monitors, in my limeted experience, are not exactly handleable pets. They need a huge cage. They are also very active lizards, and need a huge arboreal cage.

A bt is not as active, and a tame one can get plenty of excersize free-roaming the house while I'm home. A not-so-climby lizard is easier to allow loose in the house while I'm home.

The argus monitor was very aggressive. Had a crazy feeding response and would struggle and slash and try to bite when held. I handled her several times and broke her from thinking everything entering the cage (hands included) was food. I'd handle her every day for 10 minutes or so and she realized I wasn't going to kill her, and she became very handleable. She would let me put a leash/harness on her and I could take her outside into the yard. Of course you can't "tame" a monitor or a reptile, but for lack of a better word, you get the concept

in the long run... for a monitor over 4 or 5 ft should be in an enclosure that is very large, and way larger then an arboreal set up may be for a tree monitor.a good size for a bt or a wt would be 8ftx4x4 should even be bigger. free roaming ur animal wen ur home, but wat if u monitor is curious and gets into everytihng, not house broken ,even though i dont think they can be house broken.u monitor may also take a while to get used to being outside its home(the cage) and can stress out, it will probably want to hide from everyone and everything and agian getting into things.im not sure how u do this w/ ur other large lizards, but none of them are the same, this monitor may hate being outside for long periods of time.i would recommend u provide the animal w/ a large enough enclosure.

thanx. peACe

You need to have a large cage. Letting the monitor out of its cage is not substitute for a monitor doing monitor things when and how it wants to. It is not a mammal.

I have room for long cages; providing large enough housing for a non-arboreal lizard wouldn't be too much trouble.

My other lizards come out on their own. I can leave the door open and they'll go in and out as they please. The whole room is "lizard-proofed" and has a hardwood floor surface so "accidents" arent a problem.

so the room is just the floor..i mean are there other things in there while they arent in their cage...they like to dig, climb swim,look for food etc.so i guess provide a habitat for them to do that. i know wat ur saying about roaming them around ive seen tons of pictures and small clips of that stuff,and other who say they do it. im just sayin wat it if this one isnt like that. will it be w/ other monitors & tegus? what if there is territorial conflict.he wont be in there all day if the others have to use it.so u have to provide a LARGe cage for his "home".

thanx