Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It seems every time i bath my ackie he bites me while in the water, not hard just a nibble. Does this mean anything, never really bothered me just found it interesting.

First off, what is your reason for soaking your monitor? The only time I ever soaked mine was when I put them in a separate container while I did something in their setup (a very short term soak). If you are doing it to solve a health problem, look at your husbandry techniques, as soaking is just a band-aid. Of course, there is nothing wrong if you are doing it every once in a while just to clean the dirt off of your animal. However, I hope you don't think that the animal likes it. It doesn't. Not only is it foreign to them because they rarely encounter it in the wild, but it is a foreign territory to them. My ackies seemed to hate the water and stress out when suddenly put in a new area.

Anyway, I have had the same thing happen on one of those rare soaks. I put my hand next to the animal and then it just climbed onto it and bit down. Like yours, it wasn't hard, but it did make scratch marks. But that doesn't take much with varanid teeth.

Cheers,
Ryan

Doing it just to make sure he's shedding properly, proexotics recommends it every week in there care sheet, though i probably do it every 2 weeks. I'm aware he's not a fan of it.

Soaking is a no no. Ackies hate it, end of that story. If you need to soak them, then theres something seriously wrong with the set up. Its a sign(indicator) something is wrong.

Ackies are arid land monitors, if theres water, it means theres a flood and to seek high ground.

That it bites you is also the monitor gently telling you, your a screw ball and stop the soaking thing. Hey, I know how that feels, my ackies would bite the beans out of me when I take them to shows(they hate that too)

What Pro exotics does, is based on a regime that is about them and not you. They are a company who has many reasons to do what they do. They choose to force(shallow dry substrate) their monitors to lay in boxes(moist some depth) for reasons of control. Its easy on them. They are willing to take the risks. That they have produced many tells you they have an understanding on how to compensate for their direction.

You as a keeper of one????or so monitor/s, should be able to provide what the monitor wants. Your suppose to use the signs that tell you how your monitors doing. To be dehydrated and NEED soaking is telling you your monitor has poor support.

As I always recomend, listen to the animal, not any dang caresheet.

You should be able to tell your ackie does not like soaking. Cheers

alright thanks

i have been working hard to update and write new FAQs (we have added quite a few) but updating our caresheets is also on my things to do list.

soaking is good to rehydrate animals, especially new arrivals. it can also help with shedding and stuck sheds.

is it "essential"? no, i have learned a lot since i wrote that caresheet. the new version will not have that as a focus. it can be used for a few reasons, but cage conditions, substrate choices, other husbandry details need to be addressed if you are soaking a lot.

live and learn. and update your info : )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles