Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
Mary and I were being curious, well, okay, nosey- so we unearthed a large rock which then exposed a monitor burrow beneath it. We were very excited to find two monitors in one burrow with a decent(20 ) number of crickets clinging to the inner walls. Two lizards at home with an in home food source.
Comments invited- Best to you all-Mike

Hi Mike, Take pics, then lots will comment. And I can make better ones.

Heck, two monitors in one burrow. Hmmmmmmm see that every day, OK, many times a day.

I have seen it in nature many times too.

I will say, they try to avoid having bugs in their burrows if they can. I do not think they like stuff crawling on them.

To see that, all you have to do is watch a bug walk on them. They flick it off or rub it off, or do whatever it takes to get it off them. Kinda like they don't like it.

But if there is no choice, it means a burrow with bugs is better then no burrow at all. But still stressful. Cheers

Crickets are NASTY little creatures. Surprisingly, at least for me, its pretty interesting to just sit and watch a large colony of crickets.

I had a VERY young gold dust day gecko that lost the last 1/4" of his tail. At first I thought it must be his cagemate (a VERY young crested gecko), as that lil guy had a very large head and it seemed feasible that he would be the culprit. Upon investigation though, I came to realize that crickets were to blame, mericlessly attacking the lil guy everytime he fell asleep.

Well, needless to say, crickets were minimized with that animal from then on.

Crickets have nasty lil mouth parts and are interested in everything from leafy green to fruit to meat to the bodies of dead fellow cage mates.

I can only imagine what a pain they would be, as a monitor, constantly attacking your sensitive areas (eyes, any wonds).

Then again, Ive also witnessed my monitor allowing a crayfish to move over its back, removing pieces of partially shed skin... before giving it the ol snap-munch combo... maybe the crickets serve a purpose other than food...

Some pics WOULD be awesome.

Thanks Frank,
I will catch pics next time(there will be many times). Best to you-Mike