Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey there guys(and girls) I have been recently obsessing over monster fish and have decided that I miss my cold-blooded, scaly friends and have come back. Right now I have 2 leopard geckos and a beardie and have had the leopards for like 5 years and the beardie for 3. I feel that I need a monitor and you may get frusterated at my wanting to leap into them, but I have been reading up on them for at least 4 years. There are several things I am looking for in a monitor. 1) an active lizard and I think that ackies and argus and their crosses fit into this category. 2) I want something that will tolerate me handling it, and not try to attack me every time I get near them. I think that Ackies, Savannah, Water, Black Throat fit into this qualification. 3) I want something that's colorful and not drab. Ackies, Tree monitors, peach throat, mangrove, blue tail fit here. 4) finally I would like something that attains good size, but not too big. which would be most of the species from ackies up to Argus. Right now I can Definatly get a 54" Long Cage 3' Wide 2' Tall cage, but I may be able to may a 6'Long 3'Wide Cage. Would an Argus Flavi Cross female work in any of these? How many of the species I listed could work in this? I know that I would need a larger cage eventually but that would have to last them a couple of years. What I could also do is build a large outdoor cage for the late spring-early fall. Thanks for any help and sorry for the crude post, but I had a much nicer one just about done until I hit back space.

If your looking for something you can handle then monitors are not for you, maybe not any reptile. Reptiles do not enjoy handling. Monitors will hate you if you handle them. You will have a much more rewarding experience if you respect them.

You need to read more about monitors in THIS forum. It will help you out a great deal. Please read more so you can get a basic understanding of monitors.

cheers,
Sean

you should mark off waters, savs, blackthroats, and argus monitors from your list. They do not make good pets for most people out there ( they require a great deal of space, food, and electricity to properly keep).Waters blackthroats and argus are very very large animals.

Also mark off peachthroats, bluetails, mangroves and any tree monitors, and V. melinus. these are not beginner level species at all. Peachys and tree monitors do not tolerate keeper error ( they are easy to kill if you don't know what your doing),and melinus are very very shy.

Ackies are really the best choice as they are very tough ( very forgiving to keeper error),relatively small, they are readily available, and they have wonderful personalities.

Before you jump into monitors though, read a lot on this forum about their requirements. If you've been reading any pet shop books on monitors, or online care sheets, disregard most of that information as most are usually wrong.

O I was listing ALL species that would fit into each category. I wouldn't dream of looking at the water I don't have a big enough house for one. That's dissapointing about peachies and bluetail as they're beautiful, but they were in between my To buy List and my not to even look at list. Basically I'm looking at 4 species of monitor as of right now listed in order of my interest. FlaviXArgus, Ackies, Timor, Savannah. FIRST I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU SEE THIS QUESTION, WHAT SIZE CAGE WOULD I NEED FOR AN ARGUSxFLAVI FEMALE? There's a 3' one for sale and I'm very interested as it's beautiful and I love the aditude of the argus mixed with the peaceful nature of the flavi. ALSO HOW ARE TIMORS? I LIKE THE WAY THEY LOOK, THEIR SMALL POTENTIAL SIZE, AND I THINK THAT THEY ARE A LITTLE SHY, BUT NOT AGGRESSIVE? Thanks for any help and sry for the misunderstandings in my other post.

Well My Timor (my experience is limited to this one alone) used to be out all the time, the first month I had it. I said to myself, "Man these guys that keep telling me I'll never see this thing were really full of crap" The problem was, in that first month,was sure, he was out all day. Out all day trying to find a way out. So, I sealed the cage better to hold some humidity and put some leaflitter in as per the advice of a couple guys here. The problem lessened to some degree. Instead of being out all day, he was now out for only a couple hours a day trying to find a way to escape. Still missing something.

Now, 2 weeks ago I put him in a nice big cage with every degree between 70 and 150, high humidity and hides all over the whole cage, top to bottom. When I caught him to put him in his new home, he bit my knuckle and held on for 20 minutes. Thats 10 minutes longer than my largest nile's record. Of the four times I have held him, he has bitten me 3. Aggressive? I suppose thats a matter of definition. Defensive? No doubt.

The funny part is that I was told that if I had conditions proper for this Timor, I would likely never see him. Well, in the last 2 weeks I have seen him 2 times, basking when the house was quiet. I know he is alive and has not escaped because food items dissapear in the night, inside the new cage. I saw him for a split second before he split as soon as he saw me. Shy?? Your call. Like I said I have experience with only this one.

Roger

"Reptiles do not enjoy handling. Monitors will hate you if you handle them. You will have a much more rewarding experience if you respect them."

Yes, I agree you must respect them or your experience will suffer.

But you really think monitors will hate you if you handle them? If you attempt to do it against their will or fail to earn their trust, they may hate you, but thats quite a generalization. Just like people, monitors and other reptiles have different personalities and some may not enjoy handling where others may not mind it.