Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Of course you remember I have that sbuadult Ionides. All the frozen mice were soft one morning. I had to go up and down the street to find neighbors to take in bags of frozen mice. Some people shut their doors right in my face. But I got a few hundred out-sourced to good freezers. Two hundred went bad. While I was waiting for my local supplier to get live mice, four days pased, and when I fed out the live feeders to my hungry girl, she ate four. She would have eaten five, but I'm luckily aware that she has to digest her mice fast, before they decay inside her, so I limited her intake. She's spending a *lot* of time basking at about 90 F, which seems to be as hot as she cares to get. She has access to 100F, but does not spend much time there. All seems well, even though I grossed out some neighbors LOL!

The reason I bought so many per-killed frozen is that they refuse to wrap their frozens in layers of paper and next-day-air them. They had to put them on dry ice,which cost about as much as the mice, so I ordered a lot to keep the individual mouse price down as low as possible. I will have to throw away all the unused mice in six months, if she does not grow fast enough to eat them all first.

BTW, my next referigerator's freezer will reach zero degrees. My last freezer only cooled to 9 F.

roger

hey Roger,

Are you referring to surface temps for the basking? If so you are too low, basking a lot lends me to believe it isnt hot enough.

Funny story with the mice...

Tom

It's Skin Temperature, taken by a Rasio shack non-contact thermometer.. This morning she has 97F skin temp. She moves in and out from under the heaters. She doesn't like the high skin temps that my iguanaids like. (Different cages)

I know she has to digest the mice rapidly, to beat their speed of putrefaction, so steady and dedicated basking is critical to their health. So far she's been pefect. She didn't even ralph up the two mice that smelled like they were slightly old - but I washed them in hot soap and water to get bacteria off their skin/fur.

***Is she basking at too low a skin temperature****?

Roger

Is this a good answer? I'm not that experienced with monitor lizards.

Roger

Yea, you don't know much about monitors, No need to wash them. Thats a human thing.

Also, A reason for retes boards or similar, being placed under the heat source, is so the monitor does not have to be in the open to gain the heat needed, THIS IS CALLED USEABLE HEAT.

In our field work, we are having problems. The cause of the problem is odd, it does not fit science. This problem is "individual variation" Oh not to temps, they all choose about the same temps for the same tasks. Its about individual tolerance in responce to use mucking with them. A very small percentage does not mind up catching them and processing their information. Another slightly larger percentage allows a few contacts. But over 50% has no tolerance for being captured and die right away. Some do not even tolerate being watched.

So what is confusing is not the monitors choices, but a combination of what it does coupled to your presense.

So the truth is, these reptiles inherently avoid being watched by their predators. Hmmmmmmmmm that makes sense doesn't it.

How about offerring the monitor the ability to gain its needed heat, IN PRIVATE. Cheers