Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Setup for one juvenile female yellow ackie monitor. Temps are 120 in the far right (basking) under the log is 80-85 and the far left is 70-75. This is a 55gallon with 6" of topsoil.
Nick

-----
1.0 Green Iguana - Yoda (3f t- 2lbs )
1.1 BCI - Nessy (6ft - 15lbs ) and Val (5ft - 7/8lbs)

I have a feeling you might get yelled at... not 100% here though, lol

Aquariums + screen tops = dehydrated monitors = looked down upon

I dunno though, so wait n see, hehe

I want to YELL AT YOU Nilekeepr!
For even questioning that screen top- don't be afraid to say it's garbage...! Best to you- Mike

I dont like yelling at people who dont know any better! Im not good enough at it.

Plus Ive never kept Ackies, so I kinda feel like a dolt lending my 2 cents on that one.... even if I DID know it wasnt right, lol

Dude, ditch the glass cage- more of a pain than its worth for you and the animal.

Save that cage for some badass tree frogs or something, or get some ground geckos and go nuts with a breeding colony to make some $$ for herp funding, lol

While you're at it, run down the local tractor shop and ask them if they carry "the large steel feeding troughs used for livestock". If they do, go and buy one. Go home, grab a shovel, prepare some icy-hot and get to work- you're gonna need about 1 ton of dirt, so get digging. You want it like 1.5- 2 ft deep across the whole cage (right?)

Once you have that all ready to go, get some cheap plywood (i think 1/4" thick or less is the going thickness atm) and build yourself a Retes stack. A general idea can be seen at Robyns site Proexotics.com- really simple, will take you like an hour to put together max if you know what youre doing even alil bit.

Once thats done, add a few half burried rocks, maybe some random driftwood or manzanita branches tucked into the soil for excavation and pop your lil critters in and sit back to watch as your Ackie turns into Ponc de Leon, exploring every nook and cranny- cant say thats certain, but I know thats what my Nile did.

Other than that, Ill leave this to the people who have actual experience, lol

Its not yelling to help someone better the conditions for a captive animals that has no choices. Its your duty to help if you can.

Of course its common that many naive keepers defend their petshop knowledge and it becomes a yelling match. At that point, its no longer about improving that persons ability to keep monitors, but it may help the next person thats lurking out there and does not understand why wire tops are not recomended.

So please help, and help is not yelling. THIS IS YELLING, GET RID OF THE $*%#$#$% SCREEN TOP, hahahahahahahahahaha

To explain that heat lamps really heat up the air and hot air raises out of the cage taking all available moisture with it(the exact design of beef jerky machines) Cheers

I'll do so from here on out... and do my best not to drop.... INTO THIS SORT OF DISCUSSION! RAWR! AQUARIUMS SUCK! lol

I just try not to overstep my bounds- i pay as much attention around here as possible, but I still miss/foget stuff from time to time.

As you can imagine, I do not understand these bounds you speak of. If you can help, you should try.

As a beginer yourself, other beginers tend to accept what you say. They have no reason to be threatened by you.

As you can see, anytime beginers precieve someone as better or different, a certain percentage resent that and cause arguements that do NOT benefit the monitor/s in question.

Also, as an advanced keeper(by commonly accepted standrads) I really do have a hard time understanding why beginers do what they do. And that is very plain and obvious. Of course, I went thru many of the same things, but that was 40 years ago and there was no level of success of any kind to copy(duplicate) Now there are many methods and many schools of husbandry that will lead to success, all you have to do is copy one. Pick one, any one that go to work. Yet they seem to pick petshop recomendations that have failed for more then 40 years and of course they incure the same results. Yes, I do not understant that. Some say I am egotistical, yet, I will copy first, invent second.

So yea, helping beginers is up to other beginers. Cheers

lose the screen top, and offer more places to hide, such as "retes stacks"

your saying this is good? or are you asking if it is good?

leave the half logs on the pet store shelf. get some good, tight hide spots, and something like a Retes Stack. your basking temp would be better if it was elevated closer to the light. 120F would be a MINIMUM, not ideal : )
-----
robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles