Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well... for some very strange reason, i can barley find any information about black roughnecks anywhere... i found only a few pages on the net, i checked the libarys all over the city and came out with no books on black roughnecks, only with some small book that talks about every possible other kind of monitor

so if there are any black roughneck owners on these forums, would like your opinion on how these guys are, like there temperment and all, anything would help

thanks alot

My brn is my baby slick rick (brn) aka ricky is the best i mean i imagine temperment between monitor to monitor does differ but i haev heard many peopel saying these guys are extremly tame will enevr resort to biting etc. Rick ate the first day i got him he ate 4 hopper mice the first day. He loves ot come out whenever i g to chage his water he bolts up my arm, and he plays then he as a ritual of going poo in the same spot his just happens to eb the back right corner of the kitchen. He is realy a great animal, loveable, and very rewarding. They are abroreal, terrestiral and have heard semi aquatic which mine definitly is hes always and i mean always swiming.

If you have any more questions or w/e e-mail me at stjpball@optonline.net , i know its a bummer about the lack of info on these guys but there is a few brn owners on this forum, will all help you out.

latter
Sean
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1 Black roughneck Monitor (Slick Rick)
3 Crested Geckos (red, neon orange, and neon orange dalmation) (Rocky is the oldest other two havnt been named yet)
1 Vieled Cham (Tony Montana)
1 Leo (Nikki)
2 Niger Uromastyx Spike and Mike

My Email

My brn is my baby slick rick (brn) aka ricky is the best i mean i imagine temperment between monitor to monitor does differ but i haev heard many peopel saying these guys are extremly tame will enevr resort to biting etc. Rick ate the first day i got him he ate 4 hopper mice the first day. He loves ot come out whenever i g to chage his water he bolts up my arm, and he plays then he as a ritual of going poo in the same spot his just happens to eb the back right corner of the kitchen. He is realy a great animal, loveable, and very rewarding. They are abroreal, terrestiral and have heard semi aquatic which mine definitly is hes always and i mean always swiming.

If you have any more questions or w/e e-mail me at stjpball@optonline.net , i know its a bummer about the lack of info on these guys but there is a few brn owners on this forum, will all help you out.

latter
Sean
-----
1 Black roughneck Monitor (Slick Rick)
3 Crested Geckos (red, neon orange, and neon orange dalmation) (Rocky is the oldest other two havnt been named yet)
1 Vieled Cham (Tony Montana)
1 Leo (Nikki)
2 Niger Uromastyx Spike and Mike

My Email

Hi,

The trick about finding information on varanids is not always easy, and not always direct. For instance, I found a book by Ken Rubilo titled "Malaysia" that has one of the very few wild-pic V. rudicollis I have ever seen! I am currently writing a paper on V. rudicollis, and include at least some 25 sources, dating back to 1845 to present. The information on V. rudicollis is not all in one place; a piece here, a piece there kind of thing.

I did write an article on them for

1. Chicago Herpetological Society Bulletin 13(12):250-252, 1997; also see

2. D. Bennett Reptilian Magazine 1(9):7-10, 1993.

3. Humphrey, S.R. 1990. Endangered Animals of Thailand. Sandhill Crane Press, Gainesville.

for starters...and if your serious about them and want to read more, email me for further details. I have some 5,0000 written sources on Genus Varanus to-date.

Cheers,
mbayless

check varanus.nl

I went to varanus.nl and 3/4 of the page aernt workign most of it just says not found, i dunno if its just doing it today or if he messed up linking it together

Sean
-----
1 Black roughneck Monitor (Slick Rick)
3 Crested Geckos (red, neon orange, and neon orange dalmation) (Rocky is the oldest other two havnt been named yet)
1 Vieled Cham (Tony Montana)
1 Leo (Nikki)
2 Niger Uromastyx Spike and Mike

My Email

alright, makes sense lol,

one quick question on enclosures, nearly every source says something diffrent, some say i short age with not to much hight, then others are really long :S

so since there aboreal... would a 6'x3'7 (LxWxH) be sutable for one black rough neck?

hello.
I keep a few BRNs, and have some viable eggs, but until I actually get babies, I cannot say I have bred them.
I am a newbie with limited experience, and a big mouth and a lot of opinions already.
All this stuff about wanting to read species-specific literature makes me ill. You will really limit yourself that way. There is a lot of info out there on MONITORS, it shouldn't make a difference if it reads 'blackroughneck' in the title. Read the sav book, the nile book, and anything else you can find on ackies, argus and prasinus. You will see a pattern develop, and it will hit you one day, hey, they are all just monitors.
You aren't keeping it in nature, you will be keeping it in a plywood box, just like all other monitors are kept, right?
Almost all monitors dig burrows, climb trees and swim.

IMO, the worst possible cage for a BRN is a tall one filled with nothing but stuff to climb. Maybe they climb 20 feet up a tree to hide in the wild, but in a plywood box, that is not possible. Understand that their need is to hide.

That said, BRNs appear to be less prone to biting as a defense than some other species. I've been bitten a couple times, but each time was a stupid feeding error on my part, you might say I tricked the poor lizard into biting me. I was spat out right away.
While this non-bitingness is a bonus for the keeper, it sucks for the lizard, who will have to rely on other ways to tell you it is unhappy. Unfortunately, most humans will only respect biting.
Read up on all monitors, not just BRNs, is my advice. Most of what I've found on the net about BRNs is pretty dumb (so far). I'm still learning, too.
D.

i've read about nearly all monitors there are, just that some have a little something thats diffrent, so thats why i asked for feedback from real people who actually have these guys and how there temperments are

so my guess is, cage would be ok? im planing to put about 1.5 feet or so of soil so he can dig/burrow, with a basking site up top and few random hides here and there