Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All...

I work at a pet store in NY and have decided to purchase the store's 7 month old BlackThroat.... I have read many books on various monitor species, and have already started the build on my monitor home(10'x5'x5'). Anyways, I still have some questions...

Here they go.

1)My boss claims the BT is a female, she is now 2'9", and my boss is saying you can tell she is a female because of how fast it is growing... Is there an easy way to check her to see if the BT is really a female?

2)She doesn't seem to have completely shed since I've been working there(3 months)... Every single day, I am peeling her toes, "armpits," tail, back, and head. Is it normal for them to go piece by piece? Some books and websites have said it should take 1-2 weeks to shed, but some monitors are constantly shedding. BTW, the tank has a fairly large water bin, she can fit all the way in it if she curls her tail. Her substrate is 2-3" of playsand from the local home depot. What pieces are the most crucial besides tail, back, head, and toes to get off. Also, should she be soaked everyday or every other day?

3) The recent blackout has knocked our AC's power down a lot. She has been getting extremely hot, to the point where I have to turn off the day-glo lamps on the tank. How hard is it to overheat a BT?

4) Lately, when she is in her tank, she is EXTREMELY aggressive. Usually I can stick my hand in and pet her, now she likes to nudge my hand and try to bite it. It's not an aggressive bite like I am food, but she will open her mouth slowly and put it on me. I usually pull away at this point. The odd thing is that she only does this to my left hand, not to my right. Before she goes to bite, she starts to jam her nose into my hand, is this normal? When she's out of her cage, all she wants to do is sit on my shoulder and sleep, but her tank is another story.

5) I am debating the substrate. The stuff we're using now, Southdown playsand does not exactly allow her to burrow unless it is really packed down. On the other hand, good soil is hard to come by on LI unless you have a landscaping company deliver it. This being that LI is more than 85% sand. Would the sand work, hold humidity, or should I just go with the dirt?

6) What are the best ways to ventilate the size of my cage? I was thinking about adding various exhaust and intake computer fans around the cage, but some people have said to just use hardware cloth on the tops and this will provide adequate ventilation, is this true? Is there a more efficient way?

and the last question, feeding...

Is variety the order of the day?
Once I get her, the feeding schedule will be pretty much the same week to week... This is it:

Monday- 5-6 frozen mice
Tuesday- 3 Chicks
Wednesday- 5 frozen mice
Thursday- ground turkey
Friday-3 Frozen Mice
Saturday- eggs in the morning, 2 chicks at night
Sunday- Canned Monitor food

Does this diet seem enough? I'm sure as she gets older she will need more, but this should be enough for now, right? Also, how should the eggs be cooked? hardboiled or just barely boiled? Fed in the shell or out of the shell?

Thanks in advance for the answers...

1. I dunno about that, my male is well over 3', and he was hatched in March. Look for big buldes(hemipenes) at the base of its tail. If its got them, then its a boy.

2. Ditch the sand and give hime as much dirt a possible. That wont be as much as he needs while hes at the store, but you can give him the couple feet of burrowable substrate when you get him home.
Sounds like its way too dry. They need humidity to shed properly. When they have enough huidity, they dont need to soak very often(no more than once a week).

3. They need a good temp gradient. 80f -ish for the ambiant temp, and a nice hot basking spot of at least 130f.

4. Normal! BT's can be ferocious when they wanna be. Mine is known to even bite his water bowl from time to time.

5. Dirt.

6. Not on the top! You know the air vents in your cieling at home? You can get em at Home Depot for a couple bucks each. Just stick one on one of the sides of your enclosure.

Hehe!!! Monitors dont live by our schedules. Hell let you know when hes hungry, and how much he wants to eat. I do admire you enthusiasm!

Good luck with your monitor! BTs are one of the most fun choices. Scary sometimes, but fun.

Best Regards,
Michelle

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Certainly not by how fast it grows (where do people come up with this stuff?)!!

One reliable way to sex a monitor, is by popping it's hemipene/hemiclitorus. Unfortuanately, it is not an easy skill to learn.

Beyond that, if it ever lays eggs, that means its a girl. I would suggest not putting to much stock into which sex it is.

They are not snakes, and do not shed in one piece like snakes do. To be honest, I don't pay much attention to shedding unless there is a problem with it...and the way to correct problems is by going to the source...not by peeling.

I do not soak ANY of my monitors on a regular basis. The key is to keep the cage HUMID. Not to be confused with WET. There is world of difference between a gas and a liquid.

Monitors need cool as much as they need heat. Short answer: very easy.

I have no answer to this question.

They need to be able to burrow/hide in a dark, hunmid place. What a BT prefers...I don't know.

This depends much on where you live. You must figure out what works in your situation. You have to find a nice balance between adequate ventilation, while at the same time, keeping the cage humid. If you have too much ventilation, you get a dry dehydrated monitor. If you don't have enough, you get mold.

Ummmmm...feed them when they are hungry. They are reptiles, not mammals. They do not operate on a schedual like we do.

As far as variety, they do not need variety. A 100% mouse diet is completely balanced. I'd especially stay away from the canned crap. Beyond that, I'm not sure how healthy chicks or eggs are...but I do know they will eat both, and monitors LOVE eggs (but I don't suggest feeding them too often).

Not sure what happened....but I pasted the questions in there...and for some reason they are not showing up. My appologies.

Quote: "Ummmmm...feed them when they are hungry. They are reptiles, not mammals. They do not operate on a schedual like we do.

As far as variety, they do not need variety. A 100% mouse diet is completely balanced. I'd especially stay away from the canned crap. Beyond that, I'm not sure how healthy chicks or eggs are...but I do know they will eat both, and monitors LOVE eggs (but I don't suggest feeding them too often)."

The past 4 days, she has eaten 3 adult mice, 2 juveniles, 3 fuzzies, and today, a giant weanling rat... Do they normally consume this much or is this just due to the fact that she is finally getting adequate heating?

Also, when feeding eggs, which is the best way to feed them? Raw? Cooked? Out of Shell?

I've also read that feeding an all mouse/rat diet can lead towards impaction. Have you ever experienced this?

And... Do you feed live or frozen? I was thinking about going the live route, possibly pre-killing them though since I can easily get my hands on CO2. If I decide to go frozen, what is the best way to heat them up? Boiling water or letting them thaw at room temp?

Thaw at room temps not cooking them with boiling water. I feed frozen thawed and a few rare occaisions I fed live. I dont like the idea of injuries from a live rat and frozen mice are easier to take care of and dont stink. Eggs can be fed but I was told once that nonembryonated egg whites contain avidin which can lead to a vitamin B deficiancy if fed on a regular basis. None the less if you feed them once a month or so, no problem but mice, chicks, rats, quail, all whole animals are balanced and nutritious as well as dont need supplementation (get them bulk frozen and they are cheaper to feed anyways).
As for impactions they are the result of improper husbandry from too low of temps that do not allow a reptile to digest their food properly. They also love hissing cockroaches if you want variety. In the first year they will be hungry constantly and can eat alot, period. Ive had albigs eat several mice a day in their first year, if they are hungry they will run to get it right away, if not they will eat it eventually because its there, sometimes.
Albigs are easy to tell male from female after seeing a few of each (easier if you have access to each to compare). The male has large bulges (no exageration they look like 2 shot glasses under the skin) under the tail base, have bigger thicker blockier heads, and can grow larger if kept correctly. The females have a smaller head, pointier snout, smaller bulges under the tail, and are on average easier to handle less territorial. But there are some exceptions to things such as attitude because they are all individuals with different personalities. The difference between the hemipenes and hemiclitori can be details, also because I have a female that was territorial, very aggressive to other monitors (males especially), has large hemiclitori, and at 21 months old is almost 6ft long. 40+ eggs verified the sex though.

"The past 4 days, she has eaten 3 adult mice, 2 juveniles, 3 fuzzies, and today, a giant weanling rat... Do they normally consume this much or is this just due to the fact that she is finally getting adequate heating?"

That is a much more complicated than it looks.

It depends on sooooo many factors. It will depend much on age (growing, grown or dying), what jobs they must do (reproduction, digging, just lying there, etc.) what recources they have available (heat, available food, etc.), and the amount of stress they are under.

IN short, there is no such thing as "normal."

"Also, when feeding eggs, which is the best way to feed them? Raw? Cooked? Out of Shell? "

I don't know what "the best way" would be. I scramble them on the rare occasions I feed eggs.

"I've also read that feeding an all mouse/rat diet can lead towards impaction. Have you ever experienced this?"

No I have not. This is a myth. Impaction problems are caused by inadiquate temps.

"And... Do you feed live or frozen? I was thinking about going the live route, possibly pre-killing them though since I can easily get my hands on CO2. If I decide to go frozen, what is the best way to heat them up? Boiling water or letting them thaw at room temp?"

I feed exclucively live these days. But I fed frozen in the past (room temp thawed). I think live is better for them psychologicly. They are predators and are hardwired to hunt.

I do have to pre-kill for my big argus these days. The female is getting old and has gone blind for the most part. Her aim is off, and when I try to feed live, she attacks anything that moves...and sometimes that ends up bieng her boyfriend. So, that is a saftey measure is all.