Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Frank,I know you have had great success with v.salvadorii. I have been serching the archives looking for anything you have posted in the past about them. Is there anything in print regarding your husbandry methods of V. Salvadorii. Thanks for your time and I look forward to reading your reply. Ian

Thanks Ian, but I did not have great success, I had very poor success, but some success. I indeed hatched some on three ocassions. I do not call that great.

I used standard techniques that I use for all monitors. And they worked well into that. The biggist problem was cage space. They are indeed a large lizard and confined spaces is not favorable for any monitor.

To put it into perspective, a six foot cage for ackies is about like a 50 foot cage for croc monitors. If you factor in lenght and mass. If you want to look at it the other way, how easy would it be to keep a group of ackies in a ten gallon tank?

So before I offer other husbandry tips, the most important is that, cage size. What are you planning on using in that area? Cheers

I am currently constructin a cage that will be 16' long 8' high and 4' deep. I can go 18' long but that would be the limit in length. I can make it deeper maybe 6' but i was going by a standerd sheet of plywood. I also planned on puttong a 60 gallon preformed pond in it that will drain into a flood drain in my garadge. I have a ton of braches of all different sizes to put in it. I Will be using radiant heat pannels for ambiant heat and basking lamps for hot spots. Substrate will be my soil mix i use with all my african monitors with a little vermiculite to hold a little more moisture. This project has been about 6 years in the makeing Ive been keeping a female croc shes about 7' right now give or take and I have another female coming from dark forest reptiles next week (the one they had in the classifieds). Im still looking for a good male. Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks for your guidence.Ian

Ian,

I'm keeping my pair of Crocs in a 14' x 12' x 12' enclosure and it's too small in my opinion. I've designed the enclosure to take advantage of the vertical space which is key. Unlike the Lace monitors that I keep I rarely see the crocs spending much time on the ground. They really seem to prefer height.

Good luck. They're challenging animals and I've only had them for a short time but, so far, they're a close second behind my Lace monitors in enjoyment.

One last thing. It's not a bad idea to have a little extra room just in case you need to seperate them at times. You may never need to use it but if you do, and you don't have any options, it could get ugly.

Ill be keeping the cage the female is in now for that verry reason. thanks IAn

Hey Frank. Here's a little off topic for you. I'm wondering what your thoughts on evolution are, if you have any? Reality, myth? The fact that there are no transitional fossils etc.

Hi Mike, hahahahahahaha now THATS a question. I believe in evolution. But underfortunately, you did not say, the evolution of what???? Dude, there are all kinds of missing fossils.

As an exhibit builder, we had to get evolved(hehehehe) in a little fossil research. And I got to collect lots of fossils. I even made a Timeline exhibit, Showing the evolution of earth and Just short a time humans have been on earth.

You know I have hatched a few monitors with "WINGS" And folks said I created something new. But as you may know, those wings have been seen on many species of monitors from nearly all the major areas monitors occur and exactly the same mutation. My bet is, it was most likely expressed on a common ancestor. As so many different species have it. Also cartilidge does not fossilize well, if at all.

For instance, big fossil beds are often results of a BIG event that occurred quickly. Those conditions do not happen to often.

Also fossils form in very specific conditions and are actually very very very rare. In the case of fossils, my knowledge is VERY academic, as I only know what was told to me.

Anyway, come on down I will take you fossil hunting. Cheers

Do you have any pics of this winged mutation. Thats crazy. Ian

I still have the cross and its an adult now. Cheers

Is there a frilled dragon somewhere in the woodpile?

Ha! Ha!

Intersting! Thanks for sharing the photos.

Later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

n/p
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Mike's Monitors!

'The fact that there are no transitional fossils etc.'

How on earth did you come to this conclusion? There are reams of transitional fossils.

This is just a brief look into what we have for reptiles alone. And it's very brief.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part1b.html#rept2

Further links below.

Happy reading!
website

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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'