Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is there any water monitor smaller than a nile?
If not what is the smallest and what size enclosure would it need?

Minimum of 10ft x 5ft enclosure for an adult sized water monitor, of pretty much any size I believe.

If worried about space, look at other species- waters and niles require HUGE amounts of space to do really well.

If you are looking for a monitor species and want something you can work with at a smaller size, I would suggest Ackies or (if you have experience, which Im guessing not so much) one of the tree monitor species. Peachthroats might be something you could handle, depending once again on your experience.

im thinking 14x6 for either nile ore water.Waters are alot more "tame" then niles i hear.

Dont count on it.

Monitors are not cats or rabbits, so dont expect to be able to 'pet' your new 'pet'.

Im guessing youve done your research but all the same, dont expect anything off the bat from your animal- see what kind of personality you end up with and work from there.

And note: Just because there are pictures and videos of all these 'tame' monitors around, dosnt mean those same monitors dont have their bad days.... Every wakes up on the wrong side of the log, from time to time

Alex dont fall for all the nonesens about cage size and water vs niloticus bull.

-first in the case of water monitors, they need a cage that offers them the right options period. you can offer them all the space in the world but if it dosent provide the right options, its still a usless cage.

I much prefer a standart 8 by 4ft for any large monitors, however most nils will do very well in 6 by3ft cages, especialy females witch are much smaller then male niloticus, you see this alone is reason enough to chouse nils over waters.

as for the taming part, is total bs to think waters are a safer monitor, sure when young they are safer to handle, but this changes over time, especialy when hormones kicks inn.
plus even a small nip from a 3-4ft water will do damage, in fact a nip from anny indo monitor will make you bleed from the sharp dentition they all have.

hears something to consider, last week as I reached to change my 3ft nil water bowl he grabed my finger, I resisted the temptation to yank or pull out and I let go of the bowl, he let got of my finger about 10 sec after, sure I felt the presure but sufered no pain or damage, the next day I repeted the experiment but first iv let him smell my hand, after a few fliks I felt safe and reached for the bowl (again he grabed my finger) this time as he was holding on I reached with my other hand for the bowl, it was really funny cause he let go of my finger and watched the bowl out the cage with confusion?

as the day before my finger was unharmed, no sking damage or pain whatsoever. This is not the first time I experience this kind of interaction with nils, I use to keep a few large ornatus that would give me such warning bites once in a while.

I really think nils are unique because of there body language and this ability to controle jaws presure, many times iv seen a large nil grasp a juvenile and squize some sens into it without harm when they cauld have easyly have kill the annoying offender.

this behaviour has been documented with nil crocodiles too, and I have anecdote from Edwin Frolich in florida who 8ft nil croc grabed his hand as he was feeding it, like with my monitors he was released and unharmed, again he knows of no other crocodiliens species whod do this.

I find it really funny when all the suposed experienced varanophiles condem such an amasing animal, I do not understand how they missed these cool behaviours.

in anny case if space is an issue get a baby female nil (they are easy to sex) and enjoy her.

yea well i wasnt really looking for a "cat" but dont somthing that will try to bite me when im trying to take out the water bowl. and 6x3 seems way to small to me. but yea im leaning towards a nile.