Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am looking for a good care sheet on ackies. Mostly diet and cage setup are what is needed. Also if there are any breeders of red ackies out there, please e-mail me. I am interested in working with this species and would like some tips of setting up a breeding group. I was told you need to start with a large group of hatchlings and raise them up together in order to get a successful breeding colony.

thanks, eric

pro exotics and common sense

period

about common sense.

I will never understand the caresheet thing, when you have verbal acess to the actual breeders on this forum. Strange if you ask me. Cheers

when you already have a base of knowledge, verbal and online exchange can indeed be extremely beneficial. but for folks starting from square one, a good caresheet can provide an outline of info and issues that need to be addressed.

temps, diet, substrates, etc, a good caresheet will at least highlight those important aspects, the basics, the starting point.

in fact, i have updated the monitor caresheets on our site to just basic, simple QuickCare sheets, without the overly detailed info, so that new keepers can capture the essentials, and not got lost in the many many details.

at least, i hope that is what happens : )
Pro Exotics Ackie Quickcare sheet

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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Or your caresheet, Currently I think caresheets do not fit varanids. I get the feeling, its the people, not the sheet. The people need to be taught to think, not follow a sheet.

I think beginers should first be taught that most aspects of husbandry change as both we and the animals age(progress)change and grow(mentally and physically) I think they should be taught FIRST that they will be required to constantly make decisions on what the next step for their monitor will be.

If they learned those two things and a couple more, they would not get the false idea that a caresheet is all that meaningful and should be followed. They shouldn't be followed.

Again, paint by the numbers has not proven be all that successful with varanids(they do not like being average)

I think you would agree that decision making is the most important task you do with varanids. Is that not so? So why start out keepers as robots.

This caresheet thing has been around for a very long time and has not proven to be all that effective. Has it?????????

So maybe varanids are not for everyone, thats a good thing. They are the thinking persons reptile, not the sad old colubrid paint by the numbers and get some success type of person.

The reality is, there is not enough success across the board to even think about a caresheet. Once there are many hundreds of successful keepers, then maybe we could find something that would work. As of new, learning to think and not being afraid to make decisions, has proven to work the best. Cheers

Thanks for the care sheet. Now I have questions:

1. If I would like to breed ackies, do I need to buy many babies and raise them together?

2. For baby ackies, Do you use a deep burrowing substrate of peat mixed with sand (I would for nesting bearded dragons) OR a shallow substrate so you can observe all the animals carefully?

3. How do you stop from inbreeding if everyone buys a group of babies and raises them together? I would like to get babies from many people to have a little blood diversity.

4. I have also heard that ackies will eat other ackie eggs. So when a female is gravid do you separate her to a egg laying cage so others don't get to the eggs?

Cheers, ericR

check out our site and read our FAQ, many answers await you there, with more detail.

1- yes, buy a group of babies and raise them together.

2- use the best substrate you can, as deep as you can. in a 10 gallon tank, it can't be that deep. and Peat sucks, use a better soil. bearded keepers live 15 years in the past. come to the future!

3- there is no issue with breeding siblings. all the Ackies in the country source to a few founding individuals, they are all related.

4- keep your monitors well, you will learn to breed your monitors well. again, disregard goofy Bearded dragon husbandry. you don't need a separate egg cage or anything else. keep them well, socialize them well, give them the tools they need, and they will do the rest. in the cage.

get a copy of the Sav book by Bennett. it covers these topics, and well. and it applies to your Ackies.

best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Thanks for the info. What type of soil is this you talk of? Excavator or something? I tried setting up a cage with that stuff but it dries rock hard and was not functional to observe the animals. I will read your web page and see if it is answered there. Let me know when babies are ready to go!

Cheers, ericR

i think that Zoo Med excavator is clay based, and i can't imagine any animal it would be good for.

try starting with the Home Depot mix, topsoil/sand/vermiculite in a 50/25/25 mix.

it works well, digs well, burrows well, holds moisture well, and it is cheap and easy to get together. from there you can get some soil experience, and have a point of reference when looking at backyard soils, forest soils, creekbed soils, other store bought soils, etc.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

My choose for soil here in fort myers, FL area is all sand. Every person that wants to grow grass has someone come spray fertilizer all the time since there is no soil to hold minerals. I look forward to some babies.

ONE MORE QUESTION:
The turkey food that most people feed monitors.... I have heard of many recipes mixing in calcium but one web page says to boil the turkey. Do you feed your ackies turkey, if so, cooked or not?

the Home Depot mix sounds right up your alley.

don't feed turkey. and monitors aren't built to eat cooked meat.

feed rodents, and feeder insects. done.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

"The turkey food that most people feed monitors"
Where do you get this "Most People"?
I talk to many, many monitor keepers,none of them feed turkey.
Like Robyn said, stick with whole foods.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Its very possible with any varanid, you should already have a base of knowledge. Varanids as a group, do not appear to be for beginers.

When I first started, I had a base of knowledge and monitors fit easily within that. Then I started excessing lots of offspring. The individuals that had no problems were those with previous reptile breeding experience, particularly with breeding beardeds.

Those that come from the snake breeding areas, did and do very very poorly. As they do not seem to have the attention span for a reptile that requires near daily attention. They appear to favor reptiles that only need to be attended too every few days in their active season and off most of the winter. With colubrids, all you need to do is follow simple instructions and succeed to a mid level, and you will never need to understand that actual animal.

Of course there are exceptions, as with everything, but this seems to be the case.

So no, caresheets do not seem to be of value. And only seem to restrict the new keeper.

I hear this all the time, but the caresheet said this or that. My responce is, what are you keeping a caresheet or a monitor, throw the dang caresheet out.

A caresheet would be good if it included warnings, like, do not keep monitors because its a fad, do not keep monitors unless you want to work with them most everyday, do not keep monitors unless your willing to work hard and have lots of fun. Do not keep monitors if you have a fear of failure. Do not keep monitors if your trying to impress someone, because most likely its going to depress folks for a awhile. Do not keep monitors if you are set in your ways, Do not keep monitors unless your inventive and like to make hard decisions(ones that go against caresheets), Do not keep monitors, unless you cannot stand not to keep them. These types of things are far more important then whats being included in caresheets. Cheers

Okay im a very long time lurker on this forum...VERY LONG TIME!!

So i know that this question gets asked a lot.....the basics of Ackie keeping i mean.
I've been breeding them myself for the last 3 years......its not rocket science to be honest is it.
One thing always amuses me on here though is summed up in your statement........

'you have verbal acess to the actual breeders on this forum'

While this is perfectly true it never ceases to amaze me how few people actually offer any help without just telling the poster to use common sense......im as guilty as the next person when it comes to not offering help.
Then again the first thing i do if i want to know something on a forum is to use the search function and see if my query hasnt been answered a hundred times already.

Personally i believe all reptiles can be kept in much the same way.......an enclosure with a wide range of temperatures from cool to very high, with secure hiding places in every temperature zone, the provision of fresh water and a plentiful food supply. Let them choose what they prefer and you cant fail.

Ok thats my 2 cents for what its worth lol
Feel free to shout me down

I am a fan of your two cents worth. I support letting the reptiles of make their own choices. Particularly when its easier to give them a choice they to keep at one temp or lack of choices.

And then we get to have fun sitting back and watching the reptiles do what they do best. Cheers