heres the deal. We are all in the same boat, we should all want the same thing.
You have set up a cage in a manner that "should" support your monitor. I agree with this. But, keeping living animals is not theoretical, it does produce a product or results.
Once you set up any cage, you run it, then you judge the results. The results are how it actually works on YOUR animal, at that time. Then you adjust accordingly. That is normal and common sense. Only pea brains think you can set up a cage and have it run perfectly forever. Or those with wishful thinking. We all normally have to adjust.
Soaking is a sign of dehydration. Lack of growth, desease, lack of reproduction, are signs of unsuitable cages and husbandry.
If you step away and look are your cage. What you see is a lot of heated air. A whole bunch of glass. A little bit of some dirt and a monitor in a pigeonhole. This is not judging anything, its a simple discription.
Then compare that to what Blackthroats use in nature, does it overlap or give the blackthroat a way to do what it needs to do to live a life somewhat normal.
Now remember, We humans are suppose to be different then animals because we have a strong ability to adapt to different conditions. And you know how much we fear change!
So animals are not suppose to have much ability to change their behavior to fit(adapt) to foreign conditions. But they do have some ability.
Consider, to find any species of monitor, water dwelling or otherwise, sleeping in the water, WOULD BE A VERY RARE EVENT. Even the most water of water monitors, sleep in burrows, not the water. So all of a sudden a huge percentage of captives cram themselves in small waterbowls and soak, crap, and sleep. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm odd I tell you. Then consider, this history of these water bowl monitors is a very very poor one, most DYING within a few years. Ok, that does not take a genius to figure out. ITs not right.
Our problem is, we are to close to the subject and we are toooooo hopeful that what we are told will work. We don't know, or we would not be having this problem, YES????
So your going by what your told, or worse yet, an average of a million different opinions. But no worries, this does not matter.
The truth is, your suppose to gauge how your cage works by comparing your results with either the animals natural progress, or some captive successful situation. Here is the main problem.
Most captive situations SUCK AND END IN FAILURE, a prematurely dead individual monitor. Which would be kinda ok if along the way the individual monitor actually contributed, growth, reproduction, longevity. But sadly most end after some growth.
So, again, on average, your taking advice from fella novices that have not proven to understand how to allow monitors to succeed.
Where these last paragraphs are leading is, THE ADVICE IS NOT GOOD. Which makes it even more important that you do not follow that advice and you use the result to change your husbandry to achieve better or more successful results.
Now as a monitor guy, your missing the whole nine yards, albigs live in the ground, not just sleep in the ground, they live there, you know like gophers. On occasion, they come to the surface and do something, like find another hole that has food it it. Or bask, if the ground got wet and is too cold. Or climb a tree because it flooded. But the reality is, they LIVE 99% of their life, in the ground.
Yet, your cage is 97% AIR, like you were actually keeping a butterfly or a bird, Not a gopher,mole, shrew, vol, etc.
If you put half dirt that is suitable to burrow in(yours appears not to be) and the rest hollow logs, you would find that your monitor, would pick different areas. Also in your case, YOU heated a pigeonhole, so the monitor HAD to use the pigeonhole, which also has lots of air space.
Why do I mention airspace. I do because most of the time, monitors, heck most reptiles, seek places that fit their shape, exactly, you know, tight places they can barely fit in. WHY IS THAT? If you step back, these places do not have AIR SPACE. If you give your monitor a choice, it will pick these tight sealed holes they can barely fit in, EVERYTIME.
In nature, we have found that, our reptiles actually pick permanent holes/shelters, based of a set measurable humidity. They seem to find homes that have about 50 to 60% humidity. Hmmmmmmmm a balance of not dry or not wet. Of course, they pick dryer places when they want to dry out, and wetter places when they need to hydrate. Hmmmmmmmmmm back to square one. An animal that routinely uses the water bowl, is telling you, it needs to use the water bowl. Get it. And Albigs are not water monitors.
About the dirt, you and others somehow think that monitors want something soft and easy to dig in. Sir, that is human thinking. Actually they want something very hard and nasty to dig it. This does make sense. They have the ability to dig in stuff thats kinda like concrete. This allows them to escape from animals that cannot dig in what they can dig it. So, in this case, something uncomfortable for jackels, hyenas, big cats, etc etc etc. Oh, they like to wind their burrows around roots and rocks to hinder being followed. And they wedge themselves in and blow up, so that snakes cannot pull them out.
So their burrow or better yet, the FEEL of their burrow, means everything to them. You know, not wet, not dry, secure from the bad guys, and lastly, its theirs and has their smell ALL OVER IT.
You know, kinda like your bed. You understand, why you don't sleep in the street in the ghetto, without blankets and such. Lastly, we live in a VERY VERY VERY SAFE world compared to these monitors. In their world, EVERYTHING is SUPPOSE to kill them, and they only have their inherent behavior to protect them. Guezzzz, no wonder most die of stress or stress related desease.
Lastly, heating a hot spot causes air movement, air moving over anything draws out moisture, if the air is dryer then what it moves over. Monitors are a bag of water, you figure the rest out. Cheers
