Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey everyone ive been really looking into gettin a monitor/tegu of some kind im just not to sure what would be the best choice for someone who has never had one before. i do have experiance with snakes, ball pythons and corns. i was thinking maybe and ackies as they dont get huge and are probably more managable for someone new. well any help would be greatly appreciated. thank in advance. have a great day

If you are truely interested in keeping and learning how to properly provide for larger monitors in the future, ackies are a wonderful place to start. I would recommend reading and talking to others who have sucessfully kept ackies for more than a couple years and determine what allows them to be successful in captivity.

A basic understanding of their needs will go a long way in making the experience more rewarding instead of leaving you with a bad taste for monitors. I started keeping ackies about 7 years ago, and I am still learning from them everyday. I can tell you they will certainly teach you if you can learn to read their behaviors. Ackies are tough little monitors and can teach you a lot about varanid behavior which is very useful if you decide to keep any larger or more 'difficult' species later on.

I don't even want to think of the troubles I would've had if I started out keeping Argus monitors (or any other larger species) without previous hands-on experience that the ackies gave me. Good luck and happy researching, Lance