Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm newb to nile monitors but not monitors. I'm doing a very successful job in taming it, its favorite food is no longer my fingers but adult mice. It is only a foot long (hatchling) and all it takes are adult mice and large cricket, odd enough he won't take small mice or other bugs. Weird huh?

Question:

My monitor is lazy, is that normal? I thought niles are suppose to be active. Considering this:

Temp: 85 cool side, 95 hot side is norm. 90-100 is common.
Humidity: 60-70
Feeding: Adult mice once a week. Crickets 17 per every 2 days. Large crickets with cal/d3 suppliments by ReptoCal. (Its cheaper than ZooMed's)
Tank Size: 50 Gallon Wood Framed. Future tank will cost me $800, but lets leave that out.
Heating Equipment: Ceramic heater, UV flour. blub above ceramic, cobra undertank heater over cool side for cold days just in case. I can't put it where the heater is because it will overheat and melt.

When I reach for it, it runs like a mother F--ker and when he is out which is kinda rare, he looks active and aware. Any help will be very gratifying. Thank you.

First, raise the basking spot temperature. I use around 110-115 as measured by digital probe thermometers. You may very well see some changes in behavior with that increase. Second, a bit more food is probably called for. I never bother counting food. I toss a lot in there and pretty much feed until it doesn't eat anymore. In some sense, I feed everyday because I always leave extra food in the enclosure when cricket feeding. However, most of my smaller monitors get both crickets and rodents of some sort. I feed rodents more often than once a week, although I really have no set schedule. Sometimes it is four times, sometimes twice a week.

my Nile is probably my most active lizard. if he is only a hatchling feed him everyday and don't limit him on how much he eats. feed him till he stops. make the basking SPOT around 120F. make sure he can get somewhere that he can cool off. have you tried roaches? mine loves them. as for your $800 tank. you can build one, for like $200 and it would probably be better for him. because an adult Nile will need a bigger cage than any tank i've seen. (aside from the Aquariums in Chattanooga
just thought i might point that out to you. also my Niles main activity is digging. that's something you didn't mention. do you have dirt in his cage for him to dig in? my Nile is almost constantly digging. and if he's not doing that, then he's swimming.

I've heard that a heat pad and CHE is the way to go for heating a snake, but no one uses them for monitors, (that I know of).

UV isn't needed for monitors, but hey, it's your money. Burn away. The best way to heat a monitor is with floodlamps on a nice heat retaining surface, like plywood. You do NOT need expensive bulbs. Just make sure they are floods, not spots. The wattage will depend entirely on your cage. Try to go with the lowest wattage that will give you the temps you want (120-140 degrees). This means raising the plywood so the lizard can bask close to the light. Farther away means you need a higher wattage, and will flood the cage with more heat, ruining your cool end. This is why CHEs aren't so good. They produce ambient heat, not a basking spot of heat. You can force them to work, if you have a large enough cage to keep a cool end, but then you must take steps to cover the CHE, as they get dangerously hot, more so than bulbs.
At only 100-110 degrees, your lizard probably can't eat more than what you're giving it. Higher temps=higher metabolism=bigger appetite.

Don't take it as failure on your part if it grows up to have the typical nile attitude. It is what it is.
D.