Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know a bunch of people come on here asking some of the same questions but I have looked for specfic answers for my case and haven't found any.

I have a water montior that my ex has had for over a yr and when we lived together he took care of him himself. Now my ex can't keep him so I just took him cuz we have had him since he was a baby basically. I know I should have looked at his care better and not just trusted my ex but now that I am reading up more his previous care was horrible. I have him in a large cage that has climbing space and a huge water dish that I change 2x a day. He has basking temps of 115 and the ambient temp is about 85. He has a large hide that he uses off and on and trying to work on the humidity in this cage. I have him on soil for now since he came to me on just towels. He has a ton of stuck shed on his toes that I have been soaking him daily to help work off and gave him lots of logs to rub on. The tip of his tail looks like it has fallen off and the red is spreading down the tail some. I have been to the vet and he said to just keep him in a steril bin and put neosproin on it every night with clean water all the time. I have been feeding him rodents every few days and his size has increased about 2in but he is still very tiny maybe 2 feet long and over a yr old. I just found out he needs insects but when my ex tried before he wouldn't touch them so how do i get him to take them? He is eating an adult mouse every 5 days right now by the way. I want to make sure he thrives and improve the care so what can I improve on?

Congrats on making an effort to improve this monitors care.

Do you have any pictures of the enclosure or the monitor? It would really help to get a visual.

I lost my camera cord so I cant upload. He is a 4ft long 3 ft wide 3 ft high plastic cage I got off line for free with a cut out for the heat light and a strip uvb bulb. I have just potting soil down for him right now and he is less then 2 feet long but over a yr old. The vet said no signs of mbd seeing as hes active and hyper as normal. He comes out of his cage on his own onto my hand so some what tame although I know never get to comfortable with him. He bit my boyfriend once out of no where already. My biggest question is how do I know i'm feeding enough? I feed him the adult mouse used to be once a week but I noticed him searching his cage more often then that and then started every time I see him really searching the cage and coming to the glass and scratching till I offer food. I am going today to get some insects but what kind is the best for a stuborn montior that doesnt even look at them?

I'm typically not a huge fan of the premaid plastic cages but, without pics, it's hard to say if yours is sufficinet. Is the top enclosed allowing for enough humidity?

You need to remove the potting soil right away, It's full of all kinds of nasty, to reptiles, fertilizers, etc. It's easy to confuse top soil with potting soil. Use top soil, but in the case of a water monitor, you can get away with cypress mulch. Try to keep the substrate as deep as possible allowing him to hide in it. Leaf litter is also a good option.

You're not feeding him nearly enough. His growth is already stunted as it is. This guy needs as many mice as he'll eat every other day. Don't worry about insects.

The UV light is not neccassy but can't hurt. It's more important that you have his basking temps set up properly. Do you have a temp gun. If not, it's going to be very difficult to "dial in" your enclosure.

I'd rather hear that he was tail whipping, hissing, biting, etc., than climbing up your arm. This leads me to believe that his metabolism is too slow due to improper temps.

Don't feel bad about these errors as you'll get them fixed. It's nice to hear that you're willing to make an effort.

Good luck and keep posting updates on his progress!

His basking temp is 115 with a temp gun on the log he basks do I need to get it higher then that? I've seen different things so i'm not sure. The top of the cage is enclosed so the humidity stays in but its still not humid enough for him even with a large cat box for a water dish and a dish of water under his basking light below him. I am going to work on building him a new cage that is much larger and higher for him to be able to climb around. He curls his tail around me and puffs out his neck when he first sees me but then climbs up on me. I don't force the holding its when I'm cleaning his cage that he does this. I'm sure the cage isn't big enough or high enough cuz its only 18in high but still 3 feet wide and 4f long. I'll get 5 or 6 mice today and just see how many he will eat a day every other day so I can tell his true feeding habbit but when I feed one mouse his belly is plump as heck so maybe one a day then? If i feed hoppers he'll eat 2-3 at a time but still only offered those once a week before so should i feed multiple hoppers every other day or just an adult mouse every other day? I'll get the cypress mulch when I can find it but for now what eles can I use to get that soil out? This tank measures into 340 gallons when I did the conversion on it so its pretty big.