Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any tips on how to locate my monitor which is loose in my house?..... It sounds silly but my 3ft monitor is loose in my house, it is about the 6th time its happened cause ive been experimenting with letting him free roam in my room. I have checked everywhere this time and i am worried he might get sick without any heat, or even worse die.

If he was in decent health when he escaped he's not going to die anytime soon from lack of heat, unless it's real cold in your house.

I suggest keeping all doors shut to keep it contained within whichever room it's in. Listen for digging, scratching in the still of the night or several minutes after any room activity. He'll show up, and most likely pretty close to the last place it was known to be.

I had a 16-inch nile escape a few years ago when temps within the house were averaging high 60s - low 70s. I found it about a week later sitting on top of an antique radio in the next room. It had to climb the curtain to get on top of the radio. When I saw it, it just sat there looking, right at me. Almost as if saying, "I give! I'm hungry, feed me."

That was my first & only monitor escape.

"It sounds silly but my 3ft monitor is loose in my house, it is about the 6th time its happened cause ive been experimenting with letting him free roam in my room."

Ha! Ha! A 3ft monitor loose in the house doesn't sound silly. They escape every now & then. Now, this being the 6th time it's happened sounds silly. Ya reckon it's time to tighten up? (Don't take that personal)

Later!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

I had my monitor escape a few times, and one of them she crawled through a small hole in the bottom of a cabinet(not noticeable unless looking for it) and up into the wall. Was able to coax her out with mice.
Another time, I found her in the pan below the oven.
Look in any tight, dark and possibly warm spaces. My tegu's used to curl up in the sleeve of my sweatshirt.

"Any tips on how to locate my monitor which is loose in my house?....."
If you look through some of the past posts, people talk about ways of catching lose monitors, like placing a mouse in a bucket and a ramp up to it so the monitor falls in and can't climb out.

"It sounds silly but my 3ft monitor is loose in my house, it is about the 6th time its happened cause ive been experimenting with letting him free roam in my room."
If you've already lost it 6 times because of your "experimentation", maybe it's not the best idea? Sounds a little careless in my opinion. Learn from past experiences before you lose your monitor and actually cost the poor animal its life.

Usually they are within a few feet suprisingly of where they escape from (the area they are used to). As far as escpaes Ive had a few and you would be suprised how easily a 4-6ft monitor can hide in places you never knew they could.
As far as free roaming, thats very dangerous to your monitors health, the reason being is that their proper environment is inside of the cage you designed abd built for them, our houses are too dry (otherwise they would rot) for them. The more time your monitor stays in its own proper environment the better for its health.

I actually had this happen to me yesterday. While doing some repairs in my black throat monitors cage which happens to be 40 inches long. I put him in a spare room for a couple of hours. Lukily I checked in onhim before the cage was finished. LO AND BEHOLD, the room is empty! While looking around I found a nice size hole in the wall leading to the celler where it's about 60 degrees. I put on some old work out cloths, got a flash light and a stick to knock down spider webs, got on my stomach and crawled in. After moving things that hadn't been touched in years I hear a ruffle, I move to the area and there's my lil bad boy. After a good chase,tossing everything he uses as refuge and getting whacked several good times I got my hands on him. My story wont help u find ur lil guy, it was ironic to see ur story a day after I went through it. Hope you find him. Maybe you could put a thawed mouse in each room and close the doors. The room that the mice disapears in is your target. Good luck.

Hey there!
Just thought I'd check in to see if you've found your monitor yet.

Hope all's well!

HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

>>Any tips on how to locate my monitor which is loose in my house?..... It sounds silly but my 3ft monitor is loose in my house, it is about the 6th time its happened cause ive been experimenting with letting him free roam in my room. I have checked everywhere this time and i am worried he might get sick without any heat, or even worse die.

Everyone has had escapes. It happens. An escaped 3 foot monitor is no biggie. My current savannah Rico has escaped a few times. He is quite good at opening locked doors and he can flatten himself amazingly.

Everyones advice is good. I also make it a point to offer a basking spot and food near that point. I leave that spot 24/7 and it is also usually on a heavy layer of newspaper. Rico has made it a point when he is on walk a bout to kindly soil the paper and not the floor. I usually find him with in a few days by following the scratching noise. He tends to get behind the racks and I can hear him on that wood the best. I have also walked in to find him on top of my cyclura's cage. His appetite flounders when he is on walkabout because he is not as warm as he needs, however with in days of recapture he is fine. Rico's longest adventure was around 3 months.

-----
Cindy
PHFaust

Email Cindy

Land of the Outcasts!

Both of our Mangroves have each escaped once. Twilight was gone a couple of weeks and we found him in a cabinet that he opened the door to himself. He was covered with spider webs...and hungry.We let him hang out in the bathroom for some tub time...climbing in and out at will.He will sleep for a couple days in the cabinet under the sink...also opening that door himself.We have a bed of towels under there for him, and NO cleaners of any kind.He will also climb up into hanging clothes and disappear for a day or more.He'll bask in the window sill from sun up to sun down.Our savanna hides under dressers and cabinets and sofas.He has also torn the cover on the bottom of the box springs and crawled inside there.Most of them (lizards) just want a tight dark place to chill...it's nothing personal towards us, it's just what they like.GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

no offence, but that just sounds like an unsafe environment for monitors to me.

If you think its still in your room I would set up some heat lamps and make a spot for basking, he will be able to sense the heat and might come out for a bask when he thinks its safe. You can also get some chicken blood from chicken liver container from the grocery store and put some of that out the smell should get to him if hes hungry. My water monitor got away, I knew where he was and just had to wait him out he came out when he was really bored and I had to just listen for him took about 2 days of waiting around. Goodluck!