Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For anyone thinking of geting a monitor - here is my experience with this particular Argus.

This is Thrasher. I got him on August 3rd of this year when he was 18 inches long. He is now 30 inches. He is averaging growth of about 2.5 inches each month. In the last 5 weeks he has grown 3.5 inches. I give him a mouse 5 or 6 days a week. Once a month or so when I am out of mice I give him a little cat food (I KNOW - IT IS BAD) and he is doing great. He is very active and is a handfull when you first pick him up. He has earned his name of Thrasher. He calms down quickly and gets still and holds on tight. It won't be long before his claws will be able to go through the motorcycle gloves I am wearing in the picture. I am so glad I got him. It makes me smile to come home and look in his cage and see him staring back at me, or see him digging burrows. He is my favorite of my reptiles.

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

another picture

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

I found him asleep like this after I cleaned his cage, added more dirt, and soaked him tonight. He had gone to sleep in the wierdest position

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

This was taken on the first day I had him. He was doing an awesome tailstand against the back wall of a small (2ftx4ftx4ft) cage.

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

i have three lizards that are over 3 feet long. 2 iguanas and one ornate nile. the ornate nile is 4 ft now. i didn't use to clip their nails and i had to wear gloves. i took the nile back to the pet shop to show them what a monster he had become. the guy at the pet shop offered to trim my niles nails while i held him. the next thing u know no more gloves. i trim all three now by myself without help from anyone. u have to be careful not to trim to short or it hurts them and they bleed. be careful though and keep the nails trim. if you though your lizard was fun before get ready for a treat.

I dont think I put the full URL in. This is the correct picture

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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

np

I use a dirt/sand mixture. I have to buy the dirt and sand from Lowes because my property is very rocky and is mostly clay.
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Ed

There are chameleons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

>>It won't be long before his claws will be able to go through the
>>motorcycle gloves I am wearing in the picture.

In my experience with arguses, your gloves will be safe from his claws, unless he has a long time to just sit and work at them. Even a long sleeved shirt can protect against the claws of a 5 foot, 20 pound argus for normal handling.

His teeth, on the other hand, will do a good job shredding the gloves if you are ever so unfortunate to get bitten.

Here's one of my pictures:

Good luck with your critter!

Luke

i know you keep v. flavirufus, and v. panoptes, but what do you think of the argus flavi crosses? also i'm getting a little baby argus, how did you set up Chris, and super K cage for the first few months?( bedding, hides, rocks, branches,...)
thanks
Gage

>>i know you keep v. flavirufus, and v. panoptes, but what do you
>>think of the argus flavi crosses?

I've not had much experience with them. From what I can tell, and from what I've heard, they're halfway in between arguses and sand monitors. They're pretty, but myself I like the pure bloodlines.

>>also i'm getting a little baby argus, how did you set up Chris,
>>and super K cage for the first few months?( bedding, hides,
>>rocks, branches,...)

I had a few inches of sand, a round piece of bark, and a cat litter pan for water. Nowadays, I use a better sand (it holds burrows), make it deeper (enough so they can burrow) and don't use the bark.

Here's some pics

Here, Sony has so much fun digging she splatters sand on the sides so it is sort of hard to see in. You can make out the heat lamp on the right (and, if you know what you are looking for, Sony basking underneath it). The water dish on the left is still a work in progress, since Sony always undermines, collapses, and overturns anything I put in there.

This is Hissy-Whacky's cage. She's less active, so you can see things better. The insulation obscures the water dish. Here in upstate NY, I need insulation for the winter to keep the temperatures up.

Luke