Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I usually post on another board but I read this one daily and I wanted to see if anyone else has a black throat like ours and brag a litte bit about my strange lizard.

We got a 28" wild caught female the end of June. We were expecting your typical hissing,whipping,bitting wild caught. Well when we took her out of the box she whipped a few times. We soaked her for an hour and put her in her enclosure and left her alone. Two days later I opened her enclosure to feed her and left the door open and sat there watching her eat, well soon as she finished she climbed out of the enclosure and onto me and took a nap.
Well now almost three months later if I walk into her room and start talking she comes out of whatever hide she is in and starts scratching at the door. I usually walk out of the room now, through the hallway, and into the living room and sit down on the couch, well about 2-10 minutes later she always ends up climbing up my leg and into my lap to have her head, neck and back rubbed. She is also litter trained to the point if she is in the living room with the family she will head back to her enclosure to use her litter box. She is also very docile with the rest of my family (even my kids). She lets them pet her most the time (sometimes she will hiss at them) but since the first day she has came she has never even hissed at me.

She has grown alot too, she went from 28" and 1/2 a pound on July 2nd to 38 inches and 5.5 pounds as of Aug. 28th

Before anyone asks she is in a 10x6x4 enclosure. Warm side between 92-94 (depending on the house temp) cool side around 82-84. Basking spot is 140s.

Hi,
A docile monitor - cool. What is the ambient temp of your house? Perhaps he/she is climbing to a thermo-warmer place- you. You're probably warmer than its terraria. Where does it spend the majority of its time while in its terraria? Hot side? Cool side?
Maybe adjust temps?

Except for their bottomless pit stomachs, Enjoy -
markb

Ambiant house temp is around 80 give or take a degree because we like it hot personally. She is all over her enclosure and has dug homes on both sides. Her warm side is on average 92 give or take a degree and the cool side 82 and her basking surface is 140. And she doesnt just come to me for heat because after she comes to me (first thing she usually does)she stays on me for about 10-20 minutes then she goes off and wanders around the rooms we allow her in (the others are blocked off)and when she feels cool she doesnt come to me to warm up she wanders back to her enclosure and basks. She also wanders back to use the litter box. How she came to be so tame I dont know and when I bought her I expected a monitor not a bearded dragon in a monitor suit.

And when I say 92 give or take a degree I mean above that temp not below it. Like yesterday it was 94 in there on the warm side and 83 on the cool. Here warm side never drops below 92. And her lights run 24/7 and I do not cool down at night.

I wish this formum had had a edit feature. Forgot to say I do have a thermostat on her enclosure that is set at 92 but we have had some hot days and it seems to bump up her temps a degree or two even with the thermostat on and set. Then again it could be up just at the moment I look at the temp as I have two digitals one on the warm and one on the cool side and they check the temp every 60 seconds or so. And the Helix thermostat has a dig temp as well.

Hi,
As long as your monitor is healthy, thats good. I foro ne do feel monitors should be exposed to 24/7 photoperiod = I used 12/12 at the very most, but mostly during "their" summer period, from Sept. - Feb.
Good Luck, Enjoy,
markb

is this just a basking light your talking about or a full spectrum light?

Basking light. I dont use full spectrums (color corrected bulbs) on her. Now I do use them on my wifes stupid iguanas go figure lol.