Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I noticed in one of your pics where your holding a BT there was a cat right next to you eating. Do the BT get along with cats? Or is it just one of those things where one might and another might not?

Thanx
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Zeek Star
Web Designer
Modified-Design.com

0.0.1 Black Throat Monitor
1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.1 Sumatran Bloods
0.1 Borneo Short Tail
0.0.2 Whites Tree Frogs
0.0.1 Barred Tiger Salamander

House, he even tries to regularly prove that to us. He has to be kept away or in another room, to him everything is a play toy. He scares the flavi-argus (tries to leap in the cage), also if the flavi-argus hisses at me the cat will try to attack him (dangerous for both).
Sobek on the other hand is a BT/WT cross and is very big. The cat is not afraid of her, but she will tail whip him 3ft up the wall with no effort. Sobek has never tried to bite anyone but a dog so far, so he does not get to push the subject. Sobek tries to get along with him, but he needs restrained for his safety.
I dont think any monitor or cat will get along, for that matter dogs.

That is very interesting, I would think my monitor would attack my puppy if it got close enough, but he isn't as nice as sobek. I was washing out his cage and my dog was standing at the door sniffing around, but i could not get her to come in the cage to me. She seemed realy concerend and a little scared by what she smelled in the completly empty cage. I picked her up and brought her in the cage and she flipped, i put her down and she cowered by my feet. I let her run off as she was realy scared and did not want to be there, and she has never even seen the lizard.

Albig is a nasty, defensive, reclusive BT. If the cat were to jump in his cage that sucker would tail whip and chase the cat out in a hurry, Im not about to find out, he would probably bite if he got close enough also. Im sure the flavi-argus would bite if he was cornered, but again he acts nervous of the cat.
Sobek just ignores him unless he tries to jump at her.
A friend once put a small kitten in a few cages with varous large carnivorous reptiles, the results were amazing, a 5ft male nile monitor who was very hungry charged the kitten then once he was close enough to smell it turned and ran for dear life, wouldnt come out for a day of so. It was introduced to several large tegs, all ran as soon as they either saw the kitten or ran once they smelled it.
I have seen Sobek try to bite a medium sized dog by its head once, all it took was her to see then smell the dog, then she opened her mouth and leaped (dont ask me why), I jumped and pushed the dog away, I think she just didnt want him there bothering her, either that or she smelled something he ate on his breath.

My 2 cats were dominant the first few months, we let our balckthroat roam through the house(supervised)of course. After the first few months they began to just ignore or avoid each other. When Black (our BT) and the cats are out and about they simply steer clear of each other. Black has now claimed one of the cat beds. It has become his favirote place to nap when out of his enclosure. The cat simply found a new place to nap on the couch. Sometimes I will take Black out and he will go straight to the cat bed,,,, a little while later the cat will come in from another room and go towards his bed only to find Black sprawled out on his bed. It's been like this for the past 2 years.

I've seen a few medium sized dogs and some monitors able to tolirate each others pressence, but never become buddies. Theres a thread over in the main monitor forum talking about a monitors instinct and why they dislike cats and other animals. You should check it out.
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Sobek shows no fear of my husky, in fact she acts like hes not even there, hes 40lbs and a puppy yet, very jumpy, was an interesting introduction.
My cat is not afraid of much, he tries to challenge my flaviargus to food if hes not blocked from rushing in the cage. The small monitors are afrid of the cat (not even gonna try to see their reaction to the dog), the male BT will stand his ground and drive off any intruder that comes near him, of course he has never met Sobek yet, shes tried to kill every male of her own species she ever met or seen.

Heh, so I take it you've attempted to introduce a male to try and breed some?
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Before the age 1.5 years (when she was fixed), and a few after just to see if they could get along. One monitor got treated differently, she was introduced to a male argus a friend had, he was 5ft long and 15lbs, she was 6ft long and over 20, she acted as if she was protecting him every time she saw him afterwards. Of course she was introduced in a neutral area away from her cage every time.
Breeding was not so much of an intention, in fact just getting her to get along with another was the primary intention, not killing them.