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What do you recommend me when I'll feed my BlackThroat with a base diet: Quail or Chick peep with mice together ? I've read that the chick peep can cointain salmonella or any infestations, so I think the quail is better.Do you think the same? Can be anyting dangerous more in the chick peep?
One more question for you: What is the good warm(on the ground mesaured) for the best digestion?

Cheers for every answers!

Why not wait until someone has time to answer the first post?
Now for a answer, use both, try for yourself, actually use quail, chicken peeps, mice, rats, and whatever other WHOLE animals you would like to try.
Depends on the stage of life or size of the animal. Iuse day old quail with tiny monitors,small mice, insects.
With medium sized I use mice, chicken peeps, small enough rats, and large roaches sometimes.
With large monitors I use chicken peeps, adult quail, mice, rats, sometimes large roaches.
Ive experienced more growth with my husbandry with birds being fed to albigs more than rodents, but I use both. Understand I think rodents provide more of some things than do birds, but birds are a great easy food source that they grow fast on. How does from 9 inches long at hatching time to 5ft long at ONE year old, 6ft long at 2 years old, and now 6 ft 5 inches at under 5 years old, the best part is she is female. Ive had WC albigs, and others that have grown from 2-5ft in months time on birds and rodents, but I usually feed more birds.

Sorry for the impatienting, but i have to know,which bird i have to order to freezing, because the shipping is not so often than early summer.
I would like to know which bird can be the more infection carrier, salmonella or others, because i've heard that the chick peeps is more dangerous than the quail peep!
Other thing,: I would to like know how many degrees is the good temperature for the healthy digestion of the feather or furs what the albis need ??? (on the ground mesaured )

I appreciate for the anwers!

It does not bother them, nor does it matter to them, all life forms carry bacteria, we carry many that cause us problems, reptiles cause very very few infections from slmonella in reality, most of those and ecoli are from livestock, dogs, and mostly birds.

Are from hatchlings with 130-135f, adults from 130-170f or however high they enjoy. Air temps are from 68-90f.

Thanks, but i thought to the mesaured airtemps above the ground of the cage /" on the ground mesaured "/and my basking place is enough hot.
So take up my question again. Otherwise, where do you mesaure the air temps?
Do you think so,that the basking temp is the most important for a lizard digestion??

I appreciate for the answers!

Make sure you get the basking temperature just right. Each species require different temperature at basking spot. Too hot and the food passes too quickly through the digestive tract, and too cold they won't be able to digest their food very well.

just a thought, but shouldn't the animal decide what temps it should bask at? they're pretty good at thermoregulating themselves. don't make a mistake by making the decision for them. it's pretty common to see basking temps between 130 and 150 degrees. some go higher. let the animal decide.
cheers

Indeed, I had temps at 150 for my ackies (unintentional, still setting up the cage, but as a whim, I let them decide if they wanted it or not) And they avoided the basking spot save the coldest hours of the morning.. So I lowered my Stack a level and with basking spot at 120-130, I see them using it again with quite some love. They're bigger sungazers than my beardeds or my Big baby redtail when she gets outside.
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2.3 Leos
2.0 Beardie
1.1 Common Boa
0.1 Sav (Bosc) Monitor
1.1 Ackies
0.1 Giant BW Tegu
Thousands of Roaches, T's, and Scorps.
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D

Heres the deal. Monitors are "NOT" suppose to bask for extented periods of time, or many hours a day. In their normal active seasons in nature, they rarely bask at all. They recieve their needed temps from areas where they are hidden. They mainly come out in the open to bask, when conditions in those areas are unsuitable.

That is, after cool or cold nights, after heavy rains(colds the mass of the earth) During early spring and late fall is another time it CAN/does happen.

What I am saying is, they normally limit the amount of basking time to as short as possible.

What is the funny part is, THIS is exactly what the retes stacks are designed for. The design is to allow them to bask inbetween any layer they choose. Without having to stay in the open. For smaller monitors, and even larger ones, being in the open is extremely dangerous. Not deadly, more like you crossing the freeway. You can do it, but if you do it enough, you will be hit by a car.(ask about how this really works)

While this amount of basking time varies a little from species to species, with water(raparian) species basking out the most. Most species including the species you mention, ackies, only bask out in the open, when forced, by adverse conditions.

What the above means is, you had it right when you allowed basking temps of 150F. You see, basking early morning and late afternoon closely resembles their natural behavior.

What monitors do normally is, bask out in the open, for the shortest amount of time. They then obtain heat from mass, like shallow burrows and stones, this bark, to pieces of tin, wood, debris, etc(trashpiles)

You must remember, they bask or absorb heat to become active, to become active is to live their life. Their life is NOT to bask. Basking is a tool to allow them to live.

So in application, hot basking spots and retes boards are a combination of tools to allow your monitor to live its life, not spend its life basking.

Please if you do not understand this, ask more questions. Cheers

Maybe you have misunderstand me, because there are some places in my cage, somewhere the air temps are different, so my monitor can choose where is funny for him. And there are 1-2 basking spot/places/(a limb and etc...), where the temps is higher than on other places and the monitor like basking here, so my monitor can choose between some cooler and hoter places if he want, and can hide if he chose the coolest area!
Sorry, but I only wanted to know what is your opinions about the warm-needs of the albigularis to a good digestion and life!

I appreciate for your oppinions.

I did not respond to you. The reason is, you ask about A temperature. In my opinion, there is not answer to that question. You see, monitors require a higher temperature for larger food items, and lower temps for smaller food items.

Also, many other things are envolved in how well a monitor digests food. Things like mental stability and proper body fluid levels, etc.

In this post you mentioned your albig has a range of choices, that is good.

You job is to watch your monitor and see how well it grows, sheds, behaves, etc, then you adjust the temps if those activities are not suitable.

In other words, if your monitor is working fine, then don't change it. If you feed large food items and your monitor throws up, then you need to adjust temps or humidity or both. Or simple, only offer smaller food. Those are your choices. good luck, cheers

I understand fully, and I do agree with you certainly..
But I think you mistook my original meaning, at 150, they refused the heat at all except at the coldest, and they spent the entire day in inactivity, hiding in the lowest level of the stack (Stack without circular holes or varying lengths)

Since the reduction of the level, I see only brief basking, as you said, enough to heat and maintain a decent level of metabolic activity..
Mainly this sustains them througout the day, the Male periodically doing his rounds, and the Female constructing her burrow.

I admit I do not know much of natural Acanthurus behavior, only having them briefly thus far, but I can't see any unrest in the pair or otherwise that would signify stress or improper thermoregulation/heat levels.
Like you, I strive to do my best in the captive care of these varanids.

But please, if you see any wrongs in my care, I'm here to be enlightened.
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2.3 Leos
2.0 Beardie
1.1 Common Boa
0.1 Sav (Bosc) Monitor
1.1 Ackies
0.1 Giant BW Tegu
Thousands of Roaches, T's, and Scorps.
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D

I understood fully, but your mistaking what the word "active" means. To you and most people it means a monitor crawling around a cage. To an ackie it means livings in cracks, crevices and holes, as that is what they do. Cheers

True enough, but that's in their natural setting, and as I believe even you say, An enclosure can in no way mimic a natural setting.
It may be instinctual so natural or unnatural settings are null in that respect.... That I will concede.
And though I would like to argue the meaning of Active..
I admit I haven't the experience to back it up or the results to show for it.. as it stands you are an experienced keeper stating what you've seen work... So aye, I'll Listen

So I guess I have no complaint to speak of *shrug*
I'll just let the Ackies be Ackies, and observe them as I can.
Hopefully catching up to you in experience in some odd 20 years
Thank you.
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2.3 Leos
2.0 Beardie
1.1 Common Boa
0.1 Sav (Bosc) Monitor
1.1 Ackies
0.1 Giant BW Tegu
Thousands of Roaches, T's, and Scorps.
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D

Let me give you an example(hopefully not a bad one) I use to live in SoCal, there were lots of Western fence lizards. There was not as many but still lots of alligator lizards. And some skinks. But only once in my life did I find a coastal legless lizard out. It was crossing the road.

Now lets think about this. I found these areas with loamy soil that had literally hundreds of Legless lizards. You could lift a piece of tin and see nothing, then sift the soil underneath it and find several under every piece of tin. I could find far more legless lizards, then western fence lizards. Yet, I "saw" far more fence lizards out in the open.

In between was alligator lizards, while I saw lots out on the surface and climbing on plants. I found far more under boards and tin. Then skinks, I did see some out, but weather permitting(cool) I could find lots and lots under cover.

So you have four lizards that are at least locally just as common as eachother, but have different degrees of how much they spend time out in our world.

With legless lizards, its very easy to see they spend most of their time in loose soil, and very little time out in the open.

This same thought applys to monitors. Monitors as a whole, spend very little time out in the open. They as a whole spend lots of time in things. Things like burrows, crevices, hollow trees, etc.

Of course some species spend a fair amount of time out. Many raparian species, ones like Salvators, mertens, niles, panoptes, mitchells, etc Again, its easy to see why they can do this compared to other monitors. They do not have to worry about overheating, they have water to cool them. A desert species cannot do that. Most large desert monitors(lots of mass) cannot change high body temps when theres no way to cool off.

Theres also escaping predators. Raparian species can jump in the water and land predators are outa luck. Or they can run out on land and water predators are outa luck. So they play both.

What I am getting at is lots of these ozzie smaller monitors are land dwellers, they cannot efford to go in the open, as in Oz there are tons of predators. In fact, other monitors are keen on them. So they live in safe places. They do spend a fair amount of time looking out. Sitting at the mouth of burrows, nose sticking out of holes in trees, etc.

Think about this. In captivity monitors mate all the time. Yet are find researchers rarely if ever see them mating. The truth is, millions upon millions bred and lay in any givin area montiors live. Yet they do not see them breed? Why not?

Now consider, when monitors copulate, they do so for hour after hour. At times 24/7 for up to five days. Why are they not see doing this? Thanks

Hoping that's a rhetorical question as I cannot give any form of an adequate answer to it, I'm still thinking of your example..
I've lived in California 11 years of my life from the Bay Area to currently, Southern California..
And like you had, I found Fence lizards in the open, and viewed them as common, whereas the others, I viewed as rare as I spot them so rarely..

You make a definate point, one which leads me to contemplate quite a bit.. I'll assimilate your example and try to work with it, but now you have me really wanting to observe these varanids in Australia.. If I can see how they live there for myself.. it'll likely better my understanding of them as a whole as well as my care..

Curious You're a wise man FR, and I appreciate you sharing it.
-----
2.3 Leos
2.0 Beardie
1.1 Common Boa
0.1 Sav (Bosc) Monitor
1.1 Ackies
0.1 Giant BW Tegu
Thousands of Roaches, T's, and Scorps.
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D

You see, I am the individual keeper who promoted allowing monitors choices. This is one of the key things I brought to the table. I think if you pick up an old copy of Reptiles or Vivarium, you will find that exact statements is in both. I cannot remember, that is in 94 or so. I do not remember, but the articule in Reptiles was published a couple of years after the interview By Dave Goode. The articule in Viviarium was an interview by Phillipe DeVoslie(sp to the max) As he was the owner of that magazine, it came out within a few months of the interview. The interview as at the bar right next to The San Diego herp show. hahahahahahahahaha bar interviews are absolutely great.

Phillipe is the individual that named me Goannaman. I did not name myself. The articule was called Goannaman speaks, It was over a couple of issues. Cheers

Through too quickly?
That sounds like the one I read on here about snakes more completely digesting their food because it passes through slower.
My lizards (mostly monitors) use basking temps from 142-195f, I set them up, they chose when they use it, and for how long. If they dont use it, or spend too long basking, I change it.

I was reading one of my old zoology book and another site www.anapsid.org about how reptile metabolism is dependant upon the surrounding temperature. The heat has to be just right to allow for proper metabolism. Too hot hot and it destroy some types of key enzymes for proper metabolism and the food passes through too quickly allowing less nutrient to be absorbed. It goes something like that...my memory is kindda foggy right now.

You will see just what you see when they are too low, a reptile that pukes its food up because it cannot digest, remember that is ambient temps, those that raise the body temps too high. Understand that when you read 130f on a surface of a basking spot you will see from 68-80f air temps depending on other conditions.
Higher basking temps that the animals uses will not cause the animal to pass less digested food through its system faster. Keep in mind that most reptiles can pass food if given the right options in 24-48 hours, depends on the size of the food eaten. This is how there is an advantage to many smaller meals, lower temps needed and faster digestion.

Above the surface, not with an infared thermometer or temp gun on a surface like basking temps are.
Use a probe thermometer to read the air temps, use a temp gun to read the basking surface.
You want a range of air temps (ambient temps) from as low as 68-75f and as high as 84-90f.
These are basking temps.