Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, thanks to the input offered by everyone concerning the sickly hatchling Nile from the shop I work at. The past week I'd been putting a lot of effort in to him, trying to get him to eat... Anything I could.

I just didn't feel like I was at the shop enough to monitor [haha, no pun intended] him enough...

So, after a lot of soul-searching, and after realizing I'd fallen in love with the little runt, I did something I'm hoping won't come to bite me in the ass...

I brought him home.

And there is now a little piece of the African riverside in my bedroom.

Sigh.

115 degree basking spot on one end of the enclosure, six inches of a good topsoil mix substrate [basically what I use on my big male Savannah as well]. I keep a lot of broken clay pot bits around for creating low and tight hides for small stuff, so he's got four of those in there now. Two in the warm end, two in the cool end. My favorite part of it is the water feature, which consists of a smallish cat litter pan I keep on hand strictly for when I've got something aquatic or semi-aquatic adding its name to my herp collection. Because it's fairly deep and this little monitor is TINY, I used a bag of good sized river rocks that I washed and shifted thoroughly to layer the bottom and build up a bit of an exit ramp on either side. On either side of the water container, which is set down into substrate up to the rim of the pan, I half-buried some fake vines to give him a bit of cover near the water.

I sprayed down the whole enclosure right before adding poor little Osiris, and it's quite humid in there. Temp gun's putting the basking spot, like I said, at about 115, ambient on the warm end's hovering around 90 or so. From there, it goes down nicely to about 85, 80, 75, and finally about 71 on the far end, on the other side of the water dish.

He was basking for a while after I put him in there, and when I'd turn to look at him he'd puff up at me, so I'd go on ignoring him. He's checking things out now, and just went for a swim and snagged a couple of the small feeder fish hanging out in the water, and chased a cricket around for a bit before decided it was nap time and falling asleep under the cover of the fake plants by the water.

It looks really nice now, and he seems to like it, but I know pretty won't be so practical once he starts growing.

Er, IF he starts growing.

He'll eat a couple fish and crickets, and likes mealworms and the like okay, he just doesn't eat with much gusto. I'm a bit worried about the stress of the move to my house, and I'm debating putting carboard over the front of his enclosure for a few days while he settles in.

...Any more ideas for what I can do for my little bag of bones would be appreciated. He's livened up considerably since I seperated him out from the other two at the shop, but I'm still concerned.

Thanks all,

~Harmony
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1.1 Ornate Uromastyx [Re and Wadjet]
1.0 Eastern Kingsnake [Duke]
1.0 Savannah Monitor [Zephyrus]
1.0 Quince Monitor [Poe]
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle [Abel]
0.2 Leopard Geckos [Ghost and Ankh]
1.0 Green Iguana (Rescue Mission) [Spikeless]
1.0 Nile Monitor (Rescue Mission) [Osiris]

By your description, the critter will most certainly be growing, and fast. I would watch it and if it seems to spend a lot of time basking, bump up the bask temp to 130. Also get rid of the kitty litter gravel thing, as it will be a pain in the a$$. Something big enough for it to easily fit in and submerge is fine as long as it can get in and out. The little nile will likely use the water like a cat uses litter. You won't want to wash all the gravel every time it takes a dump.

Roger

Start building a very big cage right now.

It's not gravel insomuch as it's rather... Medium-sized rocks that he uses to get out of the water. It's only there until he gets a little size to him. The litter pan-come-water dish was actually the only empty water container I had laying around I could use for him, and he seems to enjoy it, but the water's deep and it'd be a bit difficult for him to get out without the rocks there. I didn't want to risk his scrawny little self getting stuck in there and then get ehxausted because he couldn't get out and I wasn't around.

I just turned his lights on about an hour ago, and he's already come out of hiding, basked, and now he's sort of checking things out on the warm end of the cage. I'm hoping to get him to eat fairly well for me today. Something other than a couple tiny little fish.

Cage construction for my Savannah's final enclosure, as well as a cage for the big female Argus I may be getting, starts soon. I'll likely have a good sized cage built for poor little Osiris at the same time.

Never really thought I'd have a Nile. Oh well. I'm an adventerous lass, I think I'm up to the challenge.
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1.1 Ornate Uromastyx [Re and Wadjet]
1.0 Eastern Kingsnake [Duke]
1.0 Savannah Monitor [Zephyrus]
1.0 Quince Monitor [Poe]
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle [Abel]
0.2 Leopard Geckos [Ghost and Ankh]
1.0 Green Iguana (Rescue Mission) [Spikeless]
1.0 Nile Monitor (Rescue Mission) [Osiris]

If you think that you can deal with a nile, then more power to you. Good luck. And by the way, you may want to give him 24 hour basking. Especially since you say he is small and scrawny. That may stimulate his appetite some more. I don't know, just a thought.

Cheers,
Ryan

He ate really well for me this afternoon when I got home from the shop. I think he DOES have a spot of trouble with the hind legs on the crickets, so I'm going to start pulling those off to make things a tad easier on him.

And yeah, he does have a hot basking area 24/7--At night his combo bulb is switched out for a 100 watt red bulb that gives him temps in the upper 90's on that end of the enclosure. He's perked up some since yesterday, and I think he just might pull through...
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1.1 Ornate Uromastyx [Re and Wadjet]
1.0 Eastern Kingsnake [Duke]
1.0 Savannah Monitor [Zephyrus]
1.0 Quince Monitor [Poe]
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle [Abel]
0.2 Leopard Geckos [Ghost and Ankh]
1.0 Green Iguana (Rescue Mission) [Spikeless]
1.0 Nile Monitor (Rescue Mission) [Osiris]

Today I picked up a pair of baby nil’s, its a local iv never seen before, I will set them up in a 4 foot aquarium, a little bit of dirt, 65w flood, medium water bowl and a simple ply wood shelter, temps will be a little lower then my usual set ups 75f to 120f. actually I didn’t set them up this way, I dumped them in an empty tank, then thru some crickets and they started feeding within 5 minutes at arrival.

Its true nil’s could grow to adult size within a year, but that’s not my gaol with this new pair, I will not push growth and high temps on them, they will be fed every day but not as much as I use to feed other monitors.

So what if they only grow to 3 ½- 4 ft in there first year? This is quit good nevertheless.

What I like most about nil’s is there aquatic nature, theirs no prettier monitors then a nil resting on a branch over water. My wish for them is an extra large water section display.

Just picked a pair of these, I tossed and manipulated 100 and none have even tried to bite, try this with an eastern shipment (better have some plasters)

Ps. Eastern niloticus have contributed to the bad reputation of these non aggressive and intelligent monitors, ornatus are pretty good tempered in comparison, but western niloticus are as nice in temperament as albigularis if you get them as babies.
I have Tanzanian and Mozambique that are as friendly as any monitor specie.

This one look really nice... I like the contrast between the black and yellow.
I'm impatient to see it full grown
Take care!

Eastern nil’s are better tempered then western nil’s, don’t know why I keep repeating this mistake?