Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finally did it! I have 2 baby niles that are absolutely fabulous!
They are ranched babies and one is a little older than the other. I know I made the right choice too. I have had large iguanas in the past and these behave no differently as babies, a little flighty at times but also very placid and not willing to bite. Space is absolutly not a problem and I really find them much more interesting than the tegu and other larger lizards. You can tell there is something going on in their head. lol Just wanted to share!!

Pleas post about them every months, even if you ever get out of them. Peoples mostly learn from others bad experience, the problem is that keepers never come back and say they have failed or got fed up with them.

Peoples visiting this forum are only a fraction of the nil keepers out there, the numbers of imported niloticus for this year alone is in the 50,000, not even 3% of these will be alive next year, so your experience good or bad can help a little.

Now about your monitors, you got 2 but do you know witch sex they are? Males grow to 6 feet or more, and they will not get along very well once adult. Good thing is nil’s are easy to sex at any age, make sure you have a pair or be prepared to separate them.

I am not lecturing you, but nowadays we cant sit and watch others obtain these animals without being strait forward and saying the real things.
Anyone telling you these are pets is not helping you in anyway, they are excellent captives if you understand what they are and provide them what they need.

Congratulations!

I could feel your excitement as I read your post, heh. That's good, you should be excited, relish the moment. Bear in mind, though, that some people will think differently.

jobi made some good points, keep them in mind.

jobi wrote: > "Anyone telling you these are pets is not helping you in anyway,..."

You wrote: > "...a little flighty at times but also very placid and not willing to bite."

Come back in 2 weeks and see if you can say the same thing. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not wanting to be rude, not at all, I just wnat you to realize that ther behavior at the moment may very well be due to stress. Once settled in, their attitude usually changes until they reach adulthood.

Mine was a little terror from the get go. LOL! But of course, I picked the most active, meanest, sucker out of the 20 that were in the tank. Probably the only reason its still alive today, its attitude. Ha!

Anyway, I think its good that you got two. They can help each other adjust and reduce stress somewhat. I'd love to see keep some monitors in groups. Maybe one of these days, I'm just not ready now.

Post some pics, show them bad boys off.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Thanks for the feedback. I will most definately post info on them. Unfortunately I do not have a digital camera yet. This is how we learn and even if for a moment you hesitate posting comments about something, somebody may go on never knowing something potentially inportant. There were guys at the reptile show that were handling the same niles I was and getting bit, lol drawing blood. For some reason they do seem to be a bit more dosile with me for som reason, but we will see. lol I have a great deal of experience with Hydrodynastes and understand the purpose of caution. lol Never bit. And I don't plan to be even though it happens and you should be prepared for any eventuality. Lemon juce really works well at getting stubborn reptiles to let go of whateve they are attacking so I always keep that in my reptile preparedness kit. Always a good idea..

Congrats on your new captives. Your in for one hell of a ride. Food bills,caging requirements,growth rates,Dr. bills (hahaha) i hope not. But if you take your time and dont rush things,you'll be rewarded with a awesome as well as facinating monitor. Just remember comparing a pissed off iguana to a pissed off nile is like comparing a chihuahua to a pitbull, they both bite, but one is gonna do a lot more damage. So remember it's all about patience,patience,patience.
Good luck and Best to you, Chris

You iv stop offering monitors to peoples cause they just don’t understand these animals nature.
I sold 7 pairs of croc monitors to different keepers, all with the same conditions (to return them to me in case they wanted out) none have respected this agreement and none have kept there crocs, one sold his pair to a person believing she had special animal understanding, in fact she told me on phone she was like Dian Fossey, she posted about bringing these for a Sunday car ride (lose in the car) I posted about her being irresponsible not only to her but all others and the animals, at that time I didn’t know she was doing this with my animals, when I fund out she was explaining me about why she sold the female cause the female was aggressive, one month later she got tagged by the male, but tell every one she hade a diving accident, I don’t know if this is a photo of her, but the animal is a Merauke croc like blood line, and its in terrible condition from the skin and claws, my animals are flawless in every way.

I have too many such stories, some I will never tell out of embarrassment for me or others, but this one is so stupid, it should be posted as an example.

All this to say never become complacent, because your nil did not bite you means nothing, it will mean something next year, also I am glad you got those nil’s, but you haven’t responded to my important question about there sex? When you keep nil’s congratulations are in order after a few years, before that you are part of the 97% who don’t deserve any congrats.

Pleas don’t be offended, I really am your monitors friend, these are very tough animals and there owners should be as tough and stubborn to keep them, hopefully you will understand this and keep posting and sharing your experience.

Rgds

Ps. My post aren’t aimed at you in particular, they are meant for every one reading. Nothing rude or personal about them.

Thats a horrible gash.. I unerstand that they can cause some damage. As far as the sex goes, while I was at the show the pair was rolled proving one to be male and the other not. Thats the only way I know of to sex them. The femal is a little more yellow and has a slightley more distinct pattern with larger yellow dots. The mail, which is also the slightly larger one has a more speckled pattern with smaller yellow dots. I don't know of any sexual dimorphophism while they are younger. I think there will be nervous times but I look forward to understanding the individual niles that I will be working with. From what I learned from reptiles in general I have found that there is no one specific way to work with reptiles but you should respond to the animal individualistically and learn from them. How well do you know your reptiles. I know well enough not to get bit in the face by my spiloltes. lol

Maybe I can help you sex them by posting a few photos, how different in size are they?

Sorry, I don't have a digital camera. I really need to get one though. Good news. One of them allready ate 3 pinky mice. mmmm
The other is a little skittish yet. The male isn't really scared of anything I could feed him with tongs and the I would move furniture around in the cage while even pulling news paper out from under him while he just sits and watches me do it. If I can keep him like this it will be awsome. I know lots of work. I'm not married. lol

Not married!
You just lowered your chances for sure, lol
I almost lost my wife on first date cause of a lose hydrosaurus in bath room.

In all African monitors at any size theirs a significant difference in tail height.

Thats great. It does appear that the one I thought was the male, appears to be a male. The tail looks taller to the base than the smaller one, but I could be wrong. I really need a digital camera. lol :0

Some species I cant sex without a good photo, as even viewed side by side we cant see a difference.
Nil’s however are easy.

I was looking a little closer at the tail differences and it appears that the guy who "rolled the hemipenis" may have been wrong. Wew! The larger one who ate is the female. She seems to just love her basklight, and the male is a little scared and hides. There is a big difference in their tail. I can see a pronounced slope in his tail as whre the females tail taipers. yea!
lol

Youre in for a long, hard haul.

Make sure you really have an understanding of whats needed- an iguana is not a monitor, no 2 ways about it. Ive kept both, and while thats not indicative of a wide judgement, I wouldnt even come close to comparing the aggression put forth by a defensive nile and that of even the angriest iguana.

2 will be a handful; to say the least. Just make sure you are realistically looking at the situation and have the resources what you are thinking of doing requires.

Thanks for the info. I have been working with all kinds of reptiles with more of a specialization in snakes but do understand that a meat eater from Africa is a whole different situation than a Omnivore/herbivore from South America. Being that Niles hang out with crocs says alot, however not impossible and most likely very rewarding. I know it takes alot of work to calm these babies down but I'm prepared and also prepared for housing. As it is I have a cage ready to go when they are medium size the cage is 6'tall by 5'wide and about 3.5'deep. I construct all the housing I have minus the 55 galon I keep my hydrodynastes in right now. Its a great opportunity for me to have Niles as I also have 4 days off work to work with them.I also plan to geat leather gauntlets for when they are larger.

Thought I would post an update! They are both doing great even though one of them is growing substantially faster than the other. The bigger one is still a little pissy and likes to whip however tends to let me hold him. The smaller one does eat well and is as placid as can be. I feed them both crickets, bmoths, calciworms, superworms, fuzzies and pinkies, and anthing else I think of like chicken and as I had found today, ferrit food. lol The little one got loose and I found her gorgeing herself on ferrit food in the ferret food container. I guess you never know. Many great experiences with both but the female is just so nice.