Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi can i keep a adult male nile monitor in a 8'x4'x4' viv, and can i also keep a adult male water monitor in a 10'x4'x4', thanks

Yes to both but make sure that you use about 2 of those feet for beding so your monitors can dig a burrow... also your going to want a watter container to cover about 1/3 of that.. check out www.proexotics.com they have a realy good care sheet on watters and the care of a nile (husbantry wise anyway) is going to be identical.

Youre water feature dosnt HAVE to be massive- you just have to provide for the needs of the animal.

Maintaining a large water feature requires LOTS of work, and its a real pain in the long run.

The best thing you can do (to minimize the amount of all out phsyical work you have to do) is maintain a smaller sized water feature and offer a humid hide- monitors will drink from the water and, if they want to greatly increase their moisture levels (ie, why they would soak, thusly requiring a large water feature) they can use the humid hide.

While, obviously, you lose out on the pleasure of seeing your animals swimming about, you also gain the benefit of not having to be clunking around making a ton of bothersome, stressful noise in your animals habitat in an attempt to change out the 'water feature' (which, at this point, your animal(s) have turned into a stinking hole). Remember- monitors arent careful about keeping thier water clean. If they decide to dig a hole, and just HAPPEN to COMPLETELY FILL their water feature with substrate and feces (maybe even an uneatten prey item), guess who has to clean it up?

As is, if/when I want to offer my Nile swimming access, I let it have a go in the tub.

Also, depending on the construction of your enclosure, having 2 ft. of substrate (typically dirt) can have serious negative structural effects- be careful about how you set it up.

A convenient (and prevelant at this time of year) alternative to soil is leaf litter- it can be cleaned and changed easily, and maintains microclimates in which your animal can make burrows.

If you go that route tho, make sure to fill up a few garbage bags before winter, so you can have something to change out with when youre animal dirtys its cage.