I got this guy a couple months ago and I adore the bejeezus out of him. Initially he would only eat the turkey and egg diet he'd been eating at the store, but here he's moved on to eat just about everything I've offered him except for the zoomed monitor diet in a can.
I take him outside with a leash (which he puts up with like a champ, thank goodness, because we have 10 acres and lots of things that would love to eat him) and he really enjoys swimming in the saline pool (no chlorine, just very slightly salty water) and then basking afterwards. He takes showers in the morning with me before I go to work too, and also handles that like a champ. He's learned the routine and waits by the door after the lights come on to go into the shower - and after a couple minutes, takes a great big dookie. Keeps the cage clean!
Thanks to Frank and everyone else for some great posts and information here - I'm still wrapping my head around it, I feel like someone just told me the earth is flat after all.
Here's some pictures of Wallace and his setup.
Full Cage (Who says you can't keep a monitor's cage looking pretty?):
Warm Side (behind/under every piece of wood it is crammed full of damp moss, which he buries himself in):
Cool Side, with ReptiFogger going (same thing with the moss - that's piled 4-6" high):
Chillin by the bowl (sometimes he sticks his face right up in the tube):
Eating a hisser:
Sup?
Basking by the pool:
Going for a swim:
Again, thanks for some great information. This guy is an absolute pleasure to keep and I'm glad I got him. If anyone knows how to sex this species, and/or has pictures of the two genders, that'd be greatly appreciated.
~Jenny
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)
