Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of water monitors about 3 feet now. I got them when they were hatchlings. They were imports. The male was in bad shape when I got him and very aggressive. The female was 100% healthy and tame. They are both feeding excellent now and both are tame. I just got back home from Iraq and noticed the female was acting weird. The female shakes when she walks, kind of twitching. She arches her back really high when she walks also. I have never seen this before. She is still eating good, and the male is fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,
Jay

What are you feeding them and what is your set-up (particularly surface temperature at the basking site(s) and ambient temperature at the cool end)?

They eat large F/T mice, raw meats, fish, and sometimes I feed them insects. Their setup is a 100 gallon tank with 100% humidity (misting system installed). The surface temps are 82 and 90 in their basking spot. They also have a cave to cool down in on the far end of the cage. They are active and eat like there is no tomorrow.
Jay

Heres a pic from my new temp gun on my large female albigs basking spot. The humidity may also be too high and can cause skin problems if you dont allow them to dry out. Id use a dish to soak and ditch the misting equipment. They also like to dig hide be underground to feel safe and conserve moiture. My ambient temps in all of my cages go from 88-just above room temps (68 or so). My basking temps range from 180-134 on the surface. A friend bought some baby beardies from me and raised them in the same type cage with the same foods and the one I raised at 5 months old was 10 inches long with a great appetite, and his were 3-4 inches total with a sporadic appetite, I used the same type setup with him as my monitors.

The bacteria and parasites combined with low temps and high stress can kill your monitor. Besides whole animal foods need little to no supplementation. Id see a vet because it sounds like a vitamin deficiency long term problem and low temp thing.

First off, I'd be looking at how often they were fed mice as opposed to raw meat and fish. Twitching is often a sign of calcium deficiency, which wouldn't take long in a growing monitor fed on a greater proportion of raw meat over whole mice. Vitamin D3 is also important, for without sunlight all the calcium in the world will not help, as the animals will not be able to assimilate it. Whole foods (ie whole mice etc) have both calcium in their bones and additional vitamins in their gut and organs not found in plain raw meat.

Your temperatures need to be looked at, too. As SHvar said, your monitors need access to higher basking temperatures (without removing its choice of a cool spot to hide). Even if they were fed mice, they may not have been able to digest and metabolise them properly without being able to get their bodies up to the appropriate temperature.

They eat mice, raw meats, fish, and sometimes I feed them insects. Their setup is a 100 gallon tank with 100% humidity (misting system installed). The surface temps are 82 and 90 in their basking spot. They also have a cave to cool down in on the far end of the cage. They are active and eat like there is no tomorrow.
Jay

everyday