Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had my argus monitor for a few months now and its feeding response is not like people say? it will only eat a frozen thawed fuzzy mouse every few weeks. and only when i am not in the room. do they start off feeding slow? or should it be eating all the time? any help would be great

jeff

>>i have had my argus monitor for a few months now and its feeding response is not like people say? it will only eat a frozen thawed fuzzy mouse every few weeks. and only when i am not in the room. do they start off feeding slow? or should it be eating all the time? any help would be great
>>
>>jeff

It sounds like it is more than likely temperature related (too cold). What are the cage temps, basking site temps, humidity levels ?
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Mike Heinrich,
Mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.amazontreeboa.org

i have him/her in a vision cage.36x28x18 with a 40 watt zoo med bulb up top and heat pad underneath. the room temp is 75. should i get bigger heat bulb? i have several hide spots and large water dish and i use newspaper as substrate.

>>i have him/her in a vision cage.36x28x18 with a 40 watt zoo
>>med bulb up top and heat pad underneath. the room temp is
>>75. should i get bigger heat bulb? i have several hide spots
>>and large water dish and i use newspaper as substrate.

A healthy argus monitor should be eating with great vigor and enthusiasm. They are eating machines with an incredible appetite, and can pack away food like you couldn't believe.

The conditions you describe for your cage are very much inadequate for an argus monitor. This web page http://panoptesv.com/HBD/tricks.html has information on what might be considered the bare minimum for keeping a large monitor like an argus.

Good luck,

Luke

Up the heat a lot! Get a temp gun, or a couple temp gauges. Guesses dont work... Take a look at the link supplied above and adjust your husbandry.

no expert, just what I know so far..

Who taught you how to do a monitor setup? You can't just throw a cage together and call it a day, husbandry needs are very specific.

Check out our site, the Savannah and Ackie caresheets and articles. Those cover the basics as far as temps (your most important factor) diet, substrate etc.

Get a copy of the Savannah Monitor book by Bennett and Ravi, available at our site as well. NO OTHER Savannah book will do. The Bennett and Ravi book covers proper husbandry in very good detail, and applies 98% to your monitor species.

Vision cages are terrible for lizards, they simply don't allow for a proper setup. And given a proper setup, your Argus is going to outgrow that particular cage in one month. They get big quickly, but most of all, they are extremely active. I would suggest an 8ft cage as a MINIMUM for an adult Argus (like 8x3x3) and with a proper setup, that will be within 12 months time.

They are also very resilient, but having a monitor that eats so infrequently is not a good sign. It is not that your husbandry and setup is less than ideal, your monitor is really suffering right now. Get your setup up to speed asap and you can get back on track.

Our FAQ has tons more info on caging, setups, diet, temps, bulb wattages, etc.

Best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

Hi Jeff28,

Another good site to check out for housing information is savannahmonitor.org, linked below. Some of the cages shown on that site work well with Argus monitors, as both the Sav and the Argus need deep soil substrate to burrow and thermoregulate. Your enclosure will likely need to be taller to accomodate deep substrate.

Keep in mind though that although the majority of information you will find about Savannah Monitors will transfer over to Argus including caging, basking temps, etc. their diets are different. The Sav is a specialized feeder with a diet consisting primarily of insects and snails.

As others have said, I would recommend getting your lizard out of the snake cage, set up a proper enclosure with basking temperatures in the 130F range, and ceasing to rely on underbelly heat for what is a basking animal. You essentially have a snake setup for what is really a burrowing, basking lizard.

Good luck.
savannahmonitor.org

heat is probably one of the issues (among other issues as Robyn pointed out) But be careful just blasting him with more heat. If you up the temps too much and your cage has too much airflow, which most vision cages do, you will only increase your problems. Higher temps are good but you don't want a jerky machine. Make sure the increase in temps are in conjuction with other corrections in husbandry. Let me also suggest the FAQ at Varanus.net it's a good place to start.