Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finished at about 12 PM today. I put plywood on the bottom with mica over it, on the left and right sides were plywood, and in the back. I put a quarter inch thick piece of plexy in the front. I didn't make a top yet for the cage, he cant climb out yet anyways. I just clamped all 3 of his lights to the sides. I have 150 lbs of soil in there now. I painted all the plywood pieces with primer, then a coat of paint, then a coat of gloss. I sealed of all the sides and corners at the bottom of the tank with silicon so no dirt whould fall out. It came out pretty nice. What do you guys think? Also, my temps got a little lower. Hes in there now, hes in a very pissed off mood and keeps acting very hostile, hes just not used to it yet. I threw in a 3 inch mouse (live one) and it crossed his path and he just gobbled it up, so he is not refusing to eat, hes just moody. Anyway back to the temps, his ambients are about 88 degrees instead of the usual 92. His basking spot under the UVA is about 98 or so, the other two 75 watt floods are about 102-104, anysuggestions guys to get them back up? Also, how long will it take for him to get used to it?
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My Savannah Monitor Jango's Statistics:

Size: 21"
Weight: 2 pounds
Ambient Temps: 88 degrees
Bask Spot Temps: 100 degrees
Night time Temps: 75 degrees
Diet: Thawed 3 inch mice and other meat products
Tank: 6x3x3 Enclosure
Age: 14 Months (his size is small for his age but he is starting to catch up shedding at 2 times a month!)

You'll have to forgive that I havn't been paying much attention to anything that goes on around here lately. That said, you need to up your basking spots (it seems you already knew that...but I don't know that and wanted to be sure).

How?

Up the wattage on the lights, or move the basking area closer to the lights (or the lights closer to the basking area).

Part of the problem may be too much ventilation.

Heat rises. A simple fact that many seem to overlook.

IE(A stack) it will raise the surface temp. Try a few layers of plywood with spaces to hide between or underneath, they like it. The ambient (air temp) shouldnt be 90 on the warm end because it will dry the cage out, the 88 seems about right for the warm end. The cool end should be around room temps, its all about offering choices to your monitor because they are the ones that live in the cage not us. If its too warm they attempt to climb in a water dish if its too cool they bask all day, and can burn themselves from not being capable of warming up properly, along with alot of other health problems (stress is not relieved easily, food is not digested properly, they dehydrate from being under the lights all the time, their immune system suffers, as well as many other problems). Try sitting pieces of flat plywood in the cage over deeper spots of dirt to allow a place to burrow under (like a tree or rock only safer). Any more questions keep asking as many here gladly help others as much as we can.

If his monitor gets burned, you might get sued. Hahahahah, you make me laugh.

Ppk, put a top on the cage and then measure your thermal gradients before making any other changes.
Good Luck

You just have to act stupid about it, if you have nothing costructive to do here, go stick your nose in the corner and think about your behavior.

Tripped on my way to the corner and broke my nose. You'll be hearing from my lawyers!

Getting used to an enclosure/surroundings

Can take days to weeks to months to year(s). It all depends on the particular monitor, it's history, and how much change it is being asked to accept. My c.b. monitors adjust typically within a week, I have w.c. monitors take several months on a cage change, and much longer to get them acting somewhat normal (truthfully I do not completely understand what normal is) in captivity.

Any more changes that are done, will more than likely make it take longer for them/it to acclimate, but I think upping the basking temp is very important. On the next enclosure I suggest you dry run it, and make sure temps/ventilation are correct before you move lizard(s).

Good Luck,

--Robert

that these guys have offered you. Learn from them.

Hmm, good advice indeed. I think what I will do is what the first suggestion said, to bring the basking spots closer to the lights. The soil is about 5 inches high in his cage right now, I want to bring that up another 3-4 inches. I eventually will get more soil. I am going to try and lower the lights. For now, I have two lights aimed at one spot, his basking spot, thats the spot he always goes to to bask so I aimed two lights there and I have one light in a different area. Does anyone know why my sav keeps soaking up? He soaked up twice yesterday, the first time for about 20 minutes and the second time for about 5 minutes. Whats he doing? I dont really watch him as much as I did yesterday (I was watching him in his huge cage) and I was playing video games with my friends in the basement (where he is) and I noticed him soaking up so much. New shed on its way? He finished shedding about 5 days ago and his color is coming back, is that why?
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My Savannah Monitor Jango's Statistics:

Size: 21"
Weight: 2 pounds
Ambient Temps: 88 degrees
Bask Spot Temps: 100 degrees
Night time Temps: 75 degrees
Diet: Thawed 3 inch mice and other meat products
Tank: 6x3x3 Enclosure
Age: 14 Months (his size is small for his age but he is starting to catch up shedding at 2 times a month!)

Unless you live in an area of very high humidity, you need to put a top on your cage. Adding more heat/lights will only dehydrate the animal worse causing it so soak more often.
Deeper dirt would be helpul, but will quickly dry out as well.
Good Luck

You refer to one lite as "his basking lite" and another as, this or that. You need to change that train of thought to fit the monitor. That is, you cannot call any spot something until the monitor tells you it is. If the monitor picks a suitable basking spot, then that spot is its spot for now. Remember as the monitors grow, they change what they need. Later it will indeed need something different.

I believe Robert Bushner, recomemded to not install fixed lites. The reason for that is to be able to move them and adjust to suit the monitor.

Yes, you should start by providing a hotspot on one end, and a gradient of temps. But remember, the ambient is the very most important temp for monitors, and it needs to be in the seventies. Hence a range of 70's to 150'sF is often suggested.

When people provide a certain temp or another, they are telling the animal what to do, while thats fine, they really must know when to tell it something else. If not, progress is usually interrupted. Good luck. F

The spot that he basks in is what I call his bask spot. It is on a 40 lb slate 6 inches high, he loves to lay on that thing. It is about 100 degrees on there, in his other tank on his habba hide he used to perch on that, it was 130.
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My Savannah Monitor Jango's Statistics:

Size: 21"
Weight: 2 pounds
Ambient Temps: 88 degrees
Bask Spot Temps: 100 degrees
Night time Temps: 75 degrees
Diet: Thawed 3 inch mice and other meat products
Tank: 6x3x3 Enclosure
Age: 14 Months (his size is small for his age but he is starting to catch up shedding at 2 times a month!)

was this one:

"I didn't make a top yet for the cage, he cant climb out yet anyways."

As the others have said, get cracking on that top. The main function of a top isn't to keep the monitor in, but to keep the heat and humidity in. Until you have a top in place, fussing about with trying to get the right basking temperature and ambient temperature is a waste of time, for you'll have to do it all over again. You'll need a lower wattage bulb to maintain the same ambient temperatures once the top is on. More importantly, until you have a top, the humidity is going to rise with the heat and right out of the enclosure.

Okay, I understand. I have a question for you however. Can I use a sheet of plexy glass? My father had his friend cut up a 10x10 piece of plexy for me (its of course 6x3 now) and it is out in the shed (the remaining pieces). What I can do is put that over the top to keep some of the humidity in. Would it be okay if I keep about 2/3's to 1/2 of the plexy over the tank instead of keeping it 100% over? Also, what about screen? I heard plexy is better. I did have him in the 40 breeder for 2 and a half months and that had a sliding screen top and he grew 9 inches in that tank. What do you think, plexy or screen top?
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My Savannah Monitor Jango's Statistics:

Size: 21"
Weight: 2 pounds
Ambient Temps: 88 degrees
Bask Spot Temps: 100 degrees
Night time Temps: 75 degrees
Diet: Thawed 3 inch mice and other meat products
Tank: 6x3x3 Enclosure
Age: 14 Months (his size is small for his age but he is starting to catch up shedding at 2 times a month!)

Screen is out (it's pretty much like having no top, except that it keeps flies out

Plexi is good if it is sealed at the corners and covers the whole top. If it covers part of the top, it's pretty much like having no top. Your best bet would be to put vents in lower down the sides of the enclosure rather than leaving openings at the top.

These are to be considered to know if a screen top is better then a plexi top. In my case I am in south Florida it is to humid here for me to have a total enclosed cage. I tried both and the metal wire type front or top works best. Totally enclosed they were to hot and way to humid. Everything was always dripping in the enclosed cages and you couldn't see through the front glass most the time.

But these are special to my setup and in my case. In your setup, area, case it may be a different story try it out and see what works for YOU. We are not there so just take are advice and what we know do not copy what we do.

Good luck.

I live on Long Island, New York. We have very hot summers and not too cold winters, we dont get too much snow or anything. Here it has been over 70 degrees every day since the beginning of September. What I had done is I asked my father (who is the owner of an Electrical Supply company in Ronkonkoma) if he could order 2 50 Watt Ceramic Heat Emitters (the ones that dont provide light, just heat) and another light dome fixture to put it in. I measured the temps again and left the thermometer in for a looong time last night, I got 102 for the basking spot hes enjoys to go on (its a 14" long 6" high 40 lb rock!) and there is also another basking spot which is a little more (on top of the habba hut) which is about the same. Ambient is about 88. My father said he will look to see if he has ceramic heaters and light fixtures in stock, otherwise he is going to order them for me.
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My Savannah Monitor Jango's Statistics:

Size: 21"
Weight: 2 pounds
Ambient Temps: 88 degrees
Bask Spot Temps: 100 degrees
Night time Temps: 75 degrees
Diet: Thawed 3 inch mice and other meat products
Tank: 6x3x3 Enclosure
Age: 14 Months (his size is small for his age but he is starting to catch up shedding at 2 times a month!)