Niles and waters are great starter monitors, they are also great ender monitors.
As babies, they are fairly hard to kill, thats why they are a mainstay of the pet monitor trade. Yet, they do die. 99% of all imported die before the next year.
As mentioned, monitors, all of them, are not and do not prosper with normal reptile care. Thats why this person(the refrigerator) cannot find anyone local. Even if every friggin petshop carries them, in every city they are legal. They are available everywhere, but not kept successfully anywhere. Ok, there are a few, but so few, and those mainly only keep them alive.
Back to the this keeper, are you happy to keep an animal that lives by doing(behavioral), stuffed in a tiny cage, its entire life. Will you be happy knowing that monitors are more like birds.
Instead of flying, monitors freedom is doing. They are unlike your other reptiles in that, they are socially complicated and interactions are WHAT THEY LIVE FOR. What gets them HOT, is behavior, the actual doing of things.
Snakes are a very very bad comparison, because they do not have legs. Some species are fairly mobile, but you do not keep those types. You are experienced with species, that spend most of their lifes in very small areas. This is key to understanding varanids of all types.
With varanids, no matter how well you set up their cages, They quickly become bored and stagnet. They are behavioral.
You the keep must make sure, they stay behavioral. Thats not so hard, except you do not know what that means, do you?
Also, like so many before you, you mentioned you have snakes, which now you understand is not a good thing. Then you mention you have hots, which is very very meaningless. Like it suppose to tell us, you know what danger is.
The problem with that is, there is danger, and its not to you. Your not the one thats going to die an awful painful death. Its to them, They are what is most likely going to suffer.
Then you said, an ideal cage. You also mentioned semi, aboreal, an aquatic. Well both of those species are that, and so much more. About aboreal, if you live in a house, your not going to do that. Aboreal means up, not a cage taller then its long. About aquatic, it means a body of water the animal can travel distances in, not curl up in, as there is no room to actually use your flattened tail as a fin and swim. To swim means to travel many times your own lenght. NOT SIT IN WATER.
So forget about it(those two)
You forget the main part, those two monitors live in HOLES, that is what they do. Their shelters are their homes, like your house is your home. You do more in your house then sleep. They do more in their shelters then sleep. Its their home, which means its a place of safety, security, comfort(they can be at ease) and sleep.
This burrow thing is what most if not nearly all varanid keepers miss. They think its only a bed. its not. Its their home and is the center of their life. Like your home is to you. Take it away and your a street person, take their home away and they are street monitors.
I imagine, you do not get this, but someone will, it will turn on a lite in someones head.
The point is, there is no way on earth, unless you are a dupont, that your going to address this. Its their home thats important.
Which is why smaller monitors are a much better choice. A burrow is a hole that is AT LEAST SEVERAL TIMES THE Lenght of the animals, if not, its not a burrow. They burrow, or shelter to a point of complete darkness. Thats that security thing. How your you feel is your house had no doors, and was open to all. think about it.
Its not that you cannot wrestle one down and be able to controll it. Heck, anyone can. Again, I do not care if you get hurt, you most likely deserve it. I worry about the animal. What about the animal. This is very important, what about the animal?
Monitors require lots of heat, which is hard to do and expensive even with small monitors. Large monitors, forget about it. How do you provide a 150F hot spot for a six foot monitor? in a cage. The result is, monitors with the middle of their bodies burned up. Its common here. just look around.
Monitors are like birds and have a bird or mammal metabolism. Which also means they eat alot. Like those two monitors will consume more then all your snakes put together, "DAILY". Which means in one day. Day after day.
Monitors grow quickly if treated decent. Both of those should grow to six feet in a year.
lastly, all everyone here is trying to do is help you. You are naive, hopefully not stupid. We are not trying to tell you your stupid, we are trying to tell you from experience, that you would be better off, going in another direction. And I mean you, because those monitors are already doomed.
Are you the exceptional keeper that will do well, could be. But from what you said, the best advice is for you to go another direction. After all, you said you fell in love with them. In this case, what does love have to do with it. As with love, respect is far more important. You need to respect them, then if you do well, you can love them later. Cheers
