Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys I need some help with my black throat. Hes about 5 month old n exactly 24" long. He's in a costume built enclosure 5'L 3'w 3'h with a 60w halogen flood lamp. 6" of topsoil dirt n sand mix. He's basking spot is 145°F he's hot side is 107°F and cool side of 80°F and ambient temp is 85°. Humidity is 60% I've had problems getting it to 70%. I feed him mostly mice with some crickets for some fun. I also give him crayfish snails and some fish occasionally.

I was wondering if these conditions sound good for him now. I plan on building something bigger within few months.

I was just reading the moisturizing cream thread and I know I must be doing something wrong because he's skin is not shiny at all. In fact he's last shed was not the best ever because he's skin looks dry and some of the old skin is still stuck to him. I thought it was because of the dirt. I thought he was just dirty. But i was reading over that comment that FR said about healthy monitors always have healthy shinny skin. That kind of worried me because his doesn't looks like that. I was using eco earth before n i switched it over to dirt a little over a month ago. But ever since then he just looks pale. I mean he looks dark, u can't see much of his yellow markings.
I need some help guys please tell me what I might be doing wrong so that i can fix it.

I also wanted to ask you guys about his size. I've read in different threads about black throats being 3-4' long at just 6 month of age. I know its not a race to get him really big really fast but I was wondering if his size it's good for his age. He's exactly 24" long and 5 months old. He's tail is nice and fat his body looks thick but not overweight. Any comments or tips will help.
Thank you guys.

Hi, could you put a couple of photos of the monitor and enclosure?
First, I have no idea who told you they "should" reach 3 or 4 feet long by the time they`re 6 months old, but that`s complete garbage, if it reaches 3 ft or so at the end of a year, it`s doing o.k?!
How are you measuring the temps and humidity, if with a digital hygrometer/thermometer, they sound o.k, but I think the warm side is too hot if the ambient (air) temp is 107f, I would go between around 80 to 95f cool to warm end, you`re basking temp is fine.
This species is known to prey on birds more than any other African or Asian varanid, so as he/she grows, you can include those in the diet, it`s a little messy, but if you can cut them up and offer pieces now, that`s good (do it whilst frozen).

Its well within their potential to reach that size. But its not necessary. Its just within their potential.

I would think in captivity, its normal to reach 3 feet in one year for blackthroats. Less then that reflects subpar conditions. More then that reflects good conditions.

I think saying its garbage is really not a good way to approach that. And very non scientific. They have a range of growth they can reflect, and four to five feet total lenght is within that range. So is three feet. Where their growth falls within that range reflects the quality of those conditions.

Next, This kinda bothers me. Many here say, I want to give them ideal, best, optimum and perfect temps and cages and diet and liting. Then attempt to do so. But settle for average or less results. Someone has to explain that to me. If your actually giving the optimum or great, or idea conditions, you should see great, optimum, or idea growth. Which means, it should reach the upper limits of their genetic potential.

I mean nothing against you, but you seem to have a problem with growth. As you keep defending slow growth. Sir, look at your conditions. They predict the growth. These are reptiles.

I think we keepers get it backwards, hmmmmmm yes we do.

Reptiles grow quickly, but have an advantage, they can exsist throught poor conditions by slowing down their metabolism. So, in bad years, they may not grow at all, but they are alive. Different reptiles have different abilities, some turtles can stay buried for years. They do not do that for fun, they do that to exsist long enough for good years to return.

Well its the same for monitors, They standard should have fast growth. Why you ask, because the larger they are, the safer they are in their enviornment. Its natures design to get them to adult or a safe size as fast as possible.

They should also have fast growth in captivity, why you ask again, well, we are suppose have everything they need and no distractions like lions and tigers and droughts and cobras and mongoose and tapirs and all manner of junk. What I am saying is, we should support them to reach the upper reaches of their potential, not the lower parts. Yes sir, I keep my monitors like are in a ten year drought, woooooohaaa. Sorry, bad humor

Once we get to captivity, people think because their monitor grows slow, its ok. Well it might be ok, but it shows poor support. Like natural conditions that are subpar and slow the growth of wild reptiles.

The reality is, the individual monitors, seek to grow fast. That is, if you offer then good conditions and lots of food, they will consume as much as possible and grow very quickly. The only way to slow them down is to WITHHOLD resources. Which means, your stopping them.

In captivity, if your animals grow slow. YOU ARE THE DROUGHT.

When i obtain a neonate varanid, I allow two years to reach sexual maturity. The problem is, every species I have worked with, reached sexual maturity within one year. And that includes Albigs, lacies, salvators and croc monitors. Which are the larger varanids I have worked with. Cheers

Hi again Frank R., thanks for your reply, I think you misunderstand me (possibly because I haven`t made myself clear enough), but I`m definitely NOT against fast growth!!
What bothers me on occasion, is seeing pics of grossly overweight monitors on these forums, often they are greated with rapturous applause, other keepers stating how "healthy and great" they look, I think they must have very bad eyesight!
Many newcomers see posts which refer to the "huge" ammounts of food these animals need, (YES, in comparison to most other reptiles, they DO), unfortunately, they don`t offer the conditions which support that ammount of "fuel", as a result, their monitor/s suffers/dies within a relatively short space of time (just another statistic).
These animals don`t all grow at X ammount of cm/inches a day, week, month, even under optimum conditions. And of course I know they ARE fast growing animals, particularly when young, and kept properly! I hope I`ve made it clearer?

Yes, and THANK YOU. and of course your absolutely right. Obese is not good, and not healthy and will indeed led to many many problems and a short life.

So lets take it one more step.(or two)

When I started this with varanids, I had already learned that animals, grow quicky and lean, as in, long and slender, until they reach sexual maturity, then they bulk out, or mature.

With that in mind, that is very much a requirement of fast growth, to grow long and lean.

I say requirement because its also a guide to gauge your husbandry with. If your monitor is growing wide or fat and not long, that is without question telling you that your temps are not suffecient to support growth, so the energy is stored as fat.

When I mention, listen to the animals, reading their growth is all about READING them.

With young animals, its very easy to read, if they eat like pigs, everyday, grow like weeds, long and lean, then all is right in their world.

Its when they become adults that its confusing. Couple that with being dingdong humans, we do not understand animals so we treat them like people. And science does not help either. Humans average and so does science. The problem is, the monitors have nothing to do with average. They are all about extremes. literally!

The average size, the average weight, the average temps, the average food contents, the average my hindend. Feeding everyother day, X amount, x temp, etc etc etc. again my cute round hindy. Reptiles are all about bloom or gloom. That is, when they are active, they are full on active. When they are not, its sleepy time, they conserve energy. So naturally monitors do not feed on a regular basis. Not many reptiles do. They feed like MAD dogs, when food is available. And little to none, when its not. When foods available, they consume it, all of it every dang piece of it. they raise their body temps with speeds up their metabolism, which allows for food to be digested quickly so they can take advantage of prey occurances in a timely manner. This manner of feeding and metabolism control(under the monitors control) is where monitors progress, that is, they grow and reproduce.

In between that, they substanance feed or do not feed at all. To substanacne feed is to secure enough energy to get to the next day. under these conditions they choose lower temps to burn less energy, once substanance feeding cannot support that, they do down and conserve energy. So sadly understood as hibernating or brumating.

In nature, there is not everyother day bullcrap. They feed as often as they can and consume as much as they can. THEN CONSERVE.

So in our wonderful wisdom, we average feeding, temps, humidities and all such, funny part is, it kinda works for slower reptiles, not well, but works. Not so much for varanids. Or other expensive(high energy users) reptiles. Those types are often avoided by keepers, like fast snakes, racers and coachwhips, or fast lizards of the world. And there are many wonderful fast lizards. They just fail in captivity because they do not tolerate averaging.

Well varanids are not that expensive, a bit snake like, so they can survive the torture of averaging, but do not like it.

So as adults, its all about timely feeding, or burst feeding. ITs periods of heavy feeding followed by periods of less food or no food. And its not about hibernation, The reason is, they will attempt to stay active year a round, if they can secure the energy to maintain activity. Even at relatively low temps.

I would like to say, our science boys are to dumb to understand that, but they not actually dumb, they are Just stuck in a rut of math that AVERAGES. And the public, we are stuck in a rut of routine. Well these animals do have a routine, its just not ours. Much to their demise. Cheers

You make the point about varanids would stay active year round if they are able, and of course, many species do. There was an article on V. albigularis some years ago, (I have a copy somewhere, can`t remember off hand who did the study, maybe Steven Secor?), they found that if food was offered, the monitors (a wild population),increased their activity by over 20X, so it wasn`t the lower temps at that time of year that caused them to become much less active, it was lack of foods.
I think myself, I sometimes just judge what they do in the wild, and transfer that to captives, but that`s WRONG, because in the wild, they cannot always function to their greatest potential, mainly obviously, because of climate and food availabilty, here in captivity there are no restictions, except those that WE place on them.
So you`ve just given them the opportunity to reach that higher level, which is beyond what they can do in the wild. (You see, I got it in the end)..... If only everyone was as quick as me... (Joking)!

How about this, Their actual design in nature is to perform at maximum ability. Of course it is. Or they wouldn't have that ability.

Their design to exsist past hard times is part and partical to performing at their maximum. Its an ability to make sure they are around when conditions support their potential. To survive too the right time. The bad times are does not reveal their reproductive abilities.

Many years ago, when I first started doing "offical" field work, I found it to be very prejudiced. That is, we made up rules about what we were suppose to study. That is, our advisors wanted us to study, normal non impacted populations(mature populations) The problem with that is, those are the most static and least productive. That is, they are saturated with large adults and have maximum pressure on their prey base. Think about it.rr5

The actually learn about these animals is to study them after a tramatic event, like floods and fire events. When the population is at the low end and the prey base is at the high end. This reveals the animals potential. The potential IS the animal. Not the static part of the population, but the active moving part of the population.

When I first got into reptiles, I kept snakes. From keeping these animals I learned of a practice referred to as "power feeding." People would feed their snakes every few days to promote quick growth, presumably to get those particular animals to breeding size more quickly. Power feeding was described as a horrible practice that led to shorter lifespans. That is why I am slightly uncomfortable with your quick growth, I was just exposed to it in a negative way.

Now, with that said, your argument makes complete, logical sense. You mention reptiles' abilities to grow quickly, does the same apply for snakes? I know that snakes are not monitors, but snakes are reptiles and monitors are reptiles. Or am I simply comparing apples and oranges because they're both fruit?

Is power feeding snakes bad because most keepers don't provide the proper temperatures to maintain a high metabolism to cope with all the food intake? I mean, the large majority of snake keepers house their animals in plastic boxes that would melt if exposed to high levels of heat.

Hi, "powerfeeding", e.g. as in feeding an animal more food than it can use, to get the fastest growth rates.
Snakes have a very slow metabolism compared to varanids, and normally, are much less active, even at high temps, so too much food can quite quickly lead to obesity. The overweight monitors that I see regularly are NOT kept at optimum levels, so the problems of obesity occur regularly. I think another factor with many captive varanids, is they (generally speaking) don`t get much excercise, food on a plate (literally), nothing to do but lie there and gain excess weight.
Varanids are the "super athletes" among reptiles, but they must have the conditions to support that capability.

I figured that snakes had slower metabolisms than monitors, so didn't require daily feeding like monitors do. However, when it was recently mentioned on the board that reptile metabolism is controlled by environmental heat, I thought to question my "truth."

When active, most varanids have a metabolic rate that can exceed that of a similar sized mammal, although there are some monitior species who`s metabolism is somewhat lower (sit and wait predator types in particular). Their cardio pulmonary system is quite mammmal like in some respects too, and they`re the only reptiles with multicameral lungs. Highly sophisticated animals!

Ok that was just to attract attention.

I really like how you do your varanid biology research. And are such a believer. Not sure what I mean by that.

What I question a little bit is, I do not think its a good idea to go what that.

You do that all the time. I think it hinders your understanding when you take written word as gosphel.

for instance on this post, you state something about ambush feeders, you said sit and wait, which is actually ambush feeding.

You state they would have a slower metabolism. I think your a bit off. First off, no varanid is an obligate ambush feeder. Which means, all employ many feeding stradgies.

Then to think ambush requires a slower metabolism. It would think its very much the opposite.

Also metabolism, has little to do with "just" feeding. Metabolism may be better thought of as how much energy is consumed in a set period of time. For instance a monitor in a burrow at cool temps, is consuming very little energy, as opposed to the same individual opperating at max. body temps where its consuming energy at a mammal level.

Also the misconception of body builds. If your thinking Savs have a low metabolism, compared to a gouldi, I think your wrong. You must likely have a misconception of what a Sav is.

I kept a couple of Savs outdoors here where its hot, 1. they are not slow. 2. they consume massive amounts of food, 3. their activity level was equal to any other varanid.

I have yet to see any varanid species pick cool temps when active.

An arguement can be made for size. The more mass a varanid has, the slower it can drop temps, so they do not use the temps a monitor with less mass will use, and its not about species. its about mass.

Varanids do not include a species like a tuatara

To Frank R. I did it again, a great long reply, it didn`t go through!?
I`ll make this one shorter!
Not sure why you think that I think V. exanthematicus has a slow metabolism, I`ve never thought that, quite the opposite!?
Sometimes I DO accept the "written word", in many cases, I have no means or "researching" (testing), the results, and I think to myself; These are scientists, so I assume they follow certain procedures before and during "tests". In some cases, I accept they might be wrong for whatever reason, but howam I to know, I don`t have a lab, nor large numbers of varanids to test on?
Here`s a couple of articles on varanid metabolism, maybe you`re familiar with them?
Christian & Conley (1994) "Activity and resting metabolism of varanid lizards compared with `typical` lizards"; Australian journal of zoology, (42) pages 185 to 193.
Also; Thompson & Withers (1997), "Standard and metabolic rates of goannas", Physiological Zoology (70) 3, pages 307 to 323, another; Gleeson (19810 "preferred body temp, aerobic scope and activity capacity in the monitor lizard V. salvator" Physio. Zoology, (54), pages 423 to 429...
I can`t remember too much more of what you said, so I`ll end this reply here, but thanks again for your detailed response!

I used Savs as an example, most folks think of them as slow. As you did not name a particular species, I used that one.

I have asked this of many people here, but somehow they don't understand. When you read those papers, I ask you to question the papers, remember, they are only paper and not flesh and blood.

In most cases, you will find the methods out of context to the actual working monitor. In most cases, they measure these animals under stress, like on a treadmill, with tubes taped to them and being poked in the bum, to get them to GO.

This actually does not reflect anything usable for OUR context, the living working animal. While its fine for those folks to relate to other papers also taken in a foreign context to our uses, its not about what we need or actually how it related to a wild living monitor. That is, that type test only relates to an individual monitor in the grips of a predator, with tubes in its mouth and something poking it in the arse.

What we are interested in, is how varanid metabolism relates to task and condition. That is, a resting or static individual, vs. a active individual. Then more importantly, how metabolism relates to different parts of their life and behavior. A gravid female to a lone male. neonates compared to old individuals etc.

A working application is you will.

About reading. As I mention, its GREAT. I was taught it was to allow the reader to be aware, but not confined by its contents. Sir, that is important.

I mention the word religion here. That means blind faith. The problem we have is religion, many have blind faith in what they read, or blind faith in the author.

Then it gets worse, many have blind faith in a keeper like me. Which is just as bad. That faith or religion should be placed only on the animal. That is, we must have faith, that WHAT THE MONITOR DOES, is true, not what we read or think it does as being true. But we should test that as well.

I do field work, we have a problem, after years of working with the same animals, we now need to find methods to test individual variation. You see, for all behaviors recorded, each individual is envolved in its own unique way. The same, but different if you will.

Science hates that, so all methods so far are solely concerned with the average. The funny part is, success is very very individual with wild animals. Think about those apples sir.

Which is why I am not concerned with papers like you cite. they are only meaningful as a general base, you know, what they stated is included in their biology, but not confined too.

Which is where we run into trouble here. We are confined by what we read. We are, you and I. For me, its a constant fight to not allow what I read, or what I think, to confine tests or observations.

Lastly, when you read a paper, or book, the first question you should ask is, does it apply to our context. If not?????????Cheers

There is no such thing as "power feeding" If a reptile feeds on its own. Just like with monitors, you can undermetabolize snakes as well.

Young snakes with proper temps can and do eat every day and grow like weeds. We have done this will all manner of reptiles. Snakes do have a slower metabolism then varanids.

heres the deal, reptiles feed when hungry, What they do with the energy they consume is another story.

I have been doing field work with snakes of several types for many years and all they do is select different temps for different needs. When they consume large prey items, they choose lots of heat for short times, When gravid, when in shed, etc. anything that requires work, they raise their temps to accomplish.

The snake with so many snake keepers is, they average. which is nothing but trouble. As wild snakes pick different temps, in captivity, keepers give them an average, LIkie 84.359F

Most snakes work well when offered 65F to 100F. Some a little higher. Of course thats way less then varanids. The problem is again, most offer a middle temp in the 80's which is foreign to the animals behavior. It works, but barely, as the keeper then has to control everything. Like, not feed them.

As you would expect, if allow to pick the temps they require, you do not have to worry about how much they eat. Of course, snakes are very much burst feeders, that is feeding a lot for short periods and then going long periods without food or little food. Cheers

If you feed snakes every day then they must be getting rather small meals. I find my snakes are usually good on once per week. I base the size of the rodent on the widest part of their girth. My colombian boa has a temp range of 72F to 105F this time of year.

Monitors can eat much much more then a snake quite obviously.

Naw, boas and pythons can and do consume prey on a daily basis and grow very quickly, as I showed early, even torts. Its all about them raising their metabolism.

I somethings say, usable temps. Which is really important with snakes. They simply may not bask in the open, So to them, usable temps are mostly temps they can use when concealed. They are snakes after all.

Its nearly the same with varanids, which is where retes boards came into play. They offer a hot basking area, and a hot hidden area, and more hidden areas with different layers of temps.

With retes boards, you have to adjust them in a way the animals will use them. not just stick them in and away you go.

Just to correct one of your points, 3ft is more of a length that a blackthroat can reach in a few months. Heres my female, she is a captive bred "Faust-cross", she was 5ft long at a year old, thats 10 months after I got her from a total of 16 inches in length at the time.
Now shes 6ft 9 inches long.

That`s VERY big for a female V. albigularis!

Sorry, it`s hard to remember everything you said; as far as the monitor not shedding properly, that`s probably because the humidity is too low, you say you`re having problems, can I ask why exactly? (That`s a serious question, I`m not being sarcastic). Applying anything to the skin to help is only treating the symptoms, not the cause, which is what you need to do.

Hey guys I took a quick video of the enclosure and my BT and posted it below. Let me know if you were able to see it fine.
This is something I built in a weekend I had off from work. I plan on building something a lot bigger in a few months when I move out, which will be his permanent enclosure.
The humidity in the cage when I checked it last was 50%. I try to add water to the dirt everyday to keep it higher than that but then he gets dirtier and dirtier when I do so.
I understand the cage is a little small and simple but I thought if I kept the right humidity and temps that it would be good for him for some months. I guess I was wrong. In the meanwhile what do u guys think and what do u think I can do to improve it for now. I say "for now" because within 2-3 months he will be getting a 8'×4'×5' cage.
I had two 45w halogen flood lights for basking before but for some reason it would not give the right basking temps so I switched it to one 60w halogen flood which gave me the 140°f I needed for basking. As u move away from the light by the end of the rock is 105°f now. N the other end of the cage is 80°f. I measure these temps with a temp gun. And for the ambient temp and humidity with a digital thermometer/hygrometer. He really doesn't dig much but he does have a hole that goes from inside the log to the bottom of the big rocks.
He's the sweetest Guy ever, I raised him since he was 2weeks old and plan to keep him for the rest of his life so I really want what's best for him. I will really do anything to help him n keep him in the best of my ability.

Thank you guys for your comments and I greatly appreciate any comment or tips to help me get him looking great.
Link

Hi, I can`t see anything, just a few vids, but none of a varanid?

The videos you saw were posted by me. there's a video of the black throat eating when he was in his first cage 40gal breeder(bad decision on putting him there ) theres also a video of him eating a crayfish and then another one of his enclosure. I will post another one of just the BT when I get home. So that you can get a closer look at him.

Hi, I'm gonna throw in my two cents here. Not that it is worth much, but you asked, haha. Your cage, its not so good. Not so bad, but not so good either. You said you only have 6in of substrate in there, and I can see your cage is only gonna hold that much. That's gonna be a problem. Try building a dam on the inside and giving your guy at least another foot of dirt. Foot and a half would be better. Also your basking bulb is like sooooo far away from the basking area. Iffin I was you, I would add at least a foot of dirt, that way your guy can dig a deep proper burrow. This will help keep him hydrated and shedding properly, also will help him feel secure. Monitors like to burrow, its kinda what they do. Besides eat a lot. Also with how tall your cage is versus how little of a humidity base (substrate) you have means a lot of hot air, which leds to lower humidity levels and a dehydrated (poorly shedding) monitor. So unless the monitor has a place where he can go deep with little air flow (see deep substrate and burrow comments above) the hot air leads to the condition you have. So now with so much more dirt, the basking area will be closer to the bulb, so you can use the smaller bulbs to reach the right basking temps and smaller bulbs will help regulate your ambient temps more which will help with humidity. I would shoot for the bulb being around 6 inches from the basking area, a smidge more won't hurt as long as your temps are good. So if you still need to get closer you could try building a stack. 2x2s our 2x4s or a combo of them with a thin piece of plywood holding it together. Ahhh just google retes stack you will see what I mean. That way you will also give the monitor choices closer to the basking area, so it can get warm with out being directly out in the open. Hope this helps.

Mike W.

I had thought about adding retes stacks before but wasn't too sure about if it will actually be good in this cage since it didn't have that much space. That's kinda why I stuck to the tile instead. Didn't think much about the height of the light will create more hot air killing the humidity. That's definitely something I gotta take a second look into.

Here's a pic of him. What you guys think?

Image

I think maybe I wasn't clear. Its not so much the height of the bulb from the basking area that creates all the hot air. The distance from the basking site requires the use of a bigger bulb, which generates more heat, creating hot air. A raised basking site, allows you to use smaller bulbs cause they are closer. You can still get the surface temps you want for basking, without turning the rest of the cage into an oven. Have fun. Oh and don't forget deep substrate too. Super important stuff that. The monitor needs a place to retreat to and the be able to maintain its condition. The deep substrate burrows allows that.

Mike W

I had thought about adding retes stacks before but wasn't too sure about if it will actually be good in this cage since it didn't have that much space. That's kinda why I stuck to the tile instead. Didn't think much about the height of the light will create more hot air killing the humidity. That's definitely something I gotta take a second look into.

Here's a pic of him. What you guys think?

http://m1215.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/trom

As far as the shedding goes, I would look at your humidity levels and try to boost that. I had similar problems with a sav I rescued a couple of months back, and again with my new rescue.

How well does your dirt subtrate hold water? Ideally, it should feel lightly damp. When you gather a handful and squeeze, it should retain its shape but crumble easily. If it doesn't do this, you either have too much dirt, too much sand, or the wrong kind of dirt. Clay type soils will need a lot more sand where sandy type soils will need additional, non-sandy soil. You want it to be able to hold a burrow.

To help increase the humidity, you could add more dirt which, with the right soil, will add more moisture to the enclosure. Also, you could add a thick layer of leaf litter. This will act as a mulch, keeping moisture within the dirt. The top most leaves will dry out due to the heat, but under them will be a nice, moist environment for your monitor to hide and burrow.

In addition to correcting your husbandry, you could allow your monitor to soak in a warm bath for ten minutes at a time as long as he's comfortable with handling and won't be stressed by this.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

"If it doesn't do this, you either have too much dirt***, too much sand, or the wrong kind of dirt"

***I'm sorry, not too much dirt, too much clay!

I found the easiest way to control humidity (especially in a large enclosure), is with a household cool air humidifier, very economical to run, and cheap to buy, and even with the high temps it works well.
I have mine outside the tank with a rubber pipe going through a hole in the floor, it`s necessary to modify the outlet on the appliance to take the tube, but easy enough to do that.

The substrate am using is something I bought at a home improvement store, its dirt and sand already mixed in. It holds borrows really good because he has his own already made. Its pretty deep too. Moisture is the problem I will try adding more dirt n if anything the humidifier sounds like a good idea.

Wow after everything I read I would say I am one of those bad owners just being average I guess I gotta work on that as soon as possible. Now since the cage cage it's kinda small I do let him go outside everyday for about two hours. That's when he gets to walk around the house and chase after his food. The way I have is so that he can climb in and out when ever he wants while I have the cage is open. He's totally cool with me, he doesn't stress out when I pick him up or walk by him. He does go nuts when he smells food. The way I do it is I let him run after some crickets and then I give him a mouse, he will run after the crickets all over he has a blast. Question is. Is this enough exercise for him till i get him that bigger cage?

Hi, I`m having a few problems getting in to this website, not sure if it`s just me?
Allowing the monitor out of the enclosure for a few minutes or so to excercise is o.k, providing it isn`t stressed/defensive (which you said he/she isn`t), but two hours is too long if the room temps etc aren`t high enough, which I doubt very much?
Can you give me the measurements of the tank, and if possible, a link to the photos you have, as the other didn`t work? Thanks!

The easiest way to control humidity is a cage that controls the loss of moisture, one thats not a good dehydrator (jerky machine).