Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i was misting my monitor and instead of room temp water i decided to use warm tap water, the water is 101.3 degrees, is that a decent temp to use for misting? if it isnt what temp do you use?

jdecker
78 to 80 degrees, same as the cool end of the enclosure.
Mike
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Mike's Monitors!

This is one of the most nervous specie...trust me I know...misting them is not a good idea as it will only add stress to an alredy very stressed monitor.

A good cage dont need misting as it holds moisture from the bottom of substrate...some of my cages have non but then room is well hydrated and so the cages.

misting your lizard directly is torture...belive me he wants no part of this.

as usual good advice will not help
cheers anyway`(

That's good idea, though...keeping your monitor hydrated.... But does it cause scale rot, or whatever you call it? Aren't they from a more dry area?

Nope, melinus monitors, or yellow monitors, are from tropical forests in indonesia. They like a lot of humidity. Now if you had a cage set up that is only water and no land areas, sure their skin will rot, just like if you decided to lay in your tub for weeks on end

I think both of you are a little off, and Jobi is more on the right track.

First, the key is to not allow DEHYDRATION, not to constantly have to HYDRADE. Its very important to understand this.

Most reptiles conserve bodily fluids, As free water in nature is not always available. They do that by not allowing themselves to become dehydrated. They do so by controlling water loss. They do this behaviorally.

Whats important is, it does not matter where the animal comes from, indo, africa, asia, australia, etc. They are all exposed to drying air. This is they are too humid, they dry out, to dry, they stay humid.

Whats more important is they are not in the countries anymore. They are in your cages. Its here that you should be concerned about.

The problem with varanids is, they require high heat, and supplying that drys out the air and the substrate, and the animal. So in varanid cages, they require areas to conserve moisture, and areas to dry out. Its them choices again.

The key is, if your cage drys out quickly, then its not designed for varanids. If it needs misting, then it drys out to quickly, this is the point Jobi was attempting to make.

Support your animals by not allowing them to dehydrate in the first place. Good luck

You will get no argument from me here FR as I agree with what you are saying. I aim for all my cages to be able to retain heady and humidity. And I know you don't bother to measure humidity since a well set up cage provides the animals with options to get what they need. I was trying to make a joke about silly cage set ups like this (if the link works)

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=1QnMe24yQQE

Crap, don't think it worked. Never mind. Its a video of a mangrove monitor cage set up that is a big tall screen mesh top over a basin that's filled with water. The monitor has a branch sticking out of the water to get off and bask on. That's pretty much the whole cage.

i cant wait to get him in his bigger setup, i just wonder how he/ll like his water dish above the ground, if he likes it then i wont need to have it on the ground and get to skim the eco earth out of it 3 times a day when he throws that stuff all over.