Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been into herps since I was a kid, and I've got a typical story of growing up with them. Keeping native species against moms wishes, field herping near my home as a kid. I'm in college now and majoring in Zoology, and I've been reading the monitor forums since middle school (paying close attention to FR), and I've also read a fair chunk of decent books and articles on them. I've been considering ackies for many years, and will very likely get a pair after I graduate. My family adopted a big male green ig from a rescue about 2 years ago, and he recently died of old age and complications from the horrible husbandry he endured for many years. Living with a big lizard was an amazing experience, and one that I would love to pursue again. I also had a short-lived baby savannah as a kid, which I quickly killed in about a month - the typical impulse buy, and something I've always felt terrible about. It also made me feel like I've owed something to monitors, and also added to my immense respect for them. I'm hoping to do some of my undergrad research with them, but that's a bit of a longshot.

Anyway, I've always said I'd stay away from the big monitors unless I ended up working in zoos (currently I'm working at the Virginia Living Museum as a herp intern - close enough), but a recent encounter at a local pet store is making me consider otherwise. It's a passable store, they take good care of their fish section but the reptiles are so-so. They had just received a shipment of 'vicious' baby niles, and having never actually encountered one in the flesh besides half-dead ones at herp shows, I thought I'd play around with them. They opened the cage and said something along the lines of "have fun...". They were pretty spunky, having yet to suffer from the mediocre husbandry, and they all promptly flipped a s**t and started hissing, gaping, and whipping me. I remembered old forum posts about monitor taming, so instead of harassing them, I calmly sat in front of the cage and watched them, and they watched me back. It took not even 2 minutes for these 'vicious' baby niles, all 3 of them, to come up to the front of the cage and poke their heads out, tongues sniffing and calm as can be. Two of them climbed out of the cage and into my lap on their own, and one of them went as far as to jump onto my shoulder and lick my ear. I was blown away at how quickly this happened. I put them back in the cage and the more adventurous pair again came out to see me, but I was drawing uncomfortable attention from the employees, so I closed the door and left.

I didn't want to make too much of this, as I've read some nasty stuff about niles (there were some awful-sounding descriptions I read on the ProExotics website on their articles). However, I have gotten to interact with water monitors both big and small, and did not get the same goose-bumpy feeling I got from these guys. It would be AT LEAST 10 years before I am able to settle down with a job and save enough money to seriously consider a big lizard again by myself, but I'm asking your opinions on weather or not I seem mentally prepared for such a task. I am seeking to build a strong (and long), trusting relationship with a living dinosaur that I respect, nothing shallow about it. On the other hand, I would never force an innocent and beautiful animal into my care without being absolutely sure I am up to the task. In the meantime until I could potentially get one, I will research my butt off and hopefully seek more experiences with these guys in person so I can learn all I can.

I apologize for the long post, but I'm still in awe of that short pet store encounter, and it's hard not to rant about it! Let me know what you guys think, I look forward to reading your responses.

Here's to hoping for a good first post,
Ryan Collister

Forgot I had this: my girlfriend snapped a quick pic of that little encounter - couldn't resist!

The first monitor I ever got was a nile. I was a childhood dinosaur and reptile freak from as long as I can remember. When I was about 5 I learned about komodo dragons. I wanted one because it was the closest thing living that resembled the t-rex I really wanted. To make it worse they came out with this show when I was about 5 called "land of the lost", in my case they might just as well called it "Highway to hell" because for me it really was that.
anyway I was well aware of niles for a very long time but had no interest in them because I didn't think they got all that big. then one day I realized that a 6 to 7 ft lizard really is a good sized animal. after that I looked up more info on them (which was very limited at the time.) and eventually got one.
They are an aggressive lizard which did not bother me and they do require a very large cage. His second cage (first was a tank) was the first custom cage I built and actually the first structure I completely designed and built myself.
He lived somewhere around 15 years. Niles are as tough as nails and can handle a bit more abuse husbandry wise than other monitors (not that I'm advocating that.) so there is some more room for error with niles than with some of the other species. I currently work with asian Waters as I have for many years which I prefer over niles (they get bigger and I find waters more attractive shape wise to niles.). I would not recommend either species to someone who had no clue what they are getting into. But if you can deal with the size and accept their temperament niles are great.

Hi,

Well if you have been following me, then you should know, there is no answer to your question.

Its very much up to you. I think there are two parts to being a good keeper, one inherent and the other learned. You know exactly how monitors work.

You story indicated you may have an inherent touch with animals. I do. You know, get along better with animals then with a whole lot of people.

Animals comunicate by touch and feel. Not by silly words. And yes, words are silly, just read these forums. One word can mean anything. But your heart is always your heart.

In my experiece, its mostly gender based but thankfully, not entirely so. More females have touch.

So if you have that "touch" use it, its a valuable tool. I rarely talk about that here.

Next the bad part, learning. This is where academics, all you have been thinking about and learning about, meets reality, the actual keeping and training of you and your monitor.

In this, the only preperation is actually practicing your academic learning. That is, to do it.

So I recomend you start small, while you do not have the time and space for a giant lizard, do you have time a space for a small monitor thats exatly the same but smaller. Start there, practice your touch and training methods, learn real husbandry, etc.

Then when you start with something large and longterm, you will not be a rank beginer. Chances are, your going to make lots of mistakes.

Start little, then move up, so to speak.

In most cases, forming a bond with this types of animals is a form of training. They depend on for for something, You must learn their language and they yours. And stick with it.

Also, While you have a thing for waters, let me advise you. Any animal that uses water, is a whole lot of work. A Adult water, is beyond a whole lot of work. Water maintainence is a whole vocation on its own.

Thank you FR, glad you replied. While I guess you may call me an academic of sorts (I am pursuing a masters, after all), I've always been the hands-on, learn the hard way type. While the stack of books I've read is always growing, information from those sources always has taken a backseat to what I've learned from experience. And I will admit, at this point in my life, while it might be more than most my age, it's not even close to where I could be. Hopefully a good portion of that expertise and experience takes place in the realm of monitors. And who knows, I might even make myself useful with it!

Also, a bit random, but I just remembered varanus.net... Haven't been there in a few years but I used to post regularly, where on KS I only recently joined. Gonna go check it out and see how it looks after so long.

Needn't I remind you also that keeping a large lizard is a lot of work. They poop a lot and you need to clean their living quarters frequently as a result. Some people who are passionate about it enough don't really care, but if you are not prepared to do all the work, then I suggest getting smaller animals.

Have a nice day!

Poop's not a problem - I assure you, though my significant other may not feel the same way... Lol