Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anyone keeping them? I had always read of them as very shy, I have seen a few videos of them very tame, on leashes in parks,etc... how often are you handling them? (for those of you who have them) are yours tame, or is this an oddity or "abusing" them into submission? I understand the species, and don't expect them to run to the door when I come home, but it would be nice to be more tolerated. let me know your thoughts.
thanks

If you think you understand them,you will be dissappointed.Very few people keep them-and when they do is because they are reasonably cheap.Rudis's are one of my favorite monitors-kept them incorrectly when i was younger.They are typical monitors,and do what monitors do-not the fantasy things people have in their heads.The ones you see are most likely abused so that is not a good indicator of the animal.The analogy i have is most captive monitors are kept like doped up mental patients-under the control of their keeper with a quality of life we paint as good.
If you are serious get your preconcieved ideas out of your head,and respect them-the experience could actually be rewarding.Proper monitor husbandry is actually eye opening-so is seeing monitors as they should be.

thanks. I didn't think they were the exception, just have seen them, unlike others, in the way I described in the first post. I have read there isn't much research done on them so that's why I asked for peoples experiences with them. thank you again!

These are great monitors, but not in the sense of keeping them on a leash or any of that. They can be shy and they are a bit more fragile that other monitors probably like the tree monitors which I haven't kept. Like them they do tend to be arboreal.
They can be shy but once they get used to you they are absolute velociraptors. I had one I kept for 10 or 11 years or so that I lost just last summer.
They are my second favorites species behind water monitors and I would probably have 20 of them if I had the room. The one I had, had a feeding response that was out of this world, I went to feed him one time and he literally flew out of the cage and went up one side of me and down the other. If he'd have had that anti-coagulant thing going on in his saliva like waters do I would have probably bled to death lol. I did not underfeed this monitor that's just the way he was and I loved it.
They do love insects but they can take rodents no problem at all, even smaller rats, in spite of what some of the older inaccurate literature says. But bugs....did I tell you they love bugs Iused to get a kick out of catching large grasshoppers and these giant katydids we have here in florida just to watch him go nuts for them it was over the top.
I am sorry for sounding like a little kid about this but dang it they are a cool monitor IMO if you set them up right and treat them like a monitor.
I don't get that dog leash thing anymore when I first got into monitors I too thought that might be cool but as I got to working with them I just think it is much cooler to set them up right and just let them be monitors. I really couldn't see doing that leash thing with a rudicollis.
Sooner or later I will get another rudicollis or perhaps a group of them but not at this point in time.

great input! thanks, that helps clarify alot. I wasn't wanting to leash one...just saw a couple videos and had never seen anything like it. the info out there is very limited on these guys. thanks again!

Calparsoni worded it perfectly-what they are is better than the preconceptions people have about these lizards.It's not our place to assume your intentions just point out what you could miss out,if you don't care for them properly.Thanks Calpearsoni for recalling your experience, i remember their feeding response.Thanks Moe

I love rough necks! they are so cool. Very responsive to thiongs. I had a pair for a number of years. I kept them in a cage 8'l x 3't x 2' w. At first, when i had just the male, i used newspaper as substrate, a few branches and a wooden box as the hide. Then I hooked up with FR as we both lived in tucson. He suggested some alterations... First to go was the paper. In its place went a thick layer of oak leaf litter, about 9" or so. Then came the basking temp. 180 degrees?! You gotta be frickin kidding me! He takes me outside and takes a temp gun reading of where a native lizard had just been basking. Damn if it wasnt 194! OK, so up went the basking temp. With these changes my rough neck came to life! It was astounding! So i get my female, a cute little thing from NERD (thanks Kevin!) but was afraid to place in with the male due to the size difference. "put 'em together, and quit worrying, he aint gonna eat her" Frank chides me. True enough, they got on like old pals. I added a few more branches and cut bamboo and they went crazy. Then i replaced the box with hollow logs we had collected. They loved it! They NEVER returned to the wooden box again. Pretty soon they were breeding, then laying eggs. Alas the male really liked lizard eggs.. While i fed them rodents for the most part, they did seem to enjoy the hunt of crickets and the crunch of the madagascar roaches. While i never tried to tame these lizards, these two were quite managable. I had some specimen that were fresh imports and very large (about 5') with very certain opinions reguarding humans, but ya cant really blame'em now can you? I really dont see putting these guys on a harness and leash. They are awesome lizards when kept properly (high enough temps to prevent obesity) with amazing behaviors.