Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I created a short video describing my Nile setup. Please view and let me know if I need to do anything different. I haven't seen a lot of the monitor lately. He use to burrow under the water dish so I'd see him when I changed it daily. Now he's burrowing under his basking spot. I figure at this point he naturally wired to:

find a hole, get in it ->Eat->Bask->Poop in water dish->Bask until Andrew gets home from work-> find a hole, get in it...repeat tomorrow.

And I'm worried if I "upset" that it will stress him out (not much of a 'secure' hiding place if some dude pulls you out of it everyday?) so I'm pretty much leaving him alone. I know he's alive because the mice disappear and I'm left a 'thank you' in the water dish daily. Is this the correct approach?

Anyway, the video is here

My reptile room is very crowded and a bit of a mess.. I'm moving in two weeks and the new place will have a room twice as large plus a walk in closet

The plant trays you see in the video for the water dish are for 12" plants, so they are actually a little larger than 12".

Sorry for the rambling, thanks for the advice
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Green Igg 1.1.0
Beardie 1.0.0
Green Tree Frogs 0.0.2
Green Anole 1.0.0
Leopard Gecko 0.1.0
American Toad 0.0.1
Ball Python 0.0.1
Nile Monitor 0.0.1
Yellow Belly Slider 0.0.1
Tokay Gecko 0.0.1

A couple things I would fix with the setup.
One I see water but not really "nile" water. They spend a good deal of time in the water in the wild and have the right to do so in captivity and he should have a water bowl large enough for him to completly sumberge himself in.
Two I see that you do have dirt the burruowing substrate but I think a little more should be in there. For my baby sav I use about 4 inches of dirt that I keep not WET but slightly moist to the touch.
Second, I mean the hibiscus is a nice touch but it really does not need to be taking up space there. I think your monitor would be happier having that Hibiscus space to dig or hide rather to have the plant there.
ONE VERY IMPORTANT think I dont see is a good hiding spot! Baby monitors are fair game for just about ANYTHING! here in fl I have seen baby niles sucomb to just about everything imaginable. A shame too. They feel safe and secure when they can hide and even though him burrowing is good enough i think he should still have some formal hiding spot, a half log or cave of somesort so he can feel fully secure, other than that everything seems to be in order.
Be ready to take care of that nile.

Hi, I think it will help the monitor feel more secure if you cover the back of the tank (just a piece of plywood), so you have 3 covered sides.
The temps sound o.k. You haven`t mentioned humidity, it should range between approx 50 to 80% (lowest around the basking area).
Can you increase the substrate depth, it looks quite shallow?
Also, provide many hiding places, they should be quite tight fitting so the animal feels secure, those brick openings are too big for that use.
I would fix stout branches, they do like to climb, it also uses the space better. That plant looks useless (no offense)! You can use plastic plants, they provide some cover....
As you say, leave him/her alone for now, just cage cleaning etc, etc...

Guys,
Thank you so much for the replies and the advice. I will address these today and post a follow up video. I've been actively searching the perfectly sized water container with no luck. Im going to just get a plastic storage container that have the length and width I need and cut it to height. I've done this before with smaller food storage containers for other animals, I just heat the edge after I cut it remove the sharp edge.

I figured the hibiscus would get mentioned... its actually not in there "for" the monitor. I pretty much almost killed it by forgetting to water for some unknon amount of time and im trying to bring it back to life. Putting in an cage reminds me to water it (im bad with plants lol) and the monitor is the only lizard that wont eat it.

It means a lot to me (and the monitor too I suspect) to have folks willing to help me do this right. Even if you read a lot its possible to miss something.
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Green Igg 1.1.0
Beardie 1.0.0
Green Tree Frogs 0.0.2
Green Anole 1.0.0
Leopard Gecko 0.1.0
American Toad 0.0.1
Ball Python 0.0.1
Nile Monitor 0.0.1
Yellow Belly Slider 0.0.1
Tokay Gecko 0.0.1

I dont think having the hibiscus in there is a problem. Just make sure there is normal soil in the pot and not something with a ton of fertilizer, unless its organic. All the other advice give pretty much nails it.