Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i bought a young male timor monitor from lll reptile on sunday at the reptile show. sp far i am very happy, he is small, entertaining, and affordable. ive longed for a monitor lizard since i can remember, however my dilemma is that he has not eaten yet and its been since sunday so i am starting to worry... he also has not had a bowel movement so i have not been able to do a fecal on him. i dunno if i have fed him the wrong food or what (unless its the space b/c he is only in a 30 gallon... he will soon be in a 80 gallon). so far ive tried crickets, mice, crayfish (i heard somewhewre they enjoy crustaceans so i figured why not) and today im trying goldfish also. i am new to montors so maybe there is some difficulty i dunno. also if its a factor i believe he has been a captive for about five months (but he is a lot prettier and healthy than reptile depots 2 yr captives. any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
thanx
jake

Timors are very shy, and since hes freshly WC hes gonna be even harder to acclimate. How thick is is tail base and hip area? Do his hips poke out at all? It would help if you described his enclosure, hides and light set up.

My adult Timors eat small adult and large hopper mice. Thats it! They are extremely affordable to upkeep, but they make for lousy captives unless CBB.

~Michelle

i cant post a pic, no digital camera, sorry. however this setup is minimal and temporary while i set up his bigger cage. it is a 30 gal. tall with the basking light opn one side and the water bowl on the opposite side. there is a log that goes over the water bowl and it is also on the hide which is an armadillo shell, then there is another log for basking. unfortunately i dont have much time to build his new enclosure right now with college applications and football practice and the crazy homework assignments... but im puting in a little every day. he appears to be in excelent health, active, alert, i dont know what the measurements are for the hips and tail (he wont let me do that), but i can say that there is no hip bone portrusion. except for his not eating, he appears to be in excelent health. do you think maybe i should feed him pinkys? i tried a small hopper thinking that would be optimal, plsu i was sure he would eat it. he was the smallest and most colorful one i saw at the fair, i would say he is maybe 15 inches total length.
thanx for ur help
jake

Hey Again!

Well, sounds like hes got decent body wieght. At leaste hes not all sucked up. Try the pinkys. I know exactly the size tank you have. Ive got one that I have a snake in right now. Youre not going to be able to affer him the proper temp gradient with your current set. Best you can do for now is offer a constant ambient in the mid 80's. If you try to give him a basking area, chances are the ambient temp will be in the 90's. Thats too hot.

The only thing I can think of to make it work with a basking area, is to give him about of foot of packed soil, so he can burrow and go deeper when he wants to get cooled down. That would be a good idea in anycase to give hime a good deep layer of soil, so he can create a safety borrow. This will give him security, and perhaps then he will begin to feed better. Youre also going to need to construct a wooden/ or other solid style top to maintain decent humidity.

Whats the design of the enclosure that youre building for him?

Good luck with you new kid! Not to mention your college apps. Whats your major going to be?

All the best,
Michelle

Feed him things that aren't moving... dead mice. Then leave him very very well alone for 8 hours. That might do the trick.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

I can maintain an ambient of 75-80 and still have a 130-140 degree basking spot in a twenty gallon long. I think you have to play with it some more but it can be done. elevate the basking site and use a smaller watt bulb. I would guess adding a Retes stack would be very helpful all of my timors use them extensively. I also would cover the sides and back of the enclosure. My timors will bask in the open now that they are more settled in but it takes quite a while for them to adjust to that level. Your problem may be that it is not secure enough to bask and therefor not going to have much in the way of appitite. That is what i have noticed from my experience. I would also stay away from gold fish and mabye the crayfish. I use crickets and mice, with mice forming the bulk of the diet.

Good luck,

Steve

hey, sorry its been a while i just got home... we won our homecoming game. but getting back on track, i'll answer some of your questions, i do have a temperature gradient, although im not sureif its tto hot. he has a 108 degree basking spot (which he does use) and a 80 degree "cool" side with a large water bowl for him to retreat to. he has some climbing branches which i also see him use a lot and his hiding spot (although im going to find a more suitable one. ive never kept monitors so i wasnt sure if the borrowing substrate was really necesary, my other animals dont burrow and hence i have chosen easyersubstrates to clean up. please excuse my ignorance that will be corrected... as well as the multiple hiding spots for him to choose from. i bought him a pinky today... its still sitting in the cage. like i said before if you only saw him you would think he was a healthy well acclimated lizard, except for the fact that he has not eaten (i have a few crickets in his cage so MAYBE, here's to hoping, he ate one or more)
for his new cage i was planning on putting a burrowing substrate with waterfall, plants, and everything you can imagine (well maybe not everything) im not sure if im gonna put him in a 4X1.5X1.5 ft terrarium or a drawer chest im turning into a chest. the chest would open from the front and i am concerned he might run out wehn i open it, but on the plus side it is taller and will have only one glass side (this one is i believe 3X2X3 ft) what do you giuys think is best? my ball python is getting the other enclosure (right now he is in the terrarium). i have no real design, just a cool mental image. oh and michelle, im majoring in biology to become an exotic veterinarian... nothing lkike doing what you love and getting paid for it.
thanx for all you guys' input, i appreciate it,
Jake

Thats awsome that youre going to be a vet. I will be graduating vet school from UC Davis in a few years, and also ahve the intent of specializing in exotics. I would really like to work at a large zoo somewhere.

I wish you all the luck, and perhaps someday we will be colleagues!

Michelle

Oh yeah, a front opening enclosure would be hard with a timor, unless it was tall enough that you had enough of a barrier under the door to prevent him from bolting out. Thats how mine are set up. They have about a two foot board between the door and the floor, so along with good soil deapth, there is space left so the dirt isnt flush with the doors. My female mangrove still tries to leap out every blue moon, but its rare. They would much rather run INTO the enclosure than OUT of it! Hahaha!

They do burrow, they're just all over the place in general.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

so you go to Davis? thats were im planning on going, at least for grad school. do you know what under grad is like though? would they let me keep my animals with me? well maybe i'll see you there if i go for undergrad.
about the enclosure i think i can make the front opening enclosure have enough room so that he cannot jump out, what do you think would be the least amount of space i would need so that he would not be able to jump out, that enclosure is 42 inches long by 30 inches high by 18 inches deep, so i dont know if that leaves enough room for that kind of opening, although its an excelent idea. also that cage is gonna be on the floor while the 4 foot by 1.5 by 1.5 is on a place about 4 feet above the ground so he would get to see more and interact more with his environment (nearby window, parrot, fish& me when im home) and not just see feet every once in a while. also what substrate do you use for timors? i assume its neither sand nor wood chips since he cant really make a burrough out of it so its porbably some kind of mix right? oh and also he defecated and i can see he has been eating crickets... but he has not eaten yet and that pinky is still in there and im begining to feel bad for it, so do you have any other suggestions?
thanx for all the help
-jake

You could use dirt, cypress mulch, or a mixture thereof, they all allow for good burrowing. I personally have a lot of pinkie-disposal options (other hungry reptiles) so I'm not sure on a good way to euthanize it. They take WAY too long to die on their own. I'd try a dead mouse or bugs next time, since the pinkie didn't work.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

and Ill give you the 411.

send it to: sacramento_reptile_rescue@yahoo.com
my hotmail account has been sh1tty lately

Talk to ya soon!
Michelle

I've never kept timors, but I have had small nervous monitors. Once you have made sure that its basking spot is adequate, put some work into its hide spots. The lone armadillo shell is probably a bit of a loose fit (they like a tight squeeze) and not giving the monitor a choice of where it wants to hide. You may want to try a flat piece of wood on the substrate that it can dig under, or a small hollow log just large enough for it to fit. The monitor is new to the enclosure and is probably pretty stressed, so it is going to need a very secure hide spot. Make sure you don't disturb it when it does choose a hide spot, otherwise it will then feel that nowhere in its new enclosure is safe.