Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a beautiful blackthroat monitor. I had a savannah for two years before a cobra heat mat cooked his tail and cost him his life. my question is how much different are they from eachother as far as care goes? I have a lare cage (8'l x 3'w x 2'h) and proper lights, I was just curious how different I should expect in terms of care. thanks

More BAD advise has been given by so-called Experts!.If you truely care about your monitor and don't need the Hype,email me for sane advise of 18 years

what is your e-mail? I'd like to know any tips I can get.

Click on his message. Then click on BRG right next to where it says author. A message box will appear where you can send him an email.

I forgot to mention, My baby blackthroat is 7" long with beautiful colors. the sides of his chin are blueish, with prplish cheeks and bright yellow around the nostrils and plenty more yellow on the legs, belly and tail. And the classic dark black throat. I'm thrilled. I need to get a pic on here soon.

The best way to keep them is by moving them from smaller to larger to much larger cages as they need it from hatchlings. An albig and a bosc are different species, so there are many differences. One post or response will not answer everything. How did a heat mat cook a monitors tail??? Sounds suspicious, as I use cobra heat mats in transport containers without ever having a burn problem with any monitor. I use 134-188 degree basking spots in their cages with no harm, so why would a 104 degree heat mat cook his tail. Ive never had any monitor damage a cobra heat mat either (and I have an albig that can flip a living room chair at 6ft and 25lbs). Have I said yet that they are a large species, with immense strength for their size?? Yes I think they are one of the strongest species at any size. Good luck, my fiancee cannot handle my big albig and she has always enjoyed doing so, she not strong enough to.

I have 30 and 50 gallon aquriums for when he/she is a juvenile, and a large 8' x 3' x 2'h cage for when it outgrows the others. Will my albig like to climb? My exanthematicus didn't care to climb much unless it was to eat. thats why my cage is only 2' tall.

on to the heat mat. When my bosc was SEVERLY burned his basking spot was 120-130 degrees and the only other heat source in the cage was the cobra heat mat which was lying on the floor of the cage in the end with no substrate. (I use cyprus mulch in 2/3 of the cage and just flat floor at the other end) My bosc was able to come in direct contact with the pad for over 2 years before it malfunctioned and killed him. The last 4-5 inches of his tail was literally cooked, and all of his feet had burns. I know that the heat lamp is out of reach and not hot enough to do this. When I told the vet he said never use any heat pads (even radiant heat) directly in the cage. also I told this to several breeders at a reptile show where I got my albig and NONE of them were suprised even when I told them it was a cobra so please don't make the same mistake as me.keep your albig out of direct contact with the pad... it only takes
once for it kill your pet.

You can imagine my shock when I checked out my bosc one day when he was iritable for some reason to see his entire tail burned and feet blistered from the $50 heat pad that was supposed to be safe? I ought to sue cobra.

If it shorted out chances are it had damage to the wires or surface and your monitor defecated on it. I know that because last year a fiend of mines (another brand though) did that but the animal was lying on it with no burns or damage. They went to the store came back and smoke filled the house, they opened the temp container and there was a small BT relaxing amoungst the smoke and burn feaces. I never put them in direct contact without the option to get away from the heat surface, because they need to thermoregulate, and if they do damage it they can walk away.
If your animal stayed on a shorted heat pad with no attempt to walk away he didnt want to because he was kept too cool to properly thermoregulate therefore exposing himself to a source of heat that could warm him up in his time of need. They dont burn themselves on purpose as they are smarter than that, after all heating devices hanging inside cages all of the time amoungst so many keepers with no attempt to climb on lights, etc to warm up and burn themselves, but a few individuals have this happen because the animal needs to warm up one way or another. Dont blame the inanimate product, but blame the inproper use of such product, you can sue for your own neglegence.