Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello I am seriously interested in buying a black throat monitor (have a 5'x10'x5' cage set up) but have a few questions before doing so. First off while I understand that you should allways be precautious around a animal with strong instincts, in general how friendly are they? Also if a cat were to jump up and smell him would it immediatly attack the cat? I never plan to have one of my cats within even a close proximity of the monitor and will allways keep the door to the room he happenes to be in closed, but never the less would like to know what would happen in a worse case scenario. In the few seconds before I could react how much damage would one be able to do to a cat? Would I even be able to break up the fight? I guess im also just wondering in general how aggressive they are. Well thanks for your time,

Matt

In general monitors look at cats as hatchling predators, competition for food, and depends on the monitor either food or as a predator. I have 2 BT/WT crosses, one the male probably wouldnt bother with a cat because hes about 4 ft long now, but my female is 6ft and over 25lbs with an empty stomach. Sobek looks at cats as one of the following; food (which I believe once she actually struck at the cat it would be dead in seconds), or she checks them out and walks away, there doesnt seem to be any predictable time that she may of may not see a cat as food. Never keep them alone and it would be advisable to keep them apart permanently. An Adult BT can crush a colossal rats skull in a second flat, no cat could stand a chance. Monitors in general are very oportunistic predators that will eat almost anything they can.