Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there anybody out there that could point me in the direction of a place to get Argus information. Or if anybody could give personal info about them, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot

Keith S

We have kept and bred Argus for about six years. What kind of info are you looking for?

Tony Alles
ReptileGuru.com

Just got my argus for Christmas. I would suggest looking at www.pizards.com. I found the site pretty informative on the species.

Hey there,

I'm no pro so please don't take info as fact, just as what I have done and what has worked for me. Please make adjustments according to YOUR animal's needs.

You want at least 6'x2'x2' in cage space per adult an 8'x2'x3' would be satisfactory for a pair.

Substrate is up to you, some people love cypress mulch... although MOST breeders will tell you it's not a great substrate as they can not burrow in it which I agree with. Sandy loam is supposedly great, although I haven't been able to locate any in my area. I personally use a mix of about 30% cypress mulch 20% ground peat moss and 50% sand. It holds a burrow, holds humidity and works well enough for my needs. I may change this later though, who knows. You want at least 12" of substrate but go as deep as your cage allows. You want at least 2 tight fitting hides per animal. I use plywood sheets and peg board for my argus, it works well enough although isn't all that visually appealing. I personally put them on top of cynder blocks with another heavy rock/log or brick of appropriate size on top of them to hold them steady. I use ceramic heat emmiters for the argus with a basking spot that fluctuates from 115*-130*F. Although you NEED a gradient, the cool end of my cages is around 82-84 DTH (Day time high) and 65-72* NTL (Night time low) in their hides it drops to about 78* during the day. They NEED to be able to get to about room temperature and up to at least 115* all within their cage. You just can not accomplish this with a small cage. Other perks of a large cage are the ability to roam and see your lizard roam. Monitors especially the gouldi complex are VERY interesting to watch. Why cram them into a litte cage? Odds are you will have to build, or have built a desirable cage as there aren't any on the market that are made with monitors needs in mind. Although horse troughs work well, I just find them ugly for in the house and not very efficient if you have a smaller snake room like myself.

Feed them every day, I feed my adult argus: 100 Super worms per week, 1/4th lb of ground turkey (San diego zoo style) every day, a sizeable piece of frozen thawed Rainbow trout every day dusted with miner-all, as well as rats 2-3 times per week. It is generally better to feed all whole food items. It's also fairly expensive. The monitors do well on what I feed them and I try to rotate it with different things as much as possible. This diet though has proven to be economical and has kept them active and healthy. Roaches are great to feed, although I can't breed them here and it's too expensive to purchase them for feeders. If you can breed them at your place they are a great good source.

You don't need UVA/UVB in my opinion although if you would like to purchase such bulbs it can't hurt.

I'm sure I forgot things.. that others will explain more on. But this should give you a good start.

Oh, feed hatchlings to subadults: Pinkies/Fuzzies as their part of the rodent diet, ground turkey is still fine. Supplement Super worms with mealworms and crickets.

take care and good luck,
Jordan

Sorry for any typos.

Hello Keith,
What precisely are you looking for? Wild data? captive data? If so, check out Richard Shines paper:

Shine, R. 1986. Food habits, habitats, and reproductive biology of four sympatric species of varanid lizards in tropical Australia. Herpetologica 42:346-360.

For captive husbandry, a plethora of material is available. I wrote one w/Q. Dwyer in '96 but I suspect you would prefer other material? Send me your email, and I can send list of V.panoptes material if you like?

cheers,
markb

I personally keep argus in large cages (8 feet).

I feed them a lot (others will say it doesn't matter). whole foods, we feed mice, chicks and rats.

I provide them places to dig, good nesting.

I keep them hot (standard monitor temps found all over this forum, on my site, other forums, etc).

lastly, i leave them alone and don't touch them.

its simple really, feed them, heat them, water them and out they sprout.

andrew

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VARANUS CREATIONS

Breeders and Hobbyists of Pilbara Rock Monitors, Kimberly Rock Monitors, Red Ackies, Argus, Argus x Flavi crosses, Gouldi x Flavi crosses, Argus x Gouldi x Flavi crosses, Jungle Carpet Pythons, Bredl's Pythons, Dunn's Pythons, Western Hognose Snakes, South American Boas, Atheris Squamiger, Leopard Geckos and rare Spiders.

Sorry, i should have been more specific. I was mainly looking for captive info for Argus. But all of your info helped a lot. Mkbay, my e-mail is CCRunner43@aol.com. If you could send me info, that would be great. Thanks again for all your help

Keith S