Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay first I would like to thank you guys for the help on my last post. Just want to update which also includes some questions that kept bugging me as I sleep haha.

Index:
1st Paragraph-How his place is currently setup.
2nd Paragraph-Walls?
3rd Paragraph-Questions.

Current Moment Settings:
I have blocked the bottom part of the door so that he can't crawl under it and have blocked all the crevices he can crawl into and removed annoying/extra furnatures around the room. The flour is completely carpetted. The corner where he lives, I've placed a red towel around the water recepticle which is 5" h x 6" deep x 8" L. The carpet is for him to dry himself off when he steps out. I've adjusted the ceramic bulb so it is 70F-115F. For his place to hide and sleep I've got a small 2.5' H x 1' deep x 1.5' L desk. The front part doesn't have a door and the desk is divided in half by a shelf. The bottom part is where I've placed some reptile bark chips and a reptile hub, pretty large. Under the barkchips and his hub is a Cobra Matt I believe perscribed for a 20-40gallon tank, shrug. The light is connected to a large book on the shelf above. At night he does use this place to sleep and in the morning he ventures around the room but doesn't sleep in the crevices no more because I blocked them all up haha. I use a UV bulb as well.

Walls?:
Yeah I've thought of walls, but just thinking about how to build it, where to get the right equipments needed to build it, blue prints, etc, is just mind numbing to me lol. However, I will think about it further more.

Questions:
1/They say a healthy water monitor is suppose to eat well. What do they mean by eating well? I mean, my son's monitor eats but I've got him for some time and he eats but doesn't eat it straight up or not always. For example: Crickets he'll eat but I rarely see him actually eat it and mice he kind of waits awhile before grabbing the mouse. Is this okay?

2/What kind of health issues if he is exposed to 65-70F for short periods? I heard of a problem with breathing that they get from cold exposures such as sneezing, he sneezes but very rarely is this okay? Dust?

3/This might sound stupid, but....what does taking room temperature really mean? I mean for example for hot spot where I said it is like 115F, its not 115F right when you hit the spot. I put the therm. under it and it takes awhile for it to reach 115F. Does it mean the temperature the spot is at or the temperature the spot is capable of getting to if he sits under it?

Thanks again, hope I hear from bloodbat as well

I have experience with keeping monitors on carpet. in all honesty, it worked but how well it worked i don't know. my monitors performed better on carpet than many people's on this forum that have theirs on dirt or whatever.

the point though is to do your best for your monitor. as one guy who used to frequent here said, you are their butler.

if you can't strip the flooring, proof it and add substrate maybe the next best thing you can do is to build a play box so to speak, filling it with dirt, not a small one either but like half the room.

basking spots: buy a temp gun (like $40 shipped from proexotics.com)

next or actually before buy a couple of shop lights for regular incandescent bulbs and put a bank (two or more together) of bulbs about 2 feet (maybe less) over the basking. use two 50 or 60's. again, you will need the temp gun eventually or it is good to have.

room or ambient temps: this means the median temp of the room. you don't have to do all the math but when you get a temp gun simply go around the room taking temps, find the one around the middle of the room half way between basking and cool end and take the temp, you will want this to be about 80. you will want basking to be about 130 (a spot, but not a small spot). you are heating the whole monitor not a scale.

food: if he takes a while to eat that is fine, the fact that he is is important. monitors often take a while to eat in front of people.

water: get a painters tub from home depot if you desire ($11)and fill it half way up. replace the water every day.

any more questions feel free to email me.

andrew

Hey Andrew
I was wondering, is it really neccasary for the monitors to burrow? I mean will it affect them healthwise or is it just something they like to do and can go without with little affect. Example: A little kid without toys, he can survive without it, even though it might not make him very happy but he can get over it and still live a happy life?

The rest of the room can be a lot colder than the warm spot. At night maybe about 65-68F. The warm spot takes approximately 1/6th of the room, I'm using a 250 watt ceramic and a cobra mat. The room I used is a bedroom, very big, 4 windows, darn lizard got a nicer place than I do. I was wondering, since I wanna cover more ground with warmth, should I replace the 250watt bulb with a bunch of 100/50 watt light bulbs? Or is it okay if the lizard, when he gets cold, to just go to the warm spot? If I do get the light bulbs, should I buy the porcelin lamps for each of them too?

How big is the painters tub? Shape? Demensions? I have a couple of containers at home thats why, wanna see if its worth looking into.

Hey thanks again everyone, especially to Andrew for his last post. The monitor is great! My son loves him, he almost got my fingers a couple of times, probably mistaking it for a mouse....or he's just out to get me! Haha.

John---

substrate: good substrate/nesting allows several things for a monitor. it allows him to get out of the heat, it allows him to retain moisture and allows him to act like a monitor.

it is good and ideal but not necessary for survival.

but we are not out to do things that are just necessary for survival as good monitor keepers we are out to try to do what is ideal.

its like going to work and doing the minimum, you will always get paid minimum.

heat, baskings, etc. it is better to use a few smaller basking lights. for a monitor that size two forty watts might be efficient. again, get a temp gun please. keep the overall heat at about 80 with a place in the room (or substrate if you decide to do what is better)that the monitor can get to a colder spot. again, the basking should be about 130. lights over a cobra heat mat could easily fry a monitor. again, TEMP GUNS ARE GOOD.

Andrew

andrew

Just out of curiousity, how old is your son?

"My son loves him, he almost got my fingers a couple of times, probably mistaking it for a mouse....or he's just out to get me! Haha."

Wait until the monitor is a bit larger and this happens, then you are in for a laugh! I presume you are aware of what water monitor teeth are like.

I just typed a bunch of stuff and I put post message and it says I have to log in, which I did, and the message got deleted so i'm not gonna type it again so andrew lets just leave it there cause I'm tried lol. Anyways DK my son is 12. Don't worry the monitor isn't my first pet ever. I've kept tarantulas, centipedes, fury critters, iguanas, geckos, snakes, etc. Monitors have powerful bites, as they grow their teeth change a slight bit so they can crush shells, etc, so yes I do know what they are capable of, thats why I didn't something hard to tame like a nile monitor. Like I said I did my research. If you think a monitor bite is bad, you've never felt what a scolopendra s. can do, especially the vietnamese one. Dip your hands in boiling water to relieve the pain.

Wait until the monitor is a bit larger and this happens, then you are in for a laugh!

I will be laughing!!! and crying at the same time haha. I'm trying to tame the lizard more before having my son pet and play with him. Its dinner time so I got to make something, cup of noodles anyone? lol.

John---

"Like I said I did my research. If you think a monitor bite is bad, you've never felt what a scolopendra s. can do, especially the vietnamese one. Dip your hands in boiling water to relieve the pain."

I honestly don't want this to sound like a lecture, more a word of caution and concern, so I apologise if it comes off the wrong way. I am very familiar with scolopendrids and their bites, but if you think a Scolopendra bite is comparable to a water monitor bite, you haven't quite finished your research, yet. Your water monitor will not get crushing teeth for shells (Nile monitors get those). It has (and will continue to have) serrated, sharp teeth. As it gets larger, these teeth will be combined with a bite strength easily capable of severing nerves and tendons, even removing fingers. ‘Taming’ the monitor will lessen, but not remove, the likelihood of this happening. 'Tame' large monitors are the ones people (myself included) become most complacent with and therefore the ones we are most likely to take chances with. When it does bite, it may not be a malicious bite that does the damage, but a simple feeding accident, or forgetting to wash your hands after eating a meal or after petting the family dog/cat/hamster.

Make sure you and your son wash your hands before handling the monitor and avoid sudden hand movements near its head. At the moment it will run in fright, as it gets larger it may react with a feeding response.

I honestly don't want this to sound like a lecture, more a word of caution and concern, so I apologise if it comes off the wrong way. I am very familiar with scolopendrids and their bites, but if you think a Scolopendra bite is comparable to a water monitor bite, you haven't quite finished your research, yet. Your water monitor will not get crushing teeth for shells (Nile monitors get those). It has (and will continue to have) serrated, sharp teeth. As it gets larger, these teeth will be combined with a bite strength easily capable of severing nerves and tendons, even removing fingers. ‘Taming’ the monitor will lessen, but not remove, the likelihood of this happening. 'Tame' large monitors are the ones people (myself included) become most complacent with and therefore the ones we are most likely to take chances with. When it does bite, it may not be a malicious bite that does the damage, but a simple feeding accident, or forgetting to wash your hands after eating a meal or after petting the family dog/cat/hamster.

Make sure you and your son wash your hands before handling the monitor and avoid sudden hand movements near its head. At the moment it will run in fright, as it gets larger it may react with a feeding response.

Yeah I think I probably did mix the stuff about the niles and waters. I heard somewhere they would have different teeth for curshing shells when they grow up. I was thinking this because water monitors swim and therefore hunt snails? Clams? I dunno.

I've had a cat that still throws a fit even though its so called "tame" for 5 years so I understand your point. Never said the lizard would be a harmless puppy in the end, shrug.

The stuff about the centipede, well its something i've experience so I'm saying it from there. I've been bitten by a large nile before and a vietnamese pede before as well. I guess it depends on the bite and the person being bitten.

Its getting dark, I think I'm going to sign off here for a couple of days, hope everyone enjoys yourself, bye.

John---

when you were bitten by the centipede, it hurt like mad then got better, I presume.

When your cat goes spare and attacks, you lose a bit of blood then get better.

When you were bitten by the Nile, it hurt like mad, but got better.

With a large water monitor, the possibility of a bite resulting in severed nerves and tendons, or even fingers, is real. You will not get better. The fingers will not grow back. That was the point I was making. You can't really compare water monitors to centipedes, cats or even other (blunter toothed) monitors isn't going to give you an idea of what the bite is like.

You should post a pic as an example with these posts. I gained a new level of respect for the damage that can be done after we met.

I asked the hand surgeon if she managed to take a photo before the operation. Unfortunately not. I was too busy trying to stem the blood flow immediately after the bite to take a photo myself.

Here they take pictures first in case of a lawsuit.
I just found out I need to carry $10 mil Aus product liability insurance to work there. Ouch.
Planning on coming out there in August.

that is a big ouch! There has been a big rise in all sorts of liability insurance premiums over the past year or two and I guess you're feeling the effects of that. We haven't turned into a nation of litigators, yet, but I guess it is heading that way.

Keep me posted on August.

Ugh.. I posted a reply and it did not post. Here goes again...

I had carpet on my first monitor floor. It was not good. Carpet tends to retain stains, smells, and grime. After a few defecations on the carpet or smeared food or just monitor life your carpet will begin to take on an unpleasant odor. There is no removing this odor that I have found. I then switched to plain tile. This was much easier to clean but still took on a stale odor. Now I have cypress on top of the tile and the smell is very much decreased and is even easier to clean.

The towel is probably going to be useless. It may catch some initial water, but monitors do not generally sit around the water container until dry. So, it will get out and wander around and track water all over. Your carpet will get wet (and then smell). Not to mention the times when something spooks your monitor and it darts out of the water at light speed. The towel is not likely to cause a problem, but it is also not likely to help very much.

Make sure everything in the room is well secured. A light braced by a book on a shelf is a fire waiting to happen. If that light hits the floor, your carpet will burn. I secure all my lights to the ceiling or shelves.

I would provide your monitor with several hide spots or one or two large ones. Make artificial crevices by securing some plywood to 2x4s or 2x2s and leave an entrance among the 2x4s. Takes as little as 15 minutes to make. They end up being easy to move and clean and provide a secure area for the monitor.

I have exposed many of my monitors, including hatchlings, to temps in the 60s and have never seen a problem. I also make sure my monitors can warm up during the day. I think that is the key. They can handle the cold to a degree provided they can warm up sometime.

Room temperature for me has always meant 72-76 degrees. Basically, the temperature most in which people are comfortable. Taking room temperature would probably mean finding the average temperature of the room for my monitors is probably in the 80s (at least where they would hang out). It may also mean (and does sometimes to me) mean what is the general low end temperature. For example, most of the monitor room is in the 80s. However, there are several places that are much warmer. The average would be much higher than the general temperature in most of the room. I would not worry too much about measuring all of that precisely. Make sure you have some warm spots and some not so warm spots. You will find in an enclosed room that the heat tends to build up over time and keep the room warm.

Hope some of this helps
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^