Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am new to monitors so am reading voraciously. Many keep their monitors in dirt, many don't. The purpose seems to be a humidity control so their skin doesn't dry out?
Let's hear your thoughts and experiences as well as your dirt recipes.
Thanks!

The animal will dehydrate if not kept in the correct environment period, they need to go underground or into a tight damp place to escape heat and dry. They also identify with dirt as an essential part of their lives as far as security, temp gradient, moisture loss control, nesting, and as something that will not cause abcesses on their feet or crack claws and cause stress to their bodies walking climbing and living on it. Once you set a monitor up in dirt correctly youll never put them on anything else, dirt helps a monitor identify with being a monitor.

I don't think lizards have the abstract capabilities to identify with anything as part of their heritage. As long as it does the job I suppose different environments may produce the same happy lizard?
If an alien scooped up a human at the north pole, and another in Texas, they might be kept in two very different cages.......
And there are so many different kinds of dirts (I am a gardener). How does one 'think like a monitor' and truly find what is best: dirt or not, peat, sand, and so on?

it's good to see your working hard on this...keep in mind people like SHavr have been working with monitors for years.. if you choose to experiment save it for later..after you understand your monitor better...if you go out in your garden and squeeze the dirt in your hand you'll know if it has clay in it..or if it's permeable...i would make sure it doesn't stick together to much...as far as a cage goes to avoid a building project you could go to walmart and get a petnation dog house by firstrax inc....maybe cover the entry and cut in windows...you'll see when you look at it..it's 53 dollars...just plug the little holes in the corners at the bottom...good luck...billy

Dirt you wouldnt ask, they know better than we do which works better, after all without us they grow and reproduce without all of the husbandry problems we seem to experience with ours in captivity, such as impactions, infections, lack of appetite etc. You try a type of dirt (top soil, stuff found outdoors), not potting soil, mulch or any other organic based man made product and see if they use it, if they dont then you try another type of from a different location. Look at where they come from and what the soil is like there as well underground moisture, temps etc. Dont assume (make an @$$ out of "u" and "me" that they dont know the difference or cannot tell the difference or appreciate the differences until youve tried keeping them on different subsrtates. Ive tried many (paper, wood, plastic, cocopeat, man made "organic" top soil, sand mixed with several, even store bought reptile dirt, I then found a mixture of "field dirt" (hundreds of lbs)- some sand (about 60lbs)- with dirt from a river bank thats been strained (hundreds of lbs) and a small percentage of cocopeat (4 cu ft)added to condition it and help hold moisture better) over more than 12 years with my mistakes in their husbandry, many resulting in a shortened life because of my mistakes. If dirt is right they can burrow in it, it holds a burrow, it holds moisture without being wet (think damp), it wont have any toxic additives, it doesnt spoil. But if you dont realize what a monitor is you may not recognize whats wrong with its substrate. I found out the hard way with the wrong substrate when my big albig became egg bound, yet again on improper substrates so many female monitors never even form eggs, why? They know whats needed better than we do, after all they are the experts we are just keepers. We learn from our animals, then try to help others before they have to make the same mistakes. Look at monitors kept on newspaper, wood chips, etc and see what they do, or actually what they dont do, then see what a happy monitor is on dirt deep enough to burrow in.
This pic is of an Albig over 6ft long back in her burrow, by the way this cage is way too small for now she has to deal with it though, the dirt is 1.5ft deep.

They are full of roaches and that ackie loves to burrow.

Hmmmm....I have improved garden soil but I put all kinds of peat and rose fertilizer and so on into it..Then I also have Texas clay gumbo. Neither seems appropriate.

Maybe add some sand ($2.99 for 60lbs), etc. Depends on how much you need.

you could go to a home depot or some such place and get bags of top soil. Mix in some sand and you'll have a place to start. Being a gardener you should be able to reconise a good soil mix. I would recommend screening the soil to remove all the large clumps and small stones. The definition of a good soil mix is going to be a highly debatable subject here. My opinion is a soil that will clump when squeezed in the hand, good draining, stays moist but not muddy. A landscape supply center could be another option for you, but your kinda stuck with whats predomanetly available in your locale. Hoped this helps a little. Goodluck, Clint

The Teen who is real messy (but I love him) will graduate and go off to college this year and I was, as an old person, really ready for a clean house. Now I am looking into keeping this critter who requires DIRT and a lot of it, to make him happy.....
So how to you clean the cages when the lizard poops? Does all this dirt get put in the garden and new dirt put in?

just spot clean the cage.

the only time you would need to do that (unless it was so filled with rodent hair after years of not cleaning) would be if it was not working out.

andrew

You can also try cypress mulch.

Its dry in the dirt, and the bacteria in the dirt seems to get rid if the liquids and odors.

how does one think like a monitor?

i have no clue. its what the monitors use. ackies will not dig in peat moss like they would in lets say sandy loam or going out in your back yard and digging up dirt with few rocks or clay.

substrate is not necessary for survival it is necessary for a monitor to do well. bad substrate can kill a monitor though.

from what little i understand: if a monitor is kept poorly it won't even lay eggs, it has stuck sheds, it refuses to eat most of the time, it dies. if a monitor is kept in somewhat decent conditions the opposite occurs. that is from my little experience. i have killed a couple monitors but i have also had and have some that really thrive. hopefully no more die, but it happens when you keep monitors.

andrew