I heard that most water monitor babies have respiratory problems from a man (not an employee) at one of my town's local pet shops. Is this true? My water sometimes takes a big breath from his mouth, and he also sneezes. I have his basking spot at 120 degrees, ambient temp at 95, and the night ambient temp a little over 80 degrees. I have 20 gallon aquarium full of water in his enclosure (there is constant evaporation coming from it, so there is not problem with humidity), and his breathing problems persist. There used to be sand in there about 2 weeks ago, but I have gotten most of it out (still find some every now and then that I vacuum up), and I am replacing it with soil. What else should I do? Or should I not worry about it becaue the above may be true and he will just outgrow it?
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Water monitor respiratory problems
Replies (3)
No they do not always have it. If the person who told you that always has that problem with them then he needs to adjust his husbandry.
As for yours goes, the first thing to strike me is ambient temps of 95, thats very high. Reptiles need to heat up as well as cool off. Stuck between 95 and 120 is not much for thermoregulation. Even if you allow the night temps to hit 80, all day it is stuck between the high temps and only gets to cool to 80 at night when you say it can not when it wants or need to.
let it have more choices and it will do much better. How about go with upper 70's for a cool side of the cage and then the basking site of 130-140. This will allow it to thermoregulate more efficiently.
If your using a high wattage bulb switch to a lower wattage of 45-65. Then bring the basking area closer to the bulb to achieve the basking temps. This will give you a much bettter gradient throughout your cage.
You may also need to tweak other aspects of husbandry until you get it right. Only by watching your monitor in your setup will you know when it is bad or when it is good.
Good luck
Well, there are a couple of places in there that he uses to cool off. Hmm, if the guys at Zoo Keeper (where I got him) can't help him, then I will take him to the reptile vet that they know about. He's also getting skinny, and I just had him wormed.
Well if he can cool off thats good, just hate to have him stuck between the high temps.
Your best bet would be to have a vet look it over, Especially if it is thin.
Good luck
