Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, we just got home today from the Dixie show in Birmingham. Not much to brag about as far as monitors go. Of course lots of baby savs and niles and snakes galore. I went looking for ackies or an argus, nope none there. I did see a healthy blackthroat, was holding it, checking it out getting scratched up, you know usual stuff. lol About that time my wife called me over to another table. This guy was bragging on his juvie blackthoat that loved cat and dog food. I, being who I am went to try to set him straight.(I know all about the dog and cat food issues, I read all the flames. lol) The poor animal was in a cold aquarium, way to small for him and his tail looked like an accordion. Well, while it looked like it might come to blows with this guy, my wife (the smart one) told me to just buy it from him. So I did, yes I'm a sucker for a pity story. We left the show and went to Walmart and bought some heat lamps and some dirt, found directions to a pet store and went back to the hotel. I let him out of the tub and let him walk around the room for a while. He explored everything, over the chairs, behind the dresser, around the bathroom. When the wife decided we needed to turn the AC back on I put him back in the tub with his basking light. He hissed like mad when I picked him up. I see that as a good thing. After he calmed back down I offered him some mice. He looked confused, sat and watched them, smelled them, even walked on them. Guess he figured out what they were because he ate them.
The only problems I'm worried about is his tail and his smell. I'm hoping the smell comes from living on canned food. He seems to like mice and crickets just fine. Wife is making him an appointment tomorrow for a checkup.
Before I get hit from behind,(women are mean lol) my wife got a new baby savannah and my daughter got a baby veiled chameleon.
If anyone has any ideas about the smell or the tail problem, please let me know.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Tail is more then likely from poor husbandry, inadequite diet, lack of calcium, lack of vit. d3. Supplement his foods with rept cal or minerall.

Smell can just be from dog food, it gives them the runs, and more then likely it has been stepping all over in it. Other thing it can be a sign of parasites. Have the vet run a fecal.
Keep feeding mice the hair=roughage it doesn't digest but as it passes it clumps up the feces. While doing this it cleans out the pipes so to speak.

If it looks dehydrated try soaking it in a tub, or raise humidty in the cage.

Good luck with that little fella.

I put him in the tub at the hotel last night, he sure didn't seem happy about it, but it got alot of loose shed off. I'm watching him now, it seems like he's still trying to figure out what this dirt stuff is lol.
I keep ZooMed Mite Off and Reptivite.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Touching base on the parasite thing. I have read and have seen firsthand through a vet's office, lizards infected with coccidia, which I believe is a tiny protozoan. What stands out most with me in animals infected with coccidia is the overwhelmingly noxious smell of their feces..Now I'm not saying that their poo normally smells like roses...haha, but there is a noticeable difference. Their fecies is also, like jody said, extremely runny. One of the ways that coccidia is acquired is through infected crickets. Crickets raised in unsanitary conditions have been know to carry the parasite(intermediate stage?) and then pass it on to the herp that devours them. I would imagine that this could also be acquired from the wild, and since your bt is most likely an import, that's something to consider when taking it to a vet. I would have to say that I've never seen coccidia in any monitors before; mostly bearded dragons, but that is probably because of the minute amount of people keeping monitor lizards, nevertheless the even smaller amount of those people who would actually spend money on their 30 dollar lizard at the vet... hope this helps a little.
Try to make sure that the vet you visit frequently deals with reptiles, for a lot of these vets who claim to deal with "exotics"-reptiles usually added to that category, have insuffient knowledge of reptilian medicine..of the many years veterinary school takes, they only cover reptiles over a couple of weeks..It's very easy for an untrained/unqualified individual to treat an ailment incorrectly when it comes to reptiles. All I'm saying is be careful, 'shop around'. Best of luck to your new captive, take care,

bob

The Odatriad

Thanks for the info. As for the vet, he comes highly reccomended by almost every other vet in the area. He is also the zoos reptile vet.
As for the smell, it's gotten better or I'm getting used to it. lol Maybe it has something to do with him eating mice and crickets instead of "catfood". I also heard a rumor (don't know how reliable it is) that male blackthroats have a musky smell.
Maybe someone will clear this up for me. He seems to be doing much better now that he figured out what dirt was lol.
he does one thing thats funny to watch, he tries to fit in the bowl we put his food in, he doesn't quite fit.
I'll keep everyone updated.

Thanks
Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Albig's do have a smell but it is not a bad smell. It is more like brown sugar, or maple syrup, or roasted almonds.

Oh yeah and it comes from both sexes.

np

Hello.
Just noticed this thread.
Stuck shed is another source of smell. I got my male rudicollis as a recent import, and he had many layers of stuck shed on him. Some of it was greenish??, and anyway, it made him smell like MANURE. Really disgusting! He is odor free today.

You mentioned a lessening of the smell with the loss of some of the shed, so that may have been it.
Oh, and hiding in the food dish IS really cute, but it means he is seeking some tight hiding spot. Sorry if you already knew that...
Best of luck to you with the little guy!
D.