Reptile & Amphibian Forums

She was covered in dirt so I needed to put some big towells down. Shes a big girl...

n/p

She had a rat that was 12 inches long.

cool pic man.
my female is just a hair under 6'1". weighed her 10days ago and she was 33.5lbs. shes a big girl but real calm. i'll get some pics of her soon.
later

33 plus pounds? Wow man get a pic of her tonight . Batteries dont take too long to charge. 33 pounds is alot.

How about the same way I took my pic, on the bed lengthwise, Sobeks 1 " short of the mattress. So where and when did ya get this one, thought you had 2 BTs and a banded WT. Sobek matched the record for a female at 6ft 2". 33lbs seems overweight to me, Sobek just ate 2 days ago. I remeber asking Jody P about his male BT at around 6ft 6-8 inches and Id say 35 lbs.

np

In the pic shes 6ft long, Im 6ft tall. Only Im still 6ft tall and shes now 6ft 2 inches long.

np

Sobek and Jody, shes 5ft tall, and cant hold Sobek without alot of difficulty.

Guys whats the hang up with size?

Look in the photo gallery at his last pics youll see why I asked for a reliable size reference with the animal. Also 33lbs at that size seems very obese to me.

Youre right 33lbs does seem a bit obese ......to other fella geta your monitor a tread mill man it looks fat dude .....this obeseness could lead to heart failure and or kidney failure or both........savs can get like this and they die from their heart expanding the size of a grapefruit.........give it exercise a real hot basking spot and feed it carefully from now on.

harely arse

matt got this monitor from robyn at PE. He weighed it when it first came in I think it has gained about half of a pound since he got it. you haven't seen this monitor it is not obese. every one's stuff seems to be better than the other man's. can't we all get along? Sobek is an awesome lizard but then again so is Peggy. So if you are saying the lizard is obese which she is not then you are saying robyn made it obese. Which he did not. My point is... do not say something is fat with out seeing it first. Please with the hangups...

By looking at them and weighing them with a digital scale. Sobek is a huge powerful animal that only weighs 27lbs, shes 6ft 2in long and still growing yet I explained before to others, when you refer to Albigs they are actually light for their size, as they spend half of their life up a tree they are about half of the weight of a water monitor the same size. Could you imagine a martials eagle trying to fly away with a 38-53 lb albig? They most probably cant. Ive got old books and magazines that say a BT gets to 7ft and 38-53 lbs, yet if you actually weigh the animal its alot lighter than it feels or looks to be, thats why I actually weigh them with a digital scale. A good monitor book by Daniel Bennett mentioned a survey in Etosha national park of thousands of WTs, in this survey the average adult was 15lbs, these are not the starving skinny dehydrated petstore monitors after humans have abused them but healthy beautiful well fed wild monitors that are a bit fat. I took an idea by FR a few years ago to look at the wild animal, judge your animals weight by that wild healthy animal, I do that but allow a bit more weight than that. In the survey the largest male was 68 inches long and 20lbs, the largest female was about 55 inches and 15lbs, although Sobek was at that size a lb heavier than both, yet her stomach never drags on the ground nor does she look fat except immediatly after feeding, I adjust her diet by what she needs and is given to help her live a long healthy life. Ive seen a 53lb 7ft 3inch BT and he was obese, he was big but fat. Its his choice to make a fat monitor or an athletic monitor, but he claims he weighed the animal, so thats what I am going by. I got Sobek as a little 16 inch long hatchling from ProExotics, Ive seen pics of their animals, yet Ive never seen a fat one among them, all 15 adults they had, WT and BT, and BT/WT/WT crosses, Ill correct myself, when they layed eggs the females that layed were a bit fat but when you have 21-40+ eggs each 2.25 inches long you expect it. Sobek was fat when she swelled up with 44 eggs (5lbs worth), she was 16.5lbs afterwards and 5.5ft long, 21.5lbs during that time. Ive heard of 22lb 4ft 3inch boscs before, come on my big bosc was 4ft 6inches and 10-11 lbs. If indeed they are being weighed and not estimated they are overweight. And no I dont blame ProExotics for it being heavy, they keep and sell animals of quality beyond what you can get almost anywhere else, and they are great people to deal with. Heres a 10lb bosc at 4ft 6 inches by the way.

SHvar, maybe you can give me an idea of about how much a 2 foot bosc should weigh. I've been trying to give the one I was handed enough food to grow if he's going to; supposedly the animal is 2-3 years old, and I was not sure if he would grow or not at that age. But I've also read about their propensity to get fat, so I've been watching carefully to not feed too much. So far, I think I'm doing right by him, as he's fat after feeding but slims down before the next meal, but an estimate would help.

He's gone from being a clearly emaciated 'tame' monitor to a feisty, hissy, tail whippy critter, and is now finally becoming more trusting and curious about my activities in maintaining his enclosure, so I think I can weigh him now without annoying him too badly. I think he'll tell me if he objects. lol

Leslie

The easy way to tell is to look at it. There are some good pics of healthy wild bosc in Bennetts book to go by. Personally I believe most adult and subadult bosc in captivity seem overweight by looking at them. Consider that they can climb trees and bushes, when fat they cant, consider thatthey are supposed to be long and thin, they are monitors not basketballs but the best way to start is a high basking temp say 150 at least STV length. If the animal seems a bit heavy then adjust it feeding for a period of time as it takes awhile to get them thin again, reduce the food do not stop the food as fat monitors get hepatic lipidosis from no food all of the sudden and their fat reserves are mobilized and their obese bodies cannot handle it, their livers shut down. Heres an idea of an athletic bosc, this is the big one I pictured earlier. Along with an improperly kept hatchling.

Thanks for the info. I've been sort of going by the pictures in Bennet's book, but I couldn't figure out just how much weight was represented. According to my heat gun, the basking spot is 132 degrees, so I guess we're ok there. He sure looks 100¾tter than when he arrived, nice fat tail, sheds well, and eats everything I give him (but then I guess that's any monitor.) He's very active, and I give him an 'all you can eat' cricket day every week so I'm sure he gets exercise.

Thanks again,
Leslie

n/p

Her stomach does not drag the ground when she walks or when she runs. and he did weigh the animal when he got it in. We have 2 digital scales at our office. The go from 1lb-300lb(we have alot of people come in with great mastiffs). I was there both times that the lizard was wieghed. She looks great. Great pic of the Bosc. My BT is around 1.5 years and is around the same size. 4.5 11.6 pounds.