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Why do they sell nile monitors at petco? I was interested in getting one, but people sa they are too aggressive, and get over 8ft long. is that true also does snyone have a pic of a full grown nile?

> Why do they sell nile monitors at petco? I was interested in
> getting one, but people sa they are too aggressive, and get over
> 8ft long. is that true also does snyone have a pic of a full
> grown nile?

If I recall correctly, the largest Nile monitor ever found was within an inch of 8 feet in length. However, this is unusual. 4 to 6 feet seems more typical.

I am not fond of the term "agressive" when it comes to describing Nile monitors. They do not attack people out of meanness, or hunger, or any such thing. They attack because they are frightened. Unfortunately, Niles are high strung, flighty, and downright paranoid. They usually do not ever come to trust humans. When we corner them, they try to scare us off. When we try to pick them up, they use every weapon in their arsenal to try to escape. Couple this with a large, very powerful lizard with sharp talons and bone-crushing jaws, and things can get quite painful.

Why does PetCo sell them? Easy, people buy them. PetCo makes a profit, so they buy more and sell more. Why do people buy them? They are usually low priced. This is because they are imported from the wild in large numbers. Pet stores can buy them for between $5 to $7 each. They can then mark them up to, say, $20 to $60, which is not too much for someone to pay who wants a neato pet. They are sold as tiny hatchlings. Prospective buyers do not see the full size of the monsters they are buying. The Niles really are extraordinarily beautiful creatures. So you have these small, cute, brightly colored and stunningly pattered lizards for sale for low prices, of course people will buy them. The PetCo personell generally know very little about the proper care of large monitors, so they pass on all sorts of misinformation to the customer, things like "If you hold it a lot, it will tame down and become friendly", or "We suggest a 60 gallon aquarium for an adult". They do not tell you the monitor will require a $1000 custom built cage the size of a small room, they do not tell you the sheer destructive power of an escaped monitor, they do not tell you about the costs of feeding or heating or lighting or vet bills. The customer, knowing nothing about the animal, accepts this since it supposedly came from an expert, takes their new pet home, and then either kills it due to neglect or ignorance or ends up with an unhandlable monster on their hands.

http://www.pizards.com/hbd/cleo.html has some photos of a small adult Nile monitor. Some get considerably larger.

I hope this answers your questions.

Luke