Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have both a male blackthroat monitor and a male sumatron water montor both are about 28" at the moment although they are the same length the blackthroat looks far bigger because of his actual body size , i know water monitors are the bigger of the two when fully grown but is it possible that some blackthroats have got to the same size and if not a bit more than your average 6-7 foot adult water monitor like sobek SHvars one or are the water monitors larger because they have a longer tail , the thing im wandering is because the blackthroats are more bulldog like and bulky body wise arent they the same size as a big 6-7 foot water without exception to these 8-9 foot giants that are out there, and does a huge male say 6 foot blackthroat look as impressive as a water of the same size or is there something noticabley bigger with the water monitor, bit of a weird question but im curious to see what you guys think because i have seen pics of some monster like ionides,if any body out there has any of these two giants in adult form id love to here your opinions
thanks for your time best wishes keith

Salvators are a very large heavy animal that as an adult spends more time near and in water than an Albig. Albigs are semiarboreal so are adapted to be light in weight for their size. Although when holding Sobek she looks and fells like she weighs 50lbs shes only 27lbs, where as Ive heard average weights of adult water maonitors similar sized to be between 40-60 lbs. Waters certainly have longer tails and as adults can have huge thick legs and get bulky with a small head. Ive seen a few adult waters that were 6-8ft and in my opinion most were a bit obese of very very obese, example look in Giant Lizards the book at the huge salvator with the author, hes supposed to be 130lbs?? Wow, fat, thats a time bomb waiting to explode. I was offered a free Salvator male at 5ft long years ago and turned it down,I dont need a monitor that can rip a screen out of its frame.

hi shvar thanks for your reply , see if you had an adult ionide and an adult water side by side would there be a noticable difference other than tail length
thanks again for you answers

The ratio in albigs is about 1.25 or a bit more %, where as the salvator has about a 1.5 or around there, yes waters have longer tails, theres no mistaking the 2 from each other, believe me.

I do not have a blackthroat for comparison, but here is a picture of a 5'4" male water monitor.

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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^
Monitors, monitors everywhere
and all the food they ate.
Monitors, monitors everywhere,
their parents loved to mate.

> I was offered a free Salvator male at 5ft long years ago and
> turned it down,I dont need a monitor that can rip a screen out
> of its frame.

I expect your blackthroats could rip a screen out of its frame if they were determined enough. I had one of my male arguses rip through heavy gauge hardware cloth once. This guy was only about 12 - 15 pounds at the time, your blackthroats seem much larger. Of course, arguses have those Ah-nuld arms for major digging power, but given the size difference, a moderate sized blackthroat could probably repeat that trick.

Luke

My big cross Sobek can rip the doors off of her cage, thats harder than ripping a screen out of its tracks actually, she can carry livingroom chairs around and destroy a house quickly. I was using it more as figure of speech, Ive heard of 7ft waters doing more damage. Sobek has a buddy whos a 5ft male argus that takes 3 adults to hold still to trim the sharper tips of a few claws once a year maybe (he digs alot so wears them down good), yet Sobek is alot stronger than him. Ive been rudely awaken by 4.5ftx2 ft cage doors being ripped out of the track and thrown across the room onto me more than a few times. Shadow is no where near as strong for his size as he suffers from many birth defects if you will. But watch out for his tail hes got on powerful slap, as well his crushing jaws, I always hand feed, it has resulted in one accidental bite on a finger by Shadow for just a spit second when he grabbed a mouse, he broke my finger by the way, theres stiil a piece of bone over a year later floating inside the finger tip.

I know Sobek (I love your pics of her, by the way), but is Shadow the argus? I would have thought a bite by a big male argus would remove a finger, or go a significant way towards doing so, but not having first hand experience (thank god) I cannot say definitively one way or the other.

I think that most people who've never owned a big monitor severely underestimate how powerful these animals are. And FAST, too. I see you've found that out by now!

It is actually kind of fun when my macho male arguses want to do the ritual wrestling thing with me. They grab my arm as if it was another male monitor and try to force it into submission.

Luke

I introduced them once and Sobek almost killed him fast if I hadnt interceded. Shadow is 4ft 10.5lbs and eats large rats also. The argus that Sobek likes is "T" my friend bayoubeasts rescue from a former pro football player who couldnt or wouldnt continue caring for him. Sobek likes "T" he is also a powerful animal, takes 3 healthy adults to trim claw tips once every 6 months. Im not sure about how powerful his jaws are because hes such a sweetheart he doesnt bite, but they are constructed different to accomplish eating mammals, lizards, and snakes, whereas the Albigs are designed to crush giant land snails, turtle and tortoise shells, eat lizards, birds, and snakes. Wow the crunch sound Shadow made on my fingertip when he got ahold of me once, oh and pain!! I have that permanent reminder of what can happen if they bite in the end of my finger.

As far as trimming claws, a trick I stumbled on is to get a sheet of hardware cloth. You can either make a frame for it or just hang it. Then, put the monitor on the hardware cloth. Its claws will poke through to the other side. You can easily trim the tips of the claws from that side, without your lizard freaking out because it is being restrained, etc. I was usually able to trim most of the claws before the monitor figured out what was going on. The hardest part might be getting an argus to hold still and hang on to the hardware cloth, rather than jumping off.

Anyway, it worked for me. I don't trim my lizard's claws anymore, but when I did, this is what worked best.

Good luck,

Luke