Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is Gus, he is my Argus Monitor. He is decent size, 3.5 feet, pretty bulky too. He is so mellow, he always begs for attention from me and my family. He has his own 10 X 6 room and has had a few people locally bring their female argus by for him when they want a clutch of eggs. He is around 2.5 years old. This guy is a pig too, goes through about 14 mice per feeding.

I am very farmiliar with his care and all, but I want to know how other Argus monitors usually act, are they more tame or more aggressive? How long do these guys usually live? The monitor influx here in state is pretty limited. Thanks for any input.

Thanks

Forgot the pic! Here he is!

Hello, your argus appears to be a little rounded and short. I believe thats from not having a proper heat range(high end) But other then that, looks fine. Good Luck, FR

What do you mean? He is only 3.5 because he is missing part of his tail end. He is not rounded out too much, he has always had proper heating, diet, and housing. The cage with the lights in them has two 100 watt spot lights for him to bask under. He also has a heat pad that runs under his kennel where he sleeps. He has had that all his life.

You should understand, temps are meaningless, the results of temps are meaningful. Also. Air and/or surface temps do not mean the monitor is using them. Also, more important then air and surface temps, is mass temps. In other words, check all the temps, specially where it burrows.

Now that your totally confused, your monitor is the result of the usable temps provided. IF the monitor is stubby, short nose, short toes, short claws, kinda thick, that is a result of not having high enough useable heat. Please, don't take it bad, it merely is. Its not going to harm your monitor.

Look at the pic I posted, the noses are longer. Look at the claws, even the female has larger claws.

You know, it really doesn't matter. Unless you think it matters. For instance, if these were dogs, yours would not win the show, due to configuration, but its still a nice dog.

I only mention this, so you have the oppertunity to learn about temps. The point is, temps by themselves, are meaningless, its what they allow to happen, that has meaning. Thanks FR

That's a great pic, had it as a background for a while until I got my own.

I understand what you are saying in some part. In his burrow, the dirt is warm because there is a spot light on top of it. The ambient temperature in the room is 80 degrees. Now, what I would like to know is how you can say that his use of the thermal gradient given to him will affect his body design? It was his choice to go where he pleases and all his care is optimal. So simply because his snout is shorter and claws may not be as large, he is a substandard monitor? Because that is the opinion you put across when you compared this to a dog in a show.

I know you say this doesn't matter, I just want to know all I can and learn from others experience. So please fill me in.

I am sorry, Please ask someone else about your monitor. This is not about standard or substandard. ITs about temps.

You monitor is a direct reflection of its husbandry. You have control over the husbandry. Optimal is not a temp or a series of temps. Optimal is the result of the temps(and other elements of husbandry)

Again I do not want to get into the junk of your monitor, only the use of temps, thank you and I wish you luck FR

Well he's perfect, so what's the use?

If hes perfect to you, then thats perfect for me. So why were you concerned in the first place? FR

np

Here is his room.

Ahh give him some dirt, they like to dig. My monitor is quite smaller in comparison and can be quite aggressive especially when I try to remove him/her (size and sex is an ongoing discussion in a another thread below). If I was going through 14 mice a feed, I'd be buying some rats . Here's a pic I took when I get the monitor in last december (same as post from below).

Great picture. He looks cool. I do have a large thing of dirt for him to dig in. You just can't see it in the picture. He also have a large bathing tub too that you can't see. I would be buying rats for him, but he only goes through 14 mice 3 days a week. They are frozen/thawed and I get them for $.17 a piece. I only have to pay 30$ for 200 of them. On other days he gets small portions of ham and turkey and I do get him the occasional rat to much on. I like to give him live fuzzy rats so he can run them down, and since fuzzy rats never bite him back, they are my choice. Thanks for showing me the picture!

Hes 5ft long and is missing a portion of his tail from his former owners dogs when T was growing up, his former owner that gave him to the rescue was a profootball player, T had a huge cage but a bit too much exposure when smaller to large dogs, hes covered in many places in scars. T eats 1 large rat a week with a few other smaller meals on occaision. Hes pictured here with Sobek my big baby shes over 6ft, they actually get along great, although I dont leave them together unsupervised.

> I am very farmiliar with his care and all, but I want to know
> how other Argus monitors usually act, are they more tame or
> more aggressive? How long do these guys usually live? The
> monitor influx here in state is pretty limited. Thanks for
> any input.

I've written my thoughts on argus monitors up on my web pages.
http://www.pizards.com/hbd/argus.html
but basically, neither tame nor agressive - full of hiss and bluff, high strung and hyper, but reluctant to bite in self defense. Very strong feeding response, so watch your fingers when giving them food.

Luke