Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm doing a "dry run" so to speak of a monitor setup...I would like to get either a Blackthroat or a water monitor, perhaps an Ionides(I'm open to your suggestions, just be sure to tell me your reasoning)..but we havent made any final decision, I just wanted to experiment with a few setups before we get the monitor. This would be a hatchling set-up that I hope will last the first 6-8 months. I spent the entire day visiting my farm and fleet, agways and hardware stores looking for those horse feeding troughs...and I found them at an excellent price and many sizes, both in galvanized and very thick super-hard plastic, which is what I decided to start with.(after much debating.) I provided a "stack" for temp gradient as well as a hide spot near the cooler side of the tub. I havent yet tackled the lid. I plan on a plywood/lucite top with a heat lamp over the stack of course. The soil mix is around 6-8 inches deep( is that ok for a hatchling?)and was quite a chore to mix...LOL...
We have very limited monitor experience, with two rescues: a mangrove(sever burns from a heat lamp)and a Ornate nile with a broken leg, both of wich were adopted by a local veterinarian, these have sparked our interest into getting our own monnitors. But we want to do it right.
I hope you will offer your thoughts and insite into this little experimental hatchling setup...I'm very open to any sugestions for improvement. Also I have been following the forum here for a while and I enjoy all the info you folks exchange, I hope you dont mind sharing some with us...One more thought, we are not the fly by nighters that seem to come and go in the herp hobby, We have lots of room for growth/expansion, and my husband and I have maintained a large reptile collection for nearly 15 years( mostly venomous)...we also have our own rodent breeding colonies. So space and food are not a problem at all. We take our interest very seriously and we fully realize the commitments involved with any herp...LOL...I couldnt imagine our lives without herps in our house...anyhow, sorry for the long post but I thought I'd share alttle about us and give a small introduction of ourselves...I'm Sierra and my husband is Shawn. We look forward to exchanging info with "yunz"...( we are from the pittsburgh area.

see if this works..if not heres a link to it...

http://photos.bravenet.com/193/470/768/5/338AD9B75C.jpg

http://photos.bravenet.com/193/470/768/5/338AD9B75C.jpg

I shoulda mentioned that I'm alos fairly new to the internet,,

What is going in it? the substrate could be deeper, other than that it is ok, simple is good and it is. good job so far. i might add another hide (i use flower pots for my dwarfs and babies).

cheers
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Varanus Creations

I think it's great that you are doing the appropriate research and asking for a range of opinions.

Dragoon is very correct in that you will not know what the temperatures will be in that enclosure until you organise a lid for it.

The enclosure looks more suited for a whitethroat than a water monitor. Although I have never kept either species, I'd be putting much more cage furniture in there. This is only my opinion, of course. Hatchling monitors are usually frightened little creatures, so the more cover the better. Given a choice of a cosy hole beneath some flat rocks and a wide open expanse of sand/dirt, they'll choose the cosy hole and you'll be lucky if you ever see the animal. If there is a lot of cover they'll feel more secure crawling around. You also want to give the monitor a choice of hide spots, rather than forcing it to use one. That one hide spot may be too hot or too cold for the animal, or it may want to make the choice between different hide spots to suit different occasions, as my animals seem to do. Keep in mind, also, that monitors are a curious, relatively intelligent reptile and like to explore lots of nooks and crannies and they like to climb. Try to imagine living in a cell with a bed and a sink, nothing else.

Hello,

Nice post and good information. well, from what you say, you like to have a large monitor lizard. The black throat is large savanna grassland type animal that tolerates moderate temperatures to high temps. for short periods, eats mostly insects, snakes, invertebrates (snails) in the wild, but in captivity people feed them rodents - which they will eat, and you have ample supply of.

The water monitor question you also need a large enclosure, a permanant source of water, they tolerate moderate to high temps providing body of water deep enough to soak in is available always is present, or they will overheat (their body temp optimal is 85 F - lowest of the Varanidae/average temp. of S.E. Asia). Their diet is a gregarious menu of anything they can swallow, including fruit, roadkill, humans, and even boiled rice. Noticeably, rodents are not a high caloric intake in wild V. salvator (Hoogerwerf, 1970), but will be readily taken with relish and speed, typical of the group. FOr more info on V. salvator see www.cybersalvator.com, as that site has alot of info on that species complex.
good luck!
markb

Hello.
You're doing a great job, IMHO.

One thing about the temps, you cannot do a dry run without a lid. Having a lid on there, will alter the temps dractically. Have a SMALL vent on the opposite side of the lamp, and use that to help control temps. You should only need a low wattage bulb to get the desired hot spot. And two bulbs in a row is better than one. It is hard for all but the smallest monitor to fit their whole body in the spot created by one bulb. When the monitor is larger, three bulbs lined up will be optimal.
A simple way to control your temps is by raising the basking platform to the light, rather than by getting higher wattage bulbs. Going to a higher wattage, will change the ambient temps in your cage, requiring you to fiddle with the venting to make it all work out again. Your rock thingies look nice, but you really need some plywood shelves in there, you can adjust the height of those much easier.
Also, make sure any rocks you have in there, are resting on the bottom, and cannot be moved at all. Monitors will dig beside/under them, and be crushed. I personally would not put any rocks in there.

My lamps are about six inches from my monitor's backs, and they get their heat no problems, no burns. They all grab heat in the morning, and rarely bask again during the day unless fed later, or gravid. It is so funny to see monitors up at the crack of dawn, waiting on their platforms in the dark, waiting for me to turn their lights on. My ambient is around 80, my hotspots 130ish.

Limiting your ventilation will help you control the humidity. You can then make your soil damp enough to hold tunnels, but not sopping wet. Even a water monitor, does not want to sit in soggy muck, with the air touching him being very drying. Both is bad for the skin. Your goal: wet air and dry soil.
You can do this, by limiting ventilation.

One thing I have noticed, about a water container, is that bored monitors delight in jumping in and out, in and out. The way you have yours set up now, you will soon have a bowl of sludge, and a river of muck around the bowl. Not to mention streaks of mud all over the sides of the enclosure. Mine stayed way cleaner, when I raised the water container up on a little shelf/rack. They seem to enjoy climbing up into it.

Have fun. D.

I have kept both Blackthroats and water monitors and I have to say, get a Blackthroat if you want to interact with it.Just my experience,but all my water monitors(5) remained skittish.They never bit or tail whipped, but any little disturbance would set them off and running.None would feed in front of me and would wait until night time or when I was a work to eat.Blackthroats are the exact opposite.They may take a finger off trying to take the food out of your hand(just kidding).When I bought my little Blackthroat at a few weeks old,she ate straight out of the shipping box(I ordered online).They have very outgoing personalities and let you know when you aggravate them.My little girl is now 15 months old and almost 5'.They are great monitors

I have copied all your thoughts and suggestions and I will tinker with them all...I'm glad you all took the time to help out and not flame me for asking dumb questions. We just want things to go as smoothly as possible when the time comes to get the monitor. I will keep you posted on how its going with the set-up. We will be working on the lid this week and turning on the heat lamp to test out the temps/humidity. And I'm about 90% sure that we will be going with the Blackthroats. I also ordered Daniel Bennetts book...I cant wait to read it. Again, keep the comments coming...I really want to do this right the first time. Ohh, and BRG...heck yea, go Steelers!!!!! However, they have few things to work on before they go too far..LOL...its gonna be an interesting season...counting the days till then.(hope they start off better than the begining of last year...)

n/p