Reptile & Amphibian Forums

May be a dumb question but i was just curious.

running chainsaw, if your not careful how you handle it you may lose some flesh and blood.

Does that mean you cannot pick up a chainsaw and work with it? Nope but you better be paying attention. Oh and did I mention the chainsaw is run by remote control only the remote is not in your hands.

so i take it they are NOT one of the pet monitor species. They are awesome creatures, they're soo prehistoric looking.

they can be a pet, you just have to be willing to watch your pet not get it out and hug and kiss it.

They can still be rewarding to keep. But if you want something you can let walk the house, sit on your lap, etc. then NO they do not fit that.

just kidding.
I have several scars from the little pirate...
Ian
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buy the ticket, take the ride...

I will respond in several areas.

First, I do not believe any species of monitor is a good pet. They are not domesticated animals, they are wild animals. They can be good captives, but not really a good "pet".

Secondly, Monitors are individuals, as well as species. Some individuals make better captives then others and the species can effect the percentage of this, but you cannot go by species alone. You need to consider the individual. i.e., CB vs. WC, or the history of the individual considered, ones kept in torturist conditions with hundreds of others compared to ones kept in acceptable conditions.

The above is directly effected by metabolism, all monitors are reptiles and reptiles are ectotherms, which means they respond directly to their enviornment. If kept in conditions they cannot reach their perferred levels of metabolism, they are "not" able to act like monitors, this can be confused with being a good pet.

Lastly, its my opinion, if you have or need to ask your question, you are not ready to actually become a keeper. You need to study more and at a later time, you can become a keeper.

I understand there are some very tolerate individual monitors being kept. Cheers FR

I don't think he was planning on getting one, he was just curious.

Yeah i'm not wanting to get one, if u had of read the earlier post u would have seen this, and yes i agree, if u want to be a keeper u should not have to ask questions, but isnt just about everybody on here a keeper? and they are asking questions.

Hi Kevin,
Yes we almost all have monitors. I am yet what I would call a keeper, I am a person that has lizards in boxes in my house.
I ask questions because I am still learning. That's what I think is so great about these animals, they are always teaching me something new.
Once you think you have things figured out, they throw you a curve. There is alot of experience here to learn from, but as FR has taught me, the best teachers are the animals. They know what they need and want, we can only try to figure out what it is and do our best to give it to them.
I don't keep monitors, I think I work for them.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

I sort of liken Croc monitors to reticulated pythons and black throated monitors to Burmese pythons. Crocs are far more wary, are capable of sudden strikes (bites), more flighty and always moving much like a retic (and most retics are slow to bite but are more apt to do so than a burm). Black throated monitors are big and lazy like burms, tolerate more handling and are easier to manage. Of course, as somoe of the posts suggested, there are exceptions but having worked with crocodile monitors for a while now, I wouldn't consider them "lap lizards" by any means. One little "love nip" from these lizards will send you to the hospital with major nerve damage and perhaps worse.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL