Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone.

I am finally getting around to constructing some new enclosures to house my V. boehmei pair, as well as an extra enclosure for quarantine, my 'other' pair of beccari, or just a cage to separate individuals into if they get 'naughty'. hahaha.. It's always good to have an extra enclosure or two laying around, just in case you need to separate animals. Up until now, I have been using one of my quarantine enclosures as a "time out" cage.

I am constructing these two side by side, in the same fashion as I have my other tree monitor cages, with a few ammendments which will make maintanence a lot easier.

The bottom will consist of a water resevoir, like my other cages
Ammendments:
1. in the bottom corners/edges of the enclosure, I will have the walls slope in a bit, to encourage water/waste to drip down the wall, and into the basin below, without getting stuck in the lower corners/cracks... which can be a pain in the arse to clean. So to clean, I simply just spray/hose the entire enclosure down, all waste/debris washes down into the basin, and then out the
2. drain/plumbing. The bulkhead installed in the bottom of the tub leads down to a ball joint valve, which then leads to the outside, where the waste water is distributed into my garden... perfect fertilizer...hahahaha... No more messing around with pumps, or cyphons, or manually scooping water out of the basins... just open the drain, and presto!, no more crap water..

I think that these two ammendments will make my life much easier, without changing the type of enclosure the animals are already used to...

I will keep everyone posted to my progress... Tomorrow I should be able to get the majority of the two cages completed...had to call it quits tonight, as I'm sure my neighbors here in suburbia would not appreciate me sawing and drilling at one in the morning....

Take care everyone, talk to you soon..

bob




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TheOdatriad

I will be interested to see how this looks when it is finished.

Where will the nesting site be?

Do tree monitors need that much water at the bottom of the cage?

Hi there,

I have decided to go with an all water bottom, due to ease and efficiency of cleaning, not because they need that much water, although they will use it to bathe and drink from, along with the daily mistings provided by the automatic misting system.

After keeping tree monitors for a couple of years now, I have seen in my collection, that my animals really did not use the floor too much, very infrequently I might add.

By having an all water basin, it keeps humidity up, which really wasn't a concern with my enclosures... but the main part is that I can easily clean the cage. All the waste falls down into the basin, or can be washed down the walls of the enclosure into the water, and out the drain.

I guess it is similar to Mike Stefani's tree monitor setups, however, the only flaw that I saw in his cages, was that he used a lot of water,many gallons i believe, which I believe is unecessary, as that's a pain in the ass to be cleaning out everyday, as the monitors do crap everyday. I usually do not use any more than 3" of water in the basins... I have heard of people's monitors mysteriously drowning in deeper waters, although I don't know why.. but again, just another reason to have shallow water..

As for nesting goes, all of my nesting arrangements are elevated off the ground. With my macraei, I offered them several different areas to nest in, including two deep areas on the ground to lay. They preferred to lay in my elevated boxes. I am still experimenting on the shape and dimensions of the boxes I am working with, so that I really cannot be too specific about right now... I've gotta come up with an acceptible designs soon, as my female should be laying her eggs in another couple of weeks, if she does follow the same trend as she did the last couple of times.

I will be sure to post more pics as the project develops, as I'm sure most of you at home are scratching your heads thinking, what the hell is he talking about??? I am going to go work on it some more right now, i'll have more pics for your viewing later this evening..

Cheers, and have a great day...

bob
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TheOdatriad

I like it!, a self cleaning monitor lizard cage.

What sort of substrate will be in the nesting box? Leaf material?

How will you feed? Will you lose any feed items to drowning in the water?

Sounds like a cool system.

Do you see your tree monitors pair bonding?

I would imagine that tree monitors and birds would be rather similar in behavior.

Ok, let me try to answer all your questions....

What sort of substrate will be in the nesting box? Leaf material?
-I have been having decent success with dampened ground coconut fiber at the bottom, and several inches of dampened sphagnum moss on top. I am currently experimenting with some ground conifer bark. It is small, and absorbs water in a similar way as I would imagine termite crap to in the wild. We'll see if this stuff works... I have a feeling it will. It has a good consistency to it.

How will you feed? Will you lose any feed items to drowning in the water?
-I make sure that all of my animals feed off of my tongs, especially once pairs are introduced to one another. This eliminates food competition, and prevents any animals from being nervous, and not eating in front of you. If they do not choose to feed from tongs that day, I simply leave the f/t mouse/fuzzy on one of several elevated dishes I have in the cage, mainly for drinking water, but I usually try to keep one dry for missed feedings.

Do you see your tree monitors pair bonding?
-No, I have not seen any of this "bonding" that you speak of. For the most part, when not breeding, my animals keep to themselves, and avoid interracting with one another. When a female is cycling, the two of them are always near one another, even when not physically copulating with her. While I would assume that in a monitor's mind, not every monitor of the same species, opposite sex looks attractive to them, so I would assume in most cases, you may have to try several different pairings until you find two that like one another..

I would imagine that tree monitors and birds would be rather similar in behavior.
-Well, I think there are many differences between the two, as many of the traits that "reptiles" share with birds are seen in crocodilians, not squamata.. I am not exactly sure what you are comparing in their behavior...as far as breeding? nesting?...

anyways, I hope this answers your questions, I am taking a break from construction right now to answer emails... I've got the majority of the framework up, tomorrow will be putting up the tileboard walls and sealing the corners, and floor-around the tub, and maybe, if I get to it, the door and electrical work-ie. lighting, heat, etc...

Cheers, take care

bob
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TheOdatriad

It is great to see the hobby evolving and improving in the husbandry dept. the way that it is.

Good luck with the breeding. I hope your husbandry techniques pay off in babies.

It used to be that almost nobody could even keep a prasinus alive.

Now we have successful breeding.

I think that there is not much that has changed. Granted, husbandry techniques have improved over the years, but hundreds of tree monitors, and other wc monitors are still dying, due to unsuspecting buyers, or keepers who aren't committed to putting the time, money, and resources into properly caring for their animals. Monitors aren't the type of animal that you can leave for a week, and then come back and feed it, leave for another week, etc.. like snakes. I think that most monitor keepers do not realize their true needs, or like I said, are not willign to do so because of the cost. Few people will spend 1,000 on a cage for a 1000 dollar animal... Most people somehow shell out a grand for a rare monitor, and then stick the poor thing in a $20 used 55gallon aquarium. It is a shame. But that's how things have always been, and will continue to be. There will always be a large percentage of "those people" in the hobby.

It's good that most of the people that come here to this forum have open minds, and are here to learn, and gain some constructive criticism.

Anyways, enough ranting,

bob
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TheOdatriad

Hey
First off, congratulations on all the sex, monitor sex that is...hahah. What are the dimensions on the tub? Are they cement mixing tubs? Also, could you post a pic of your entire enclosures, past-present????? I would appreciate it. My pair is eating, crapping and swimming, but no mating yet. Thanks'
Robert

Hi robert,

since these cages are for my boehmei, which are one of my smallest tree monitor species, and the other cage is for quarantine, or "time-out", they are a bit smaller than my beccari, and macraei cages.

The sizes of these tubs that I am using are 3'x2'.You can pick them up at the Home Despot for about 12bucks or so. The bulkhead's somewhere around 10bucks too. The overall dimensions of the cage will be 3x6x2. So, as you will see in the pics to come, there will be two of these cages side by side, built together..

Now that I think about it, this is a little bit bigger than my prasinus enclousre. I wish I could make ever one of my enclosures of uniform size for my tree monitors, but I have to think of space, and where and how to fit them into my current situation, so some cages differ in sizes- ie. widths, depths...
Someday, I will have a much larger space to do whatever i would like to it... but for now, I am limited...

I thank you for your compliments, however, all I have right now is eggs. I will celebrate and consider myself accomplishing somethign once/if they hatch out. Hopefully soon.

As for pics of my current/past caging, I believe I have pictures of all my enclosures on my website, although they are probably on the old side, as I am always modifying and correcting aspects that my animals appear to dislike/not favor. I will be updating my site's pics, once I get a couple of days to sit down and rearrange the site, and take some decent pics... I honestly don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately....

Anyways, I'll post some more pics later this evening, as I make more progress on the enclosures....

Cheers, best of luck to you and your beccari.. Take care,

bob
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TheOdatriad