Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am going to get one of the monitors mentioned, the black throat or the asian water monitor. Which monitor has a better temperment? which one would you suggest for a pet? I can only get a baby water or a small juvie blackthroat. Let me know if you could help. Also care sheet sites or cage building sites/plans are needed. -Ryan

Need alot of space, alot of heat, alot of food (whole animal foods, mice, rats, chicken peeps, roaches, etc). The question you need to answer for yourself, not to use is "do I have the ability to provide a few hundred dollars a year in whole animal foods, and do I have the ability and means to keep them in a cage big enought o make them comfortable" "am I willing to build a big waterproof cage that may take up a major section of my house for up to 30 plus years". A few things to think about. Pick which ever species you prefer if you have the ability to properly care for them. A water monitor can grow from 6-9ft plus and weigh from 50-75lbs, a BT can grow to 5-7ft plus and weigh from 15-38 plus lbs. Both can cause serious injuries, and destoy your house if they get loose.

I think I am prepared. I have money and suffiecient funding.I am building a cage tomorrow that is going to be 30 x 60x24, with radiant heat panels,flood lights, and thermostat.

30x60x24 inches will last about 6 months if your lucky. If you mean feet then by all means go for it, thats alot of room, sounds like an entire house.

n/p

I meant inches. 6 months is all that will need to last.I plan on building a cage that is going to be 8x4x4 FEET for his permanent housing.

4x4x8ft is enough for a medium sized monitor at best. Not for a monitor that grows anywhere from 5-7 plus feet or from 6-9 plus feet. That size you could house an argus.

black/whitethroats would be ok in that sized enclosure as well, i use 4ft deep 3ft hight and 8ft long enclosures for all my albigs that are paired up, its enough room, as not everyone can build 10x5x5's, not too mention one foot bigger in each direction isnt a big deal, its not the difference between life and death, its barely noticable in fact. Now realize these animals have the potential of attaining these sizes, it doesnt mean every white/blackthroat is going to get that big, the big ones are less common than what you think, with alot never really growing much over five foot, and some females staying in the 4ft range, just because they can doesnt mean they all will, and it doesnt mean it wasnt properly cared for etc, it just means its an average to small animal, noting more nothing less. You will be much happier, IMHO with a blackthroat, they are much more rewarding to keep than arguses if you are going to interact with it more, if you are going to just have it to watch, and observe, get an argus, they will never let you down as far as entertainment goes.
have a great day.

Reconsider bigger, not alot bigger, a few feet is a few more feet whether its 8 square feet more floorspace or 1-3ft more height in addition, its for them and they will use it. In a way I wish I could have made Sobeks cage that 1 ft higher and 1 ft wider as 2 ft of dirt takes alot of space up and she could use every bit of it. Ive noticed over the years on this forum, other forums, and albigs I have seen in person or dealt with that the average length of female BTs seems to be 5ft at 2-4 years of age(now thats average length of females that survive their owners husbandry for 2-4 years of), the average size of male BTs seems to be between 5-6ft in length at between 2-4 years in captivity, (again thats individuals that are still alive after 2-4 years in their owners care). Ive noticed in the past with some lousey husbandry (newspaper substrate, hard floor surfaces, high watt reptile bulbs, lousey temp gradients, etc) that male and female BTs (these were imports) grew in a few months time from 2-4.5ft plus easily. I agree that banded WTs stay smaller, and some other local WT types stay smaller, yet many grow 6ft plus on average, not on occaision or rarely. In fact it doesnt take much looking around to find that out. Years ago when I had my first monitor I new someone who raised 2 BTs in large aquariums that they had little room to move in, both grew to 6-6.5ft in a few years time, neither one had a basking light or any light over them, they had ambient room temps, like many people do with snakes. I dont in any way condone this for husbandry, or attribuite anything to their growth, but it shows what they are capable of if kept warm enough, both were males. Most cases BTs in their keepers care dont live to see a years time, if subpar husbandry will only slow them down, what does it take to kill them that fast? I cant answer that because most owners wont ever admit to or show the real conditions they kept them in, they never learn what they did wrong, but they go out buy another and try it all over again. Its like when herp owners take sick herps to the vet, the vet asks specific questions on the animals conditions, just like any other pet the owners tell them what they want to hear and many times not the truth, that tells me they know whats wrong but are unwilling to fix it, and dont care about the animal, but believe the vet can work some magic and make it all better. When I got into monitors 14 years ago the average size of WTs was 4-6ft, the average size of BTs was 5-7ft, so if husbandry techniques have gotten a little better on average why would the average size be smaller, or the average life span be shorter? That tells me husbandry is application specific, applied properly it works. Also back then it wasnt easy to even find albigs in the pet trade, back then it was rare to see Bosc monitors in a any pet stores, so I guess those that found them went that extra mile to care for them because you couldnt walk around the corner and just buy another one when you killed it.

Shvar, i sure wish you would use paragraphs! your posts are full of info, but can be so hard to read!
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Important info that I would have to respond afterwards with and end up not making paragraphs. I try to put it all into one post if possible.
By the way, hows everything doing out there? Any new BTs captive bred this year. I love the pics you post of monitors and gilas.

everything is going well, snake breeding looks good. we have cycling Uros as well, and some very nice, and interesting stuff happening with the Gilas, i have very high hopes for them again this year : )

as for Ionides, the pair that we got from Pete Zupich dropped some bad eggs, but i think that is progress towards some good ones : )
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Someone in this country needs to, especially with consistency.