Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Or is it biological? Both Critter and now Apollo seem to have a set bedtime and won't come out after 9 pm until the next morning.

temps are set up right?

No set answer to any of those questions. My albig comes out in the morning, cruises around, eats, bask, poops digs wanders some more, bask some more and goes underground right before dark.
My argus is ussaully most active in the mornings and late afternoons. My biggest sav is a night owl, she stays underground most of the day and comes out to bask and eat after the kids get home from school until around 10 pm or so.
As far as digesting times, it depends on what and how much you are feeding them. Larger items like rats seem to me to take longer than the same weight in mice.
Give them lots of food and close to the proper husbandry and they will digest and work off what they eat.

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

Well, that kinda ties into the bedtime thing. I get off school late so sometimes they are already "in bed" and I don't want to lay some food in there because if they don't eat it, it will begin to stink up the cage. But Apollo and Critter do/did the exact same thing as Fluffy does. They have that routine down.

I don't worry about that, I sometimes just set a bowl of mice in his cage and take the empty bowl out later. I have yet to remove a mouse, just the empty bowl.

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

Well, i have to to keep my mom off my back about him. She hates him all she needs is a motive to make me get rid of him.

Then clean the cage everyday like clockwork, sometimes twice a day. Most Moms don't like the smell of monitor poop.

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

I clean the cage dude. What I'm saying is that I don't want to leave F/T mice in there over night because they start stinkin and make the cage smell.

And I am saying, I never saw a healthy albig turn down a meal.

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

SCOTT! Your not understanding me. If Apollo turns in for the night and I stick mice in there and they stay in there over night because he's asleep, not because he's not hungry, i will have a stinky cage before he wakes up and eats them.

Ummm, why not put the mice into the cage in the morning then? It's really not that complicated. And if you put them on the cool side of the cage, they won't start to smell near as quick either. Or you could just teach it to come out to get fed.

--Robert

Most monitors are day-time dwellers. My BT comes out when i switch on the lights when i wake up, then goes back in his den like 5 mins before switching them off before i sleep. Also the 4 Niles have a variable schedule...sleep when they feel like, awake when they feel....even with lights on or off.