Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my ornate nile for 3 and a half years and he is only 42 inches long,he eats as much as I can feed him and is very active. what am I doing wrong??

check your temps, a friend of mine has managed to keep his savannah at 18 inches in almost 2 yrs because he doesn't keep it warm enough. I try to tell him but he just won't listen. I would say a conservative basking spot would be 120-130deg, maybe a little hotter (Halogen bulbs work well). Ambient temps should be just over 90 on a warm end and mid to low 80's on the other.
It may not be eating to it full potential due to a slowed metabolism...try it out, if that is your problem.
If your nile burrows, try placing a heating pad under it's cage where it's den is. This works well to keep it warm even when it's sleeping.
Hope this helps.
Tim

only confuse the monitor-they burrow to get away from the heat and bask to get warmer-basic principles,my nile has no supplementary heating under her substrate and does not to bad in getting up and eating.I'm not b!tching just pointing something out,and yeah i'm new to monitors-1 year this month to be exact!
see yah
jason

In an ideal captive environment, the nile will have a warm place and a cool place out in the open, and a warm and cool place in hiding. That way it can choose what it wants. If it's too hot in its burrow, it will just dig a new one, or retreat to a cooler spot in the enclosure. My theory is that various hiding spots of various temps give the monitor more options. In all my monitors, this has been in my setups, and with all my monitors, more than likely they have chosen the warm den. However, I live in Ohio, and I need various heating sources to keep the entire enclosure warm. I don't want my monitors spending the night in a 65-70 deg den.
See ya,
Tim

if it works for you then thats brilliant.I live in scotland where a good day we will see 20degrees and a bad we will go as low as -5degrees so i know what you mean about the supplementary heating!
see yah
jason