Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've noticed that Critter, and now Apollo both stick only their heads or half their body out of their hides and sleep. Is this a instintual habit or what?
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Monitors, in normal conditions, both wild and in nature, live deep to shallow in total darkness. Ask anyone who has seen wild monitors. Now, don't get me wrong. It can and does happen, but its called in nature, a fatal mistake and its rare. If they did that, they would expose their sleeping bodys to all manner of hungry mammals and birds. Asia and indo, as well as africa are full of monitor consuming beasts. Even in Oz, a dingo can take your baby.

Also, monitors do not have a "hide" they have a series of holes, cracks, crevices, and shelters. These allow different conditions at different times for different needs.

In captivity its very much the same, burrows and hides, as you call them, are to fullfill needs. If they don't meet their needs, they don't use them properly or at all.

You should consider that monitors do use a language, This language is expressed thru behavior.

Moisture and temperature are two of a million reasons monitors use certain holes and not use certain holes. But normally the always retreat to a shelter. A useful shelter. Would you sleep in your bed if it was, too hot, too cold, too wet, too dirty, too full of bugs, etc. Neither do they, only they have their reasons. Also, would you use your living room, kitchen, shop, etc for the same reasons. Something to think about. Good Luck FR

Both of them did/do use their holes, hides, etc, it's just that sometimes, they'll have their head or up to their front legs poking out.

I understand what your saying about the dangers in the wild though. I thought maybe it was another way to thermo regulate, watch for prey/predators, or just a habit.
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What is this "Hide"? I have found those half logs useless unless they are buried and made snug and tight.
I am sorry, I don't remember what you have or how big it is.
My big male albig rarely hides. He will go underground, but I don't think it is to hide.
My savs do hide and will poke their heads out if they spot movement and think there might be a meal nearby. If someone makes a quick movement, they duck back inside.

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

He has multiple "hides" like the his burrows underneath some flat cinder blocks I have in there for him, two boxes which I use to elevate his basking spot which he has dug a hole under, and under two propped rocks.
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Monitors take care to stay hidden, that is what they do. But please understand, you may not be giving them any of the reasons or tools to act normally. For instance where monitors live, its normally very hot on the surface, this allows the area they live in to be the right temperature. If the substrate is not of suitable temps, they do not use it. Its very very simple.

To understand this, is simple, they avoid the surface much of the time, the reason is, their needs are met while hidden. Which is most of their life.

The term hide is very very poor, what they do in holes, logs, etc, is live. Its their homes.

I find it odd people cannot understand this. You have a home, you live in your home, yet you do go out and work, or play, but you still have a home. They are the same, only they do not go out as much.

Some of their food is found in their burrows, some is ambushed from the mouth of their burrows, only when prey is scarce do they actively leave their burrows to hunt prey.

Here is a pic of an albig in ambush position. Please notice this pic was taken with a flash, if you look you will see, almost none of the monitor is in lite, only a few scales. I have a pic somewhere like this one without the flash, all you see are a couple of scales. I see this with many reptiles. FR

It is amazing just how fast they can exit that hole when they spot a meal.
My albigs have their favorite holes dug behind large pieces of driftwood. I think it is more for ambushes than hiding.
Most of the time if you want to see my savs, you will need a flashlight to peer deep in their holes to figure out which one they are in.
My favorite way to see them is to toss in a few dozen large roaches.
My argus is almost always out digging, rearranging the cage, filling the water bowl with dirt or basking.
I am starting to wonder if it is smart enough to know fear.
The crazy lizard charged the glass on my male albigs cage.

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

I think ppl refere to them as hides because when they think of a monitor, they think of the cage as their home, and the places where they hide, "hides".

The ambush position is normally what he's in if he's not out snooping around, but sometimes he pokes out alittle more to see whats going on outside the cage cause I come in and out of my room.
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Do you use the kane mat for supplemental heat at night? Looks like thats an outdoor enclosure.