Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello guys, i would like some response of longtime varanid keepers to my previous topic because nobody has gave reaction to it and i am just a little concerned. Would you respond? greetings, barry

Ive been very very sick for 4 days now, even having trouble thinking straight sometimes. I was relaxing by the river the night before this started, yesterday a confirmed case of west nile virus showed up in my area, I hope its not what it is, my doctor has me on antibiotics for now until Monday.

Get well soon svHar! Take it easy! greetings, barry

Sorry, misspelled your name again, cheers sHvar!

Taking antibiotics is silly unless you have truly been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Assuming the worst, the antibiotics will only make life hard for you, and will accomplish nothing for controlling the West Nile virus. Your doctor really ought to be ashamed for allowing or even recommending you take prophylactic measures for an unknown cause; who is to say it is even a pathogen?

You could be symptomatic of any hundreds of diseases; recall there is a very finite limit to symtoms and near limitless named diseases - eg, your symtoms mean nothing until you have a confirmed diagnosis. Don't fall for Med Student Syndrome.

That said, West Nile is not fun and I would not wish it upon anyone.

Try this to answer your question about peat: take a pinch and rub it around your eyes, and see how you feel in half an hour. Peat is the most durable stuff left after composting sphagnum moss in acid for a few centuries, and a fair bit of it is in the form of fine splinters. It's dusty when dry and goopy when wet. Because of the fine splinters I would not want monitors to be rubbing their faces in it or eating it.

If you want to improve the texture of your soil, try dead leaves.

Hi Dutch, first off, in order to try and help, we need some very basic things to work with like, what species, what size, cage type, intent of the substrate, etc.

Monitors range in from desert dwellers to riverine species, from tropical rainforest to sand blows. So indeed peat my be good for nesting a forest type species, but not particularly good for living quarters.

I would find a good monitor book that tells about natural history. Then look for perferred soil types. Some of the other books have this. That is a place to start. It will be you a basic understanding of what type monitor you have.

So yea, do some homework then include some information, then maybe someone will respond.

Some materials like peat, stain your monitors black, so even if they work for something, they may be nasty to work with. Good luck FR

Hi Dutch,

Sphagnum moss dries out or becomes soggy mess; when dry, it can produce a mold/spore that can attack your respiratory system! I avoid it, as I have enough guck in my lungs already.

I recommend plenty of dirt, mix a little potting soil in it, and oak leaves/detris from any forest/park where leaf litter is plentiful = this is very cheap to collect, and plenty of it in most cities/towns.

terrestrial monitors love to dig - so give them plenty to dig in. It unduces exercise, add some superworms in it to give them enrichment and a small snack too - their activity levels will rise considerably under more friendly conditions.

Good luck,
markb

Thanks for the reply guys!! greetings, barry