Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My timor has stayed in one of the papertowl tubes he uses in a tree for the last day and a half. there is food in the enclousure but he still is hiding. is this normal behavior or should i be worried about him hiding so much?

Timors do hide a lot. They are the extremely shy compared to other monitors. I have heard that keeping them is like keeping an empty cage.

My very first monitor (years ago) was a blue spotted timor and it hid almost all the time. Another one I had years later, when my husbandry skills were better, was alot more active. Even with this one, I would go days with out seeing it.

I wouldn't worry about it hiding for a day or 2.
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Ed

1 of mine hides all the time I sometimes go 2 weeks without seeing her. the other 2 are out and about quite a bit. so not seeing your timor for a day 2 or even a week as long as you know they are eatying is perfectly normal. Some of them are very skittish some are not depends on how much they trust you.

Shawn
1.2 Blue Spotted Timor

What was it that you changed about your husbandry pracitices that made them more active. I feel I have a good grasp on how to house him However he is my first monitor so I am still looking for any info I can get. I have him by himself in an enclousure that is 3'wide x 4'tall x 2'deep. He has about 4 or 5 inches of dirt covered with wood chips that he no longer digs in since i upgraded him to the larger cage with more trees. (he was in a 22 high for the first month I had him due to some poor advise from the guy i bought him from, i know real stupid on my part.) However He has lots of placesto hide a basking spot of around 115-120 degrees farenheight. lower cool temp around 75-80. He has lots of places to climb vertical and horisontal branches and even burlap on the walls to add more room for climbing. He has a water hole on the cool side of his cage though I have yet to see him get in. I feed him up near the top of the branches and i feed eather ground turkey or caned monitor diet. He has 2 hides in the trees and 2 on the ground (papertowl roles.)The enclousure only has 8 1/4" holes for circulation helps keep the humidity up I try to keep it around 60-75%

Sorry for the long post but was wondering if anyone has any tips or Ideas on ways to make his life bettter or how to get him to be more active I would love it. I understand that they are skittish I was just wanting to know if anyone had any tips. Thanks a bunch

Joel

I would really sugest that you switch to rodents as a primary food source and maybe keep the turkey as an additional treat other then that sounds like you have him in a nice setup the humdity and temps in mine are as follows humidity 65-80% temps 75 on cool side with the water 95 on warm side and 145 basking temp I gave them a couple choices on where to bask several tree limbs a area with a flat board and a large pile of ceramic tiles ( I know it sounds silly) they seem to like the tiles the best as they hold onto the heat ( kinda like a rock just easier to clean ) all 3 are kinda flity and any sudden moves or loud noises send them into hiding but the 2 more tusting ones just develpoed the trust based on the fact that I feed them I think and that I don't try to touch them or mess with them unless I abosutly have to. as far as what you do and why *shrug* it is upto you but I think the combination of not forcing them to interact with me and feeding them at the same time every other day it has really helped there confidance in the fact that I won't eat them *smile*

Shawn
1.2 Blue Spot Timors

do you feed live or frozen rodents? if frozen do you neeed to "teach" them to eat them or do they just go for it. do you feed them in trees or on the ground. and do you have to cut them open to get a taste of them or something? any other info at all is awesome. sorry again for all the questions I am just trying to give him the best home possible and i hope to breed him someday soon. speaking of that is there an easy way to tell the sex. I have heard that some vets can do it but its really hard and I have also heard that you can watch them eliminate but in my 8 months of herp keeping i have only seen one of my herps do this one time and that was my corn on my leg lol.

thanks again
Joel

FROZEN MICE only the live kinda can do to much damage not to mention being kinda a pain to deal with. of course thaw them to room temp first and I have not had to teach mine anything about food they are walking garbage disposals. just put it in there near where they are hiding and they will find it. Yours is prob out more then you think you just don't see it moveign around. as far as in the trees or on the ground I have fed in both places they don't seem to mind as long as they kinda know where to look. as far as sexing if it lays eggs it is female if now well could be male could be you are not giving it enought of the right things to make it cycle *shrug* it is almost impossiable to tell I would say if you are trying to breed them get an adult that a rep vet has checked out you have a better chance of getting the sex you want that way.
I lucked out my first was a female and I happened to get 1 of each the next time I saw some.

Shawn
1.2 Blue Spot Timors