Do you use the same husbandry techniques for your other lizards such as bearded dragons, tegus, iguanas, leopard geckos? I was observing some of the cages that these species are kept in and I don't think a monitor would live to their second birthday if they were kept the same way. I was looking, for example, at a tegu forum and not one keeper that I observed used cattle troughs for a bottom. I don't know if they have a high failure rate or not they don't seem too. Keeping monitors forces you to put a whole new spin on reptiles. At least it does me.