Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone.....
After A long research and many questions asked and many answers received I finaly bought a new baby Dumerils from "Ben Seigel" in Fla.
As of today it still has its orangey/reddish head....its probably 12inches - 1 inch...I dont handle it alot yet because it seems to stress it and too much.
It has a hot area that stays @ 130 degrees (measured with temp gun)...the ambient temps are 75-85 usually...the Humidity stays between 65 and 85 %.
So far I have noticed some very unique behaviors from this monitor.....It loves the water (which I have supplied and change daily)..has a water container that is probably 4 times bigger that it is right now.
Also it will only poop in the water...which is awesome...makes cage cleanup easy!
Right now I do have it in a 90 gallon glass tank...I know the glass tank police will get me for this....I built a Oak top for it which has 3 coats of poly on it and 2 cutouts for heat lamps.
Also mounted underside is 3 small florescent fixtures for ambient light.
The neatest action so far is that it will use the same burrow every night for sleeping and when it decides to sleep it usually sleeps soundly....normal?
Thanks for reading!
Bryan in Va.

Trying to put in some pics....

Hi, it`s good you`re pleased with the monitor, they truly are wonderful animals!
If you provide a means for them to defaecate in a water dish/pool, they usually do!
Sleeping soundly through the night isn`t a problem either, so long (obviously) as the animal`s active/eating normally etc, at other times.
The problem with fish taks is the ammount of heat you lose through the glass, also, no privacy. A "quick fix" (temporarily), is to tape some thin plywood around the back, two sides and bottom, to help insulate. You haven`t mentioned substrate, what type and how deep is it?

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.....When the time comes...which will be soon,
I am thinking a 6 ft long x 4 ft deep x 4 ft tall.
Substrate now is a mix of topsoil and cypress mulch....@ 10 inches deep on one end decling to the other end at 2-3 inches.
I am curious as to when I should consider more handling time?
Bryan

"When can I consider more handling time?"

One of the least important factors in keeping your lizard healthy and gaining ANY sort of trust is to keep the handling down to little to nothing until they reach their bold stage and realize you haven't eaten them. May take a while, may not take such a long a while - every monitor is different.

The most important thing right now is to get it out of a fish tank and into an enclosure built specifically for him. Focus on that first and the rest will come.

That is well known and its in the process (THANKS!)....for now the tank is going to have to work as "grow out home"....
Still trying to learn how to put up some photos...uhggg

photos

Cute lil guy!
Good luck with him.
Mike
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Mike's Monitors!

Thanks!
Right now it appears that Crickets are the staple diet .....tried dicing shrimp and offering live superworms.....no reaction.
Bryan

Hi again, you need to add supplements to the insects (inverts), but not to any vertebrate prey. He/she looks very nice!

Hi again also...
Thanks for the help so far.....
I do gutload them and dust them.....the place I got it from said they were doing the mice pinkies every morning....and the day I got it, it did throw one up....i guess from the stress of shipping etc etc.
I dont have access to live pinkies at the moment....
Bryan