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Taken with time lapse camera. They seem to like their cage. Cheers

Nice enclosure.

I have a little remote thingie with a time-lapse function for my digital camera and used to employ it to find out what my monitors got up to when I was away at work during the day. It was always highly entertaining viewing the results when I got home. If I set the camera up too close to the enclosure, there was always a sequence of shots during the period shortly after the monitors first came down from basking in which their faces would be pressed up against the glass, checking out the camera.

Very nice Frank.

Like I said before, that is one stunning enclosure. Kudos.
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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

Wow, that is visually spectacular, and cool "sneaky photos" of behvior. That enclosure is beautiful, and no doubt incorporates the important principals of monitor husbandry.

A practical question for you FR, designer of elaborate and beautiful enclosures: Will it be labor intensive to clean, do monitors defecate all over,on perches, basking areas,within the burrows, etc.? As you know, some reptiles make it sort of easy, i.e. my eublapharine geckos, and even indigos tend to mostly defecate in one corner, making clean up simple. Are there tricks to keeping this enclosure clean or just old fashioned attentive maintenance? Is it sort of like a well managed aquatic system, where biolgical breakdown occurs, soil bacteria, etc? Or remove the feces, just part of the game?

thank you, Vic

Hi Vic.

Good questions. First, I don't think most varanids are suitable for this type enclosure, they are just too destructive.

For instance, ackies would take the dirt under leafs and put it in the pond the first hour they are in there. Such species as the gouldi types, again would destroy the cage.

So far, these prasinus are not bothering the cage what so ever. Even the way the borrow, is by pushing their nose in and wiggling. So its not messy.

The cage is fiberglass, so while it looks like its hard to clean, its not. Also so far, they tend to deficate from the horizontal log at the window. hahahahahahahaha in one place.

The water is simple, it has a remote bucket with a submersible pump, Its valved to pump the water into the cage or into another bucket and thrown out. I then use a bucket head, which is a vaccum that goes on a homer bucket(home depot stuff) They are very inexpensive($20) and I vaccum out the remaining water and stuff. So far, once a week.

All in all, I am surprised at how little maintenance there is. Even the humidity stays high due to the waterfall and there has been little need to spray the cage.

Anyway, so far so good.

The main problem is, if fuzzies are given alive, they will wander into the water and drown, as its all down hill. So i put them in a bowl.

Did that help, ask more if you like. Cheers

Is the defecation pattern perhaps an attempt on their part to communicate with you? or is it that they like the set up so much they wish not to sully the place?
As for the drowned fuzzies...maybe if you put a couple of crayfish in the pool....sorry.....couldn't resist...

guy

Good idea Guy, but what if the dang monitors want to eat them, then what would I do?????? confusion abounds, must go stare at the wall. How you doin, summers almost over, hahahahahahahahaha been herpin like crazy

Wow! Great enclosure! I love it!

I supposed the next you'll be building is a green house for them, replicating the wild where they come from! [chuckle] I think they would like that a lot with all the natural sunlight and trees.

I was thinking maybe building a cage inside a house with glass that they use for the green houses for a ceiling; this way during the day, there would plenty of natural sunlight shining through into the cage, which is great for psychological benefit to stimulate their appetite. Kindda like what the late Bert Langernwarf did with his agama green house...except it would be inside the house. What do you think, FR? This way it seems like they can be outside without being outside and still get the sun they need. That should be my next project. Haha!

I have outdoor cages, indoor cages, indoor/outdoor cages, have had varanids in them since 1991.

They do not need the sun, the sun does not help with appetite. They tend to avoid the sun as much a possible. They are only attracted to Bright, when they have a EXTREME need for heat.

Other to indicate where heat is, they have no need for bright lite, as soon as they warm up, they will move to areas of low lite.

About Bert, he was a friend of mine, He only worked with lizards that would FIT his system. Monitors did not and he failed with them.

ALso it was not his cages that allowed him to succeed with some lizards, it was his endless ability to WORK, that was the reason for his success. He seemed to enjoy doing that work, the hardest way possible.

While you sit around thinking of this and that, Bert and I, have an ability to Do what we think and if that fails, try something else, and if that fails, try something else again, Not just think of something else, DO IT.

Please do not be offended, but anybody can think of this or that(theory) very few can actually apply it and make it work.

I take my hat off to Bert, he could make the goofyist ideas work. We were brothers in that area.

We both also had one other approach that allowed our success, and that is, we both understood that in order to be successful, we needed an endless supply of food for our charges , so we both not only bred lizards(reptiles) but the food they ate. Which was as important as breeding the lizards.

So it boils down to the tennis shoe slogan, JUST DO IT! Then you will learn what is needed, after all, what else are you going to do, sit on your bum and THINK!!! Bert could read just like you, maybe better, but it boils down to DOING IT. Thats where you fall flat, your all about ideas and not about doing. I hope I am wrong, but I am not, am I? This is not meant as an insult, you see, the fun is in the doing, not the thinking.

Just go to the zoo and watch gorillas, they sit arount all day thinking, and all they want, is to DO SOMETHING.

I thought Bert Langernwarf was (and is) the best of the best of the best. I think he could probably keep a lot of sensitive species with no problems. [chuckle][shrug]

Already have lots of those only other montiors are in them.

For some reason, Green trees have always been a favorite. Thats a Great set up, Frank.
Cheers
Todd G.
www.lightyourreptiles.com