Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I turned the soil and added a bunch of wet sod from the lawn to freshen up my bio active dirt. This also allowed me to check the texture of the dirt at depth and subsequently cheese off my critters. I had to relocate Cera to a 55 gallon tank for about an hour, and I got hissed at and tail whipped for it, Littlefoot wouldn't even let me pick him up at all, so I worked around him. The surprising thing is, even after two years, that dirt still had awesome texture and humidity all the way down. The old "log ramp" that was eventually buried as I added dirt over time has disintegrated from wood rot, it literally crumbled as I pulled it out. The treated framework of the cage itself is still holding strong...

My wife Dorothy getting her hands dirty...

remember the plastic pipe?? I pulled it out.

Littlefoot has to keep inspecting my work... He's not real happy with me at the moment.

Everything out of the way exposes the chamber they had dug out deep below the surface.

A sweet tongue shot..

Not exactly sure why, but Littlefoot began swatting at the sod with his front left foot???

one of the three tote boxes full of wet sod I dumped in there...

I left the pipe lay on the surface, didn't take long to get used again...

They still have that slender build.

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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

No sure why you call that a jerky machine, Deep dirt is the base that allows for humidity and temps to be effective.

That is how they work in nature. I guess you need something to force you to do something, if that's the case, then great. The animals look great. Not sure you have to be so complicate about what your talking about, deep soil, lots of nice plants, How good does it get? Animals love it, BAM that's all you need to think about.

Are they all males, looks like it. I am positive if you had a female, you would already have eggs. Best wishes and keep it dirty

I have a memory like a hard drive sir, You called my enclosure a "Jerky machine" when I built it just over two years ago.

You doomed those animals to failure when they were babies.

Well, here we are. They are now the fittest captive adults you are likely to lay eyes on, they have a land speed that blows my mind, Muscle tone of a body builder, insatiable appetites, burrow like an excavator and jump pretty damn high in the air for a mouse.

Not too bad for a jerky machine.

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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

Your hard drive is broke, that was your last cage, the one you kept your first Sav in, that I there was something wrong with it and it died of what I said.

If I was you, I would not depend on your hard drive so much.

No offense, but your a human, and humans forget and all such. I had a really good friend(RIP) and he told me he never forgets. I then said, HOW WOULD YOU KNOW, if you forgot, you would not remember. He freaked out. Can not forget, can not forget, forgot, forgot, imperfect, imperfect, imperfect, must destroy, VIGER cannot forget. Must destroy. hahahahahahahaha(star trek) I least that's what I remember. Really Dude, get over it!

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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

There is something completely the matter with you.

Congrats, after two years, you raised up a couple of Savs. That makes you what? a newbie keeper? no wait, my neighbor did that in a fish tank.

How come your not on letterman or Leno, with that hard drive mind of yours. It boggles my mind that with that much brain power, you managed to take two years.

Best wishes to your animals

You fluster so easy it makes it fun when I'm bored.

You know, the proverbial kid poking the hornet's nest.
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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

Why wouldn't I fluster(fluster??????) when I am talking to someone who's brain dead.

You killed a monitor, thru poor husbandry, your vet confirmed it. They it took about 100 texts to get you to understand anything. Back and forth, etc etc, you calling me names etc. And it was you who killed the monitor, not me. All I did was try and help you.

Then it took another 100 texts to get you to understand how you killed that animal. 100 texts to get you to understand it was the cage.

Yet, you and your amazing brain remembers one sentence somewhere in the middle of those 100 texts and its out of context. So now, two years later, you bring it up like you won a war. Dude, why on earth aren't you happy your monitors are still alive and healthy? That is the question.

Someone attempts to help you and you make them the bad guy. Dude, your not nearly as smart as you think you are.

And yes, raising up any monitor is THE BEGINING and the easy part. So congrats, you just did the easy part even if it took twice as long as it should. Good on you, your a genius. I wish you a good life.

It's you sir who cannot give ANYONE, not just me a concise answer to a question without some off topic ranting about this flavi group or that other nonsensical BS.

You slander and berate people daily, all the while never giving not one newb a straight answer.

You know why hardly anyone posts on this board anymore?? honestly.. it's the tyrant named Frank who makes everyone uncomfortable to even post on this board.

It is YOU who killed the kingsnake monitor forum, it is your never ending chest beating that makes people too afraid to ask the simplest questions.

To be honest, I hadn't given you much thought at all until one of your fan boys spoke of you as some sort of messiah of varanid keeping on one of my boards.

The death of the last animal was a wake up call, a learning experience, one that will never be repeated, it's called a hard lesson. Maybe when you were offered such concise data when you were breeding your V. varius had you taken said advice and applied it, yours wouldn't have all croaked from refusing to lay.

However YOU have slaughtered not only many of your own animals, but your never ceasing crap driving away the people who could genuinely benefit from some straight answers results in the languishing and subsequent deaths of other animals.

Perhaps back in 08 - 09 when I was foolish enough to ask advice on this board had you just once said "hey, your animal is dehydrating via respiratory osmosis due to lack of deep burrows" I would have taken necessary action to correct it, but No you had to carry on like a crazed lunatic about how successful you are and how much of a retard I am.

I will never forget, nor ever forgive.

deal with it.
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Regards,
Wayne A. Harvey
Thamnophis US
Savannah Monitors
Snakes and Lizards, It don't get any better....

Its simple, I tried to help you and your monitors, you fight tooth and claw. Like a CHILD.

You claim your smart and your mind is like a Hard drive. Yet, your not smart enough to understand a gift. OR what a gift is.

Yes I am a lunatic, I am because I take SHAT from you and people like you, and for what, in an effort to help you. No one pays me, I get nothing for it.

In most cases, you failed originally because of your own HARD DRIVE. Its not as good as you think. Raising Savs, does not take much smartness.

People who tell me how smart they are, in most cases, are not smart at all.

Every once in a while I meet someone who cares and who ASKS GOOD QUESTIONS, so on this Christmas Day, I thank god for those people.

About all my lunatic stuff, All I said, to begin with is, please take your Sav to the vet. And the rest of the horseshat was a result of you telling me how wrong I am and all manner of names like your calling me now. And it turned out, lucky me, unlucky monitor, I was right. I was very sad for your monitor. It died a needless death. And while you telling me how smart you are.

So yes, call me names, no matter what you say, I got you to make a better cage and treat your poor captives a little more like they require. Now if only you would treat them like lizards, instead of snakes. They would be far better off.

Hey, didn't you start with 3 Savs? merry christmas

completely pointless.

merry xmas

Just to make clear, the cage is brill the mons are, but the point scoring is very unhelpful.

People are still buying savs & pet shops are still selling them at very low prices to be put in unsuitable cages, you can't tell them they need 8x4x4 2 foot deep of soil etc etc, they just switch off & carry on doing what the pet shop has told them.

Get them using soil boxes & cages that are sealed better, help design nest boxes that improve the females survival, find ways around the problem that they can afford to alter.

They've bought it & have it at home there's no going back then, help them build their interest in the hobbie & develop their skills. don't switch them off & tell them they'll kill their captive.

Keep debates to been debates & not personnel attacks, most long term keepers have given in & new keepers don't stay long with all the preaching.

Something has to change or the forums will be finished, perhaps they are already!

All this is about is, this person, wants his success to be his, despite being pulled along yelling and screaming. He thinks he is so friggin smart and makes a huge thing out of something so simple as raising a couple Savs. End of that.

About Savs and petshops, that's a totally different subject. Savs like green iggies, are not meant for the general public. Something smaller that requires more manageable space would be better. But again, its about people and their behavior, they want something that supports their ego. So they pick something large and those large somethings REQUIRE, large cages that are useful to those animals. Sadly monitors are not very adaptive, they require X conditions. WHile monitors are tuff as nails, and impossible to physically kill, they are easy to mentally kill.

In this Wayne is normal, he wants the animals success to be about him. Me on the otherhand, I always thought and believe, these animals are designed to be very successful, they are fine without us. So all we have to do is LET them be what they ALREADY are. I have always felt the animals are superior and we as keepers have proved to be, to make it simple, we are fairly stupid. I guess that comes out and I offend people. I am sorry for that, but also, too friggin bad, these things are simple to keep, what kills them is making it all complicated. Like it takes a genius, like in Waynes case. No offense, I have some faith in people, raising Savs is easy and simple. As long as you make it about the animal and not you the keeper.

It's great to see monitors keepers discussing the pro's & con's of keeping monitors, just the personnel part i don't like.

real sad thing i viewed recently on the net was bile bear farms in crush cages, made some of the monitor cages we see look good!

Hate to tell you, but most if not all zoos, keep larger animals in squeeze cages, including primates, which is sick. I think that's what your talking about, where the outside wall, moves in and pins the animal to the wall. At least they did when I was building zoo exhibits.

Also, I get along fine with keepers who make it about the animals. But as always, there is a certain percentage of people that are not like that. And Please understand, there are people like that in all walks of life.

THis reminds me, when I was building large zoo exhibits, I was exposed to the public for months at a time. As unique as folks want to be. They formed a pattern of remarks, 70% said the exact same thing, then 20% said a different same thing, then 5% were a little different. And a few that were one of a kind. Yet, all thought they were unique. Or working in herp rooms, where in every group, one person tried to read the graphics before the others and then tell the others about the animal in the cage. Which is great except they read the wrong graphics. Cheers

No Frank these are proper long term crush cages, they may live in for 10 years (live may not be the right word), very very horrible to see, they have a tube & bag attached to collect the bile, sometimes they have a metal casing around their waists for life.

yes very strange us humans, one of the most wonderful creations, yet been capable of carrying out appalling acts of evil.

Hi Wayne, when you mention a "fan boy" I take it that was me as I recently posted on one of your websites? I simply responded to another member asking who were the most experienced keepers, and mentioned Frank`s name along with SEVERAL others, though you edited my reply and made it look as if his was the only name (WHY)??????
You called Frank Retes a liar, well that truly is the pot calling the kettle black!
Ever since you bought the domain names to several websites and decided to get involved with Varanids your constant contradictions make you a most UNRELIABLE source of info when it comes to what you did previously and the progress of the current two.
I`m truly disappointed Wayne, you started off being painfully honest (and you needed to be) but for months now you`ve been anything but.
To finish, I`m nobody`s "fanboy", and if someone asks who the most experienced keepers and breeders are, my response will be the same....
Take care, as always!

I've been on these forums for 10 years and only really posted maybe about twice. And I must say that is an impressive cage and even more so are the animals. Great job. I actually need to make something like that for my black throat. Hope you can post even more.

On another note, I will add that activity a long these areas has died significantly because people are out to crush people needing help. They may think they're helping but they're actually pushing them away. So I switched to repticzone many years back where the know it all BS is kept to a minimum. Just putting that out there.