Dear All

I am new here and am keeping a pair of cape banded white throats.

M-SVL-34".

F-SVL-28".



Prior 'experience': I previously kept a single male black throat monitor for 11 years before he perished (I'm assuming, old age). He was wild caught with a broken tail, and measured 71.5" SVL. I did my best to provide him with optimal conditions based on available internet information but I now hope to "do better" for my newly acquired cape bandeds.



Some questions below - would appreciate your kind guidance and inputs:



1. Nesting



Their current nest/home is a 48"L x 18"H x 18"B box. Box is filled partially with substrate with a small 10" by 18" opening. I currently use a mixture of cocopeat and garden soil as substrate. Substrate is kept moist but not wet.



Question - Is this current housing optimal? Also, is there an optimal substrate to use?



Note: This is just their "burrow", not their entire compound. They roam in a 4.5m x 2.2m secured area which receives full tropical sun and rain. There is an additional 3X halogen lamp basking spot for rainy days too.





2. Maximum Size



I could not find specific information relation to the max SVL of cape bandeds on the internet. But I did read from a old post on this forum that they tend to max out at 3.5ft. Is this true? What's the likely max SVL for males and females?





3. Laying eggs



Mating occurred recently (1 week ago) and female has been getting more and more bloated. I plan to build a nest box this weekend. Any suggestions how deep the box needs to be, etc? Again, very little information on this on the internet.





Thank you very much in advanced.

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