REPTILES magazine has a pretty good list in it although it doesn't include every single show out there. I'm heading to the expo next weekend to sell some stuff and get some more roaches, crickets, lid for my 75 gallon, and maybe some other equipment; no more live stuff unless it's Nile food!
My Little Monsters
- Thread starter Wiggles92
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REPTILES magazine has a pretty good list in it although it doesn't include every single show out there. I'm heading to the expo next weekend to sell some stuff and get some more roaches, crickets, lid for my 75 gallon, and maybe some other equipment; no more live stuff unless it's Nile food!
Well, after doing a bit more reading on some monitor forums, I'm going to skip the 75 gallon and just move them to a 48" x 24" x 24" cattle trough that I have since it will help reduce their stress and is better insulated. I'll be able to give them a good 12" of substrate in their new digs plus they'll be pretty happy with the extra width vs. the 75 gallon.
I was about to say come and pick up my unfinish reptile enclosure lol
I have a 48 inch by 24 inch by 18 -24inch reptile cage upstairs. That just needs a sliding track and glass slides.
Looks real nice, put some contact paper in thier I should take pics....however I stopped the project about a year ago....now it's basically a piece of furniture lol
I don't think you mentioned (correct me if I'm wrong) how long are your niles right now? Pretty sure a cage that large still woudn't be a problem for them, by this I mean the fear of a small lizard in a huge tank.
I have a 48 inch by 24 inch by 18 -24inch reptile cage upstairs. That just needs a sliding track and glass slides.
Looks real nice, put some contact paper in thier I should take pics....however I stopped the project about a year ago....now it's basically a piece of furniture lol
I don't think you mentioned (correct me if I'm wrong) how long are your niles right now? Pretty sure a cage that large still woudn't be a problem for them, by this I mean the fear of a small lizard in a huge tank.
I would consider getting it if you weren't almost six hours away. You should get something for in there the next show!
They're a little under a foot long from head to tail. Apparently it's fine to place them in a large cage because the benefits outweigh the drawbacks; the main problem with little cages is controlling heat & humidity along with other things that a large cage alleviates.
^This, monitors are better than fine in a large cage, the only reason to house them in small cages is it makes it easier to monitor their progress, health, eating, etc. I know someone who has his two baby Savs in an 8'x4'x4', and they're doing great. You really can't provide too big of a cage for a monitor.
Ryan, as far as taming.. Working with them, in other words force handling, makes them hate your guts, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. When they're young they know they can't fight it, and they just put up with it. Thing is, when they hit four feet they start realizing they've got a nice array of daggers and a bullwhip, and they can use them.. They turn into vicious beasties really really fast, and it's usually blamed on them "maturing"...
Best way to tame a monitor is to just leave them the heck alone, don't bother them, don't dig them out of their hides, nothing. Eventually they'll come to see you as a source of food instead of a giant moronic monkey that wants to kill and eat them. With time, they'll come to trust you, and some degree of interaction can become possible, but you can never force anything or you'll have a suddenly ticked off monitor in your hands... In other words, don't grab them unless you like to be clawed, bitten, and whipped by a six foot and very upset monitor lizard.
Ryan, as far as taming.. Working with them, in other words force handling, makes them hate your guts, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. When they're young they know they can't fight it, and they just put up with it. Thing is, when they hit four feet they start realizing they've got a nice array of daggers and a bullwhip, and they can use them.. They turn into vicious beasties really really fast, and it's usually blamed on them "maturing"...
Best way to tame a monitor is to just leave them the heck alone, don't bother them, don't dig them out of their hides, nothing. Eventually they'll come to see you as a source of food instead of a giant moronic monkey that wants to kill and eat them. With time, they'll come to trust you, and some degree of interaction can become possible, but you can never force anything or you'll have a suddenly ticked off monitor in your hands... In other words, don't grab them unless you like to be clawed, bitten, and whipped by a six foot and very upset monitor lizard.
Yes, I've already come to realize that there are certain things that they do and do not like. For example, the larger one tail whips me if my hand gets too close to it when it's digging; I found this out when I reached in to get the water bowl as it had become full of substrate from the digging. It only does this when it's digging, though, as it typically just checks out my hand otherwise.
I'm still going to work on tong feeding, though, as I want them to associate the tongs with food rather than my hand. The goal is to eventually have them realize that I'm not going to eat them and that I'm not food. For now that plan is just going to consist of tong feeding certain foods (F/T mice, fish, etc.) and letting them check out my hand once in a while. Hopefully they'll come to see me as their food source and a nice "tree" to climb on rather than something that wants to make them into lunch.
Also, these two are very deep sleepers, so I'm going to try to do most cage maintenance after dark in order to use that to my advantage; I'm able to pick them up without them even realizing it once they've been asleep for a little bit.
EDIT: Also, I'm going to switch a few things in their planned diet. I'm not going to offer fish fillets & ground venison any more as those are not whole foods. I'm also going to incubate the fertile bantam chicken eggs for a few days before feeding in order to give them a nice little chick-let to snack on. They will also be getting switched to a rodent/fish-based diet soon as that's apparently a more natural diet for them rather than going with an insect-based diet now and switching to a rodent/fish-based diet later.
Tong feeding is always a good idea with monitors, you want them to associate you with food. Whether you use tongs or your hands won't matter, they're smart enough and have the level of eyesight necessary to know the difference between a rat and a finger. Now, keep in mind, both of them may still be considered food, but they can tell the difference. LOL Tongs are a good idea just to keep your hands farther away, they'll just recognize you as a source of food, they won't think much about the tongs.
What I think might work better for you would be target training, which is designed to help them recognize a trigger that means food is coming, though tongs aren't the best target.
As far as letting them check out your hand, again it's a good idea. Basically the point is let them come to you, don't go to them. Don't force anything, and you'll gain their trust, simple as that. I believe there's someone on youtube who has a nile and has a few videos of target training and trustbuilding, I'll see if I can find that.
Always a good idea to do cage cleaning and maintenance when it doesn't bother them as much, good plan.
Whole foods are always best, though I would stick with an insect based diet until they are about two feet, as their young digestive systems aren't going to be as good at coping with a rodent-based diet as that of a larger individual. You don't need to worry about them getting stuck on insects, they'll switch over with no problems. They'll also really enjoy whole shrimp or krill along with insects and fish.
I'd say switch them over to a more rodent based diet once they can take adult mice or hopper rats. Pinkies and fuzzies really aren't good for them in the first place, as they are like little sticks of butter. Mainly fat and somewhat cartilaginous bones, not the best source of nutrition, LOL.
They get fed non-live food out of a dish that I place in there with the tongs, so does the dish entering the cage count as a trigger?
The larger of the two is a little porker and ate an entire fuzzy on its own today in addition to a few crickets; it was a pretty big fuzzy, too, and was pretty close to being a small hopper. I never got to see it eat it as they don't like eating non-live foods when I'm watching, but I know that it ate it all on its own as the other one was still sleeping. I think that I'll try some chopped scallops tomorrow as well as some chopped squid in addition to the crickets that they get.
Well, it looks like I might have two females according to this scholarly article that I found: Hemipenal Transillumination as a Sexing Technique in Varanids. I'm going to try again tomorrow night except that I'll have someone else hold them so that I can take pictures.
