I need ideas and help!!!!

[Leolord]

Hey everyone,
I'm getting a dwarf Monitor soon and need a cage thats 4ft tall by 3ft wide by 2ft long and I need some ideas of what to put in it please! Note that there will be 5-10 in of sand!

Thank You!
Matt:eb:

[-okapi-]

Which species are you getting? Look that species up on the internet. Also, I think this should of been posted in the lizard area of this site...

Reptiles magazine's august 2005 issue has an article about Dwarf monitors, it said:
Branches, logs, and rocks. A basking spot of 130*F to 150*F. The article says to use standard flood lights from a hardware store because halogen spotlights will cause a very small area of intense heat, which is dangerous. The rest of the cage should be around 80*F. For food: super worms and s.w. beetles, crickets, wax worms, and mealworms.

PS- are you sure its gonna be four feet tall? It seems to me that dwarf monitors would need a cage thats four feet long, 3 feet high, 2 feet wide...

[peterm15]

ya i definatly think you need more reasearch..

dwarfs seem ( i looked a bit ) to need hight but a cage biger than that is required... the bigger the better right... see if you can maybe ask more question and chesk out a book. or some web care sheets.. you may have top use the latin name for good results.

[Leolord]

Well i plan on a red ackie and you cold be right okapi I could be mixed up but I might just go for 4ft long by 3ft squared I also have that issue and look them up all the time as they say 2 heads are better then one!!

--Matt--:devil:

[peterm15]

ohh akies.. i see now.. ya ok akies need ground space not hight.. i thought hight was weird.. i just typed dwarf moniter care ingo google and it said an aprox cage size

[-okapi-]

Here are some care sheets I found by looking up Red Ackie, Red Spiny-Tailed Monitor, and Varanus acanthurus on yahoo. Based on what I read, a sand and soil or sand and eco-earth/bed a beast/similar product mix is best as it holds a little humidity and allows them to burrow. On one of the sheets they say to create a stair-like stack of rocks so the monitor can thurmoregulate, which is think is a great idea. You can make the rocks out of foam and paint them to keep the weight, and possiblilty of your monitor being crushed, low. Plus foam cost less than flat pieces of slate too. The last link takes you to a pic of someones terrarium, which looks like a nice display, and uses the stair-like stack of rock in a very attractive and functional manner. Deffinatly worth looking at. Good luck, ill post more intresting links when i come across them.

http://www.pythonpete.com/info/ackieinf.htm
http://www.kingsnake.com/acanthurus/care/index.html
http://www.reptilia.org/Care_Sheets/lizards/csheets_liz_ridgetail.htm
http://www.repticzone.com/photogallery/viewphoto.php/14885/Cages%20and%20Enclosures/Misc

[-okapi-]

Oh! almost forgot! The key factor in a sucessful terrarium is this: MAKE SURE YOUR MONITOR IS IN PERFECT HEALTH AND HAS NO PARASITES AT ALL BEFORE YOU PUT IT INTO A DISPLAY TERRARIUM THAT WILL BE HARD TO CLAEN. Even if he looks okay, he may have a low hookworm count or some other unnoticeable problem that will quickly become a risk.

I set up a nice display terrarium once for a leopard gecko, complete with sand, drifwood, and rock, only to have her fall ill from a massive hookworm count a few months later. The pet store garunteed that she was 100% healthy and that there was no need for a vet visit, they were wrong. once she was in an enclosed environment with her own fecal material she was quickly reinfected over and over again, despite the fact that I scooped out all her poop every day. Thats the way the life cycle of a nematode works. They lay eggs which are microscopic that pass in the hosts stools, those eggs hatch into microscopic worms which locate a host, and after a few weeks start laying their own eggs. Now, a healthy lizard with just one hookworm can quickly become a sick or even dead one with hundreds of hookworms in just one month, even if the owner keeps the terrarium free of contaminated fecal material, just because the hatchling hookworms are designed to hatch out and find a host as soon as possible. Learn from my example, get your monitor checked and wormed by a vet before puting it into your terrarium. Trust me, you dont want to waste all that time and money setting something up, only to have to throw 30+lbs of sand, rock and driftwood out a few months later, plus vet bills. Its not fun.

PS- I dont want to scare you, i just think this fact is too often overlooked

[galad]

I dont think just painting the foam is going to be a good idea. First off you never specified what type of foam or what type of paint.

The best type of foam to use is either compact styrofoam, or great stuff exanding foam. Carve the foam into a rock formation, and then you need to cover it with grout. After the grout has dried abit then use three or four different shades of grout paint. Using the darker shades in the cracks and indented areas to make them more visible. Then blend the other three tints out ward from the cracks.
After painting you have to make sure to use a good grout sealer, and follow the directions carefully. Without the sealer the grout will probably crack under heat.

If you are to paint any part of the enclosure if your using wood. Make sure it is an outdoor water based acrylic paint. again follow the directions carefully.

hope this helps

[Leolord]

Thanks okapi,galad for your help hopefully nothin will go wrong because of you guys helpin me once again thank you guys ssssooooooooooooo much! I will now try to help you guys with any of your problems.

--Matt--

[-okapi-]

No problem. Heres some links explaining what I was talking about before (the fake rocks made out of styrofoam)

http://708designs.netfirms.com/customcage/customcage.htm
http://www.geocities.com/tnstuttle/cage_info.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/herptips/fakerock.htm