My monitors/pics/stories. (DUW)

[Millinex]

I keep 4 monitors at the moment, they are by far the most rewarding reptiles I have ever kept, every other reptile I keep at the moment is simply a business venture/for profit simply because they don't even come close to rivaling the rewards of keeping monitors..

First up: Charmander:
When I first got him:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/Charmander.jpg

2 weeks ago:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00439.jpg


Just over a year ago, I walked into a pet shop in the mall to see 3 beautiful little nile monitor babies. They where cold, so they didn't fight much or show much activity, but the colors on these guys is just flawless and beautiful. I paid $40 for the hatchling and was on my way. My initial husbandry was off, kept humidity and temps too low etc, then went into a streak of 4 months where I didn't hardly feed him etc.. Part of what makes these guys so awesome is the hardiness of the species.. He endured it all and once I got my act together was there with me ready to rumble. He started at around 6 inches and just over a year later is just over 40" long. He's eating multiple mice every other day along with fish, bacon, turkey, chicken, and insects. I call it a he, however she does turn out to be a female but "he" just kinda sticks too well ;) . I have never force handled him, and he is 100% handle-able, hisses a little but other than that pretty well behaved for a nile.

Next is Buddy:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00440.jpg


Buddy was more of a pity buy. He was in my local shop for $80 with a larger individual. He was missing some of his toes, almost all of his toe-nails, the tip of his tail, and had bad mouth rot (which you can see the results of). He came to me an outright mean animal, the first day when I set him on the floor he was more than willing to chase me around trying to eat me. almost a year later, he is very calm, comes with me to talk to children, and is an amazing captive. I do not offer him dirt like the other monitors, because when I tried it, he can not dig.. which is pretty sad, so I just keep him on 100% bark rather than bark on top of dirt. His feeding response is awesome and he's very active for a bosc, he keeps a nice healthy weight rather than most obese savs I see.

Next is Kung-Pow:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00467.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00468.jpg


My 4ish foot asian water monitor. He's missing the tip of his tail, and several claws/toes, and has some scaring on his back. He has an attitude, but I've only had him a few months and he's coming around without issues.. He currently resides in a 7x4x4, with a decent sized pool, lots of logs, bark and dirt substrate. He's very very calm if you let him come to you, and has no problem crawling all over you when letting him out, he just doesn't like to be told when he has to go to bed for the night haha.

Last is my newest monitor, ignore the caging, it's temporary.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSCN5064.jpg

I picked this guy up in a trade at one of the local shops down here. He's perfect with all his toes/tip of his tail, no nose rub, nothing. He's handle-able, although he does hiss a bit. Amazing animal, I absolutely love the indicus complex of monitors. He's about 3 feet, sexed male, eating everything I offer him, and he frequently hangs out with me while I'm on the computer. I have him up for sale, however I'm pretty sure he's going to end up staying with me (especially if I end up breeding as many dubias as I think I will)...

Last I'll throw up a picture of a rescue I did recently:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00462.jpg

I received this peach-throat from a man up in Denver off craigslist. I got there and the husbandry was awful. Bad mouth rub/rot, missing nails,toes, tip of tail, very badly dehydrated/malnourished. I downgraded aquarium size to get proper temps/humidity. One week later at 85%-90% humidity, and 90 degree constant temps, she was looking like above, and ended up getting rehomed with some friends of mine where she's doing great. Amazing what some proper husbandry does for an animal eh?

-Mike

[marvelfreak]

Beautiful monitors!

[Millinex]

Beautiful monitors!
Thanks a bunch!

[Marica]

Nice monitors! Thanks for sharing a little history on each of them along with the pics.

[infernalis]

Next is Buddy:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CapAnt53/DSC00440.jpg


Buddy was more of a pity buy. He was in my local shop for $80 with a larger individual. He was missing some of his toes, almost all of his toe-nails, the tip of his tail, and had bad mouth rot (which you can see the results of). He came to me an outright mean animal, the first day when I set him on the floor he was more than willing to chase me around trying to eat me. almost a year later, he is very calm, comes with me to talk to children, and is an amazing captive. I do not offer him dirt like the other monitors, because when I tried it, he can not dig.. which is pretty sad, so I just keep him on 100% bark rather than bark on top of dirt. His feeding response is awesome and he's very active for a bosc, he keeps a nice healthy weight rather than most obese savs I see.

-Mike

My respect level just more than doubled when I read this.

[Millinex]

Haha how so wayne?

-Mike

[Jay]

What do you feed your Bosc

[Millinex]

What do you feed your Bosc
At the moment I'm feeding him a mix of turkey, bacon, rodents, and shellfish, he also gets an obscene number of grasshoppers in the summer months. I'm personally a big believer that savs are fully capable in the wild of eating and digesting a main staple diet of rodents, however choose not to. Although, I am going to give it a fair shot and I'm picking up 500 dubia roaches to start my colony tomorrow afternoon.

-Mike

[infernalis]

Haha how so wayne?

-Mike


a lot of people would have never took on such a case. plus I have a soft spot for Boscs.

I sent animal control after a pet shop a couple years ago for keeping a baby sav in squalor.

The monitor died, but the shop got fined for a dozen other offenses including an escaped boa that was found in the basement dead. seems they never took the time to look for it.

They left cages of rats unattended for weekends when they were closed, the water bottles went dry, guess what thirsty rats do to each other when there is no water around.

[Millinex]

Eh, monitors aren't too bad to fix in my experience. With the right conditions they heal up fast. The peach throat was awful to, but wasn't as progressed so was reversed quickly with proper husbandry.

-Mike

[Jay]

At the moment I'm feeding him a mix of turkey, bacon, rodents, and shellfish, he also gets an obscene number of grasshoppers in the summer months. I'm personally a big believer that savs are fully capable in the wild of eating and digesting a main staple diet of rodents, however choose not to. Although, I am going to give it a fair shot and I'm picking up 500 dubia roaches to start my colony tomorrow afternoon.

-Mike
I like to see those diets you may have a few that disagree. I have always heard Pork was bad. Do you use it as a staple or treat?

[Millinex]

a lot of people would have never took on such a case. plus I have a soft spot for Boscs.

I sent animal control after a pet shop a couple years ago for keeping a baby sav in squalor.

The monitor died, but the shop got fined for a dozen other offenses including an escaped boa that was found in the basement dead. seems they never took the time to look for it.

They left cages of rats unattended for weekends when they were closed, the water bottles went dry, guess what thirsty rats do to each other when there is no water around.

I like to see those diets you may have a few that disagree. I have always heard Pork was bad. Do you use it as a staple or treat?
Pork is never a staple. I simply had a pack of bacon expire and rather than toss it, I decided to save it for the monitors, and have been feeding it off. It's a treat offered once a month with the exception of the water monitor, who takes it extremely well as compared to other foods, so he gets it weekly.

-Mike

[infernalis]

Just like the venison I feed chomper, A hunter gave me a whole bunch of last years kill.

No fat, just pure lean meat.

[stephanbakir]

Great looking monitors, its great to see someone actively taking in rescues.

[Millinex]

Yea, monitors are not picky, and it really helps with the bills for paying for their food haha. I actually trap/freeze my own mice from my girlfriends ranch for use of feeding to herps. I'm catching between 6-10 a night at the moment.

-Mike

[stephanbakir]

Not sure i could feed W/C prey to my animals willingly, depends on the situation i spose.

[Coffee Black]

We're in the process of talking about getting a house and a "reptile room" is part of our considerations ha. I really want to save a section for rescues and that would consist mostly of monitors as all the giant snakes are banned here but most monitors are not. Lots of Savs and Peach Throats. also some illegals that are advertised as " Egyptian River Lizards" and " Water Lizards."

[infernalis]

If you file for a legit rescue license, banned or not, your butt is covered under the rescue laws.

[Millinex]

Not sure i could feed W/C prey to my animals willingly, depends on the situation i spose.
I freeze all rodents for 2 weeks to kill off any parasites. I once asked some very experienced keepers about feeding wild caught grasshoppers:

don't keep monitor lizards, but i've looked inside enough wild Nile monitors to know that the babies are always full of grasshoppers. Whatever pesticide residues your grasshoppers might contain they will be nothing compared to the probably banned substances that grasshoppers around African farms must be full off. Also your grasshoppers have had the advantage of fresh diet and will probably provide much better meat than commercially bred crickets. Nile monitor is a "pig lizard", it eats things that would kill you or me, and if it's healthy wild grasshoppers shouldn't do it any harm at all.
That is from Daniel, the same one who did the field study on the diets of wild savs.

-Mike

[stephanbakir]

Just because they can doesn't mean that they should, and if i made an assumption like this and it killed my monitor I'd feel like crap.

[Millinex]

Just because they can doesn't mean that they should, and if i made an assumption like this and it killed my monitor I'd feel like crap.
I collect them from both my yard, and a local park called "garden of the gods" in a big open little visited field well within the park. Any small amounts of toxins that they grasshoppers came in with are surely too small to worry me.

-Mike

[infernalis]

Remember, I have posted this more than once, Chomper feeds while roaming my property, he sucks up all sorts of bugs off the ground, and crayfish from the creek.

http://www.reptard.info/today/chomp.jpg

I just know I can climb up this, I know I can.....

http://www.reptard.info/today/chomp2.jpg

What's in here?? I'll just have a quick look....

http://www.reptard.info/today/chompboot.jpg

Chomper always likes to sit on the dash when he goes for a ride...its flippin' hot on there after my truck sits in the sun, he loves it.

http://www.reptard.info/today/chompdash.jpg

[stephanbakir]

Love that pic of him and the boot:P

[Millinex]

My sav has gone plenty of places with me, he sits on the seat next to me mainly, back when I had the camaro he'd sit under the back hatch haha. Nice looking sav!

-Mike

[Coffee Black]

If you file for a legit rescue license, banned or not, your butt is covered under the rescue laws.


Something Ive looked into but is a long way off. 5 or 6 years probably. Will be eternally keeping it in mind.

[infernalis]

. Nice looking sav!

-Mike


Thanks, he's spoiled rotten.

[Max713]

Love your niles/waters!

I'm with Wayne, definitely a lot of respect for taking such a project on (the Bosc)! But there are some definite problems with your husbandry with the Bosc... from what I can tell from the pic provided he looks a bit dehydrated, most likely from the lack of moist humid burrow.
I don't want to rock the boat, but I am concerned for the health of your monitor.

The others look fantastic though! Although I have absolutely 0 knowledge with any monitors other than Savs/Boscs.

[Millinex]

Love your niles/waters!

I'm with Wayne, definitely a lot of respect for taking such a project on (the Bosc)! But there are some definite problems with your husbandry with the Bosc... from what I can tell from the pic provided he looks a bit dehydrated, most likely from the lack of moist humid burrow.
I don't want to rock the boat, but I am concerned for the health of your monitor.

The others look fantastic though! Although I have absolutely 0 knowledge with any monitors other than Savs/Boscs.
The problem is, he does not have toes on his front feet to really dig with, he can't burrow... I keep him warm, and the room itself is kept fairly humid, however, humidity has always been a fairly rough task as he's concerned. He does alright, and is misted multiple times daily, and given a very large pool of water. He's generally 70% humidity with a 3x18 swimming pool and plenty of misting.

He's doing better from what he was, is it perfect? Nope, but neither is he.

-Mike

[infernalis]

I have to back Mike up here, if the monitor cannot dig, he cannot dig, so he does what he must to do the best he can.

[Millinex]

I have to back Mike up here, if the monitor cannot dig, he cannot dig, so he does what he must to do the best he can.
He can't even manage to get underneath the large chunks of bark I've provided him, I might have to DIY some sort of hide.

-Mike

[Max713]

The problem is, he does not have toes on his front feet to really dig with, he can't burrow... I keep him warm, and the room itself is kept fairly humid, however, humidity has always been a fairly rough task as he's concerned. He does alright, and is misted multiple times daily, and given a very large pool of water. He's generally 70% humidity with a 3x18 swimming pool and plenty of misting.

He's doing better from what he was, is it perfect? Nope, but neither is he.

-Mike

He can't even manage to get underneath the large chunks of bark I've provided him, I might have to DIY some sort of hide.

-Mike

Like I said, wasn't trying to rock the boat, he's definitely doing a million times better than he was before, never the less, why not offer him the best (if you can)?
I completely understand not being able to dig himself a burrow, so why not make one for him?
I've seen a lot of people use irrigation ground box's, with a hole cut in the side, about as close to a real burrow as you can get:
irrigation ground box - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS322&q=irrigation+ground+box&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=779)
Or maybe a smaller version of this(awesome setup!):
Repost: Underground Tegu Shelter (http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=8020#axzz1M6kDMtLo)
Just because he can't dig himself a burrow, doesn't mean he doesn't need it.


Other things to address would be small adult enclosure size, and semi-improper diet. Sav's/Boscs are strictly invertebrate eaters.


I'll say again... not trying to rock the boat. :)

[Millinex]

Like I said, wasn't trying to rock the boat, he's definitely doing a million times better than he was before, never the less, why not offer him the best (if you can)?
I completely understand not being able to dig himself a burrow, so why not make one for him?
I've seen a lot of people use irrigation ground box's, with a hole cut in the side, about as close to a real burrow as you can get:
irrigation ground box - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS322&q=irrigation+ground+box&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=779)
Or maybe a smaller version of this(awesome setup!):
Repost: Underground Tegu Shelter (http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=8020#axzz1M6kDMtLo)
Just because he can't dig himself a burrow, doesn't mean he doesn't need it.


Other things to address would be small adult enclosure size, and semi-improper diet. Sav's/Boscs are strictly invertebrate eaters.


I'll say again... not trying to rock the boat. :)
Very good ideas for a hide, I tried a wooden/latex one for awhile with mixed results. As for enclosure size, I'm fairly certain on some level he's stunted of some sort hasn't grown an inch in 8 months, although his cage is fairly small, he does receive 6-8 hours of free roaming a 10x12 bedroom per day, which makes up for it in my eyes.
As for diet, it's one of those debatable things. I know a lot of people who have kept them fine on a diet such as mine, which is fairly normal. I believe I mentioned in one of my posts today that I was purchasing a dubia colony tomorrow to start breeding for him, to see if I get much of a difference.

-Mike

[infernalis]

Like I just said not long ago, Chomper used to have a hunk of this pipe in his cage about 3 feet long, he hung out in it all day.

They are sometimes spotted in culvert pipes in Africa, so they are attracted to it.

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/environment/fosc/dest-pix/3_Perforated_Drainpipe.JPG

[Millinex]

I'll have to try that as well, might work out well, we'll see what he likes most.

-Mike

[infernalis]

You can buy it by the foot at Home Depot really cheap in different diameters.

Gives the illusion of a burrow.