A question about plants

[formica]

I understand that monitors are quite destructive when it comes to plants, being enthusiastic diggers, I have had previous success by keeping plants inside a pot, and protecting the pot and roots using a few layers of chicken wire wrapped around to create a secure wire ball around the pot/roots, would this perhaps work for monitors aswell? just how strong can they get once fully grown (Savanna specifically), and more importantly could they break the chicken wire and risk cutting themselves on the sharp wire ends?

I used this method, and secured the chicken wire to the base of wooden enclosures, so they couldnt be dug up easily by one of my bearded lizards who was particularly fond of making as much mess as possible in his enclosure, dont know why he was like that, the other one was a lazy bugger that mostly slept, eat and waited around for me to scratch his chin, he wouldnt even chase crickets, just waited for them to get within reach of his mouth haha needless to say it worked a treat, but a bearded lizard is obviuosly in a diffrent league to a monitor, strength wise

[jarich]

Bearded dragons are whats called "sit and wait" or ambush predators, so its not surprising to hear about the fact that it wouldnt chase the crickets.

As for the chicken wire, I wouldnt recommend it. Its possible they could, as adults, either break through a piece of the wire or just simply break off a toe nail or end of a toe in trying. Simply putting some rocks or logs around the base of the plant might help, but just get used to the fact that you may be replacing the plants periodically anyway.

[Danimal]

I use plastic plants, even if they don't dig they will explore and because they are heavily bodied only the heartiest plants would survive. I have the juvenile water monitor cage planted with ferns and anything that will drape over, this one will sometimes lay under the leaves outside of the burrow. When I get home I can tell that it's been walking around the cage over the top of the plants by the way they are laying, over a period of time they will flatten down and need to be reformed. It would kill a live plant I think. I buy plants at a hobby store and hot glue the stem to a hefty stone and bury the stone to keep it in place.

As far as digging goes, the little monitor I have dug constantly in the baby tank, when I moved it to a larger tank I added a homemade burrow and the monitor lived in it, it moved around the entirety of the tank but never dug until I disturbed the burrow. After I reseated the burrow, it stopped digging the cage up. I dunno what will happen as it gets bigger but I will continue to provide a burrow until the animal lets me know that it doesn't want it.