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/..._ridgetail.htm
http://www.repticzone.com/photogalle...nclosures/Misc