Rescued Nile Monitor. Need advice.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by infernalis

Oh well, no interest in fish..
Monitor bites are junk.
UV not needed
a Mercury vapour lamp will way overheat a cage of thw dimensions you described.

simple halogen flood lights like they sell at Wal Mart.

Standard practice is to hang lights like mine are, example below.

Reason being, Monitors will fiddle with the lights no matter what you do, and a bulb guard gives them something to get hold of, so you want to omit any hoods, guards or cages around the bulb.

This way, when the lizard attempts to mess with it, the bulb just swings out of the way.

I am disappointed about the fish, I'll maybe try them again later. And the monitor bites were really more because he was so disinterested in food on day one I was trying to just get him to eat something. But I of course read the ingredient list before I even bought them and knew they weren't too good.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Will the halogen lights need ceramic fixtures still? Or can I just use regular plastic ones? The reason I ask is because I have a bunch of old plastic fixtures lying around that are probably just going to be donated if I can't figure out a use for them. This of course is going to
be for the final adult enclosure build, because I'm going to try and really pile that substrate up in the 8x2x2 to give him more room to burrow. It will be banked up on the hot side a little more, and the lights will be actually outside of the tank on top of the plexiglass with holes in it just big enough for the lights. Does this make sense? If I bank up the substrate to 18 inches then there wouldn't be enough clearance to hang the light safely in the 6 inches left. But if it was above on the plexiglass it would be safely out of reach and it would clear up that space. Or am I thinking too much into this and should just have a base of only 12 inches all the way across? Just trying to do the best I can for this guy with what I have.

[infernalis]

I recommend the ceramic, You could probably get away with the plastic, since they are rated at 60 watts and you will be running 45 or 50 watts, but these bubs do get hot, even the low wattage ones, and the humidity takes it's toll on them too.

If you don't mind wiring, the cheapest ceramic sockets are at home depot, buy the $3 garage light replacement sockets, sold where the wire nuts, motion lights and zip ties are located.

If you hate wiring, then Wal Mart sells a brooding fixture for $10. remove the aluminum hood and do something else with it, or toss it in your recycling bin.

Then you have an 8 foot plug in cord with a ceramic socket already pre wired.

[DiscoPat]

I got a nice ceramic fixture at Lowes for $3 on the clearance rack It looks similar to Wayne's but it has a clip on it. Check on the discount racks. Make sure to ask why it is discounted though sometimes the stuff on the racks is slightly dysfunctional.

[Vegasarah]

I'm good with wiring, I've updated all the lighting in my house all by myself. And I re-wire any lamp cords that my roommate's rabbit chews, and that's pretty often (stupid bunny).

I'll go with the ceramic, and I always check discount racks when I go to Home Depot etc! That's how I got all those plastic fixtures for so cheap!

For my current set up would 3 of the 40 watt halogen bulbs get that basking temp up high enough for me? More? Less? When I build the adult enclosure I will get more for sure.

[infernalis]

A trio may overheat a smaller cage, and since your Nile is a young/small animal, one or two will probably get the temps you need.

[Vegasarah]

Went on my Home Depot trip today and picked up all my stuff!

Got the ceramic fixtures for like $2.50. But for now in the 8x2x2 I'm going to have the light fixture outside of the tank to give him some extra room. But they will go into the larger build. Got the flood lights for them as well.

Got the plexiglass for the top of the tank, got it cut to size, got the hole cut for the light to sit on. I was afraid he would get out through the hole so I laid the screen from another tank over the hole and I put a rock on top. Probably just paranoid but better safe than sorry! It's holding humidity like a champ, I'm very happy with how well that is going. The humidity is holding at 80% on the cool side and 25% on the hot side.

Got the soil/ sand in there, got it moist and it's easily balled up like the picture you showed me, Wayne. I only did a foot of soil on the hot side and it's about 4 inches on the cool/ shallow side. I added some climbing stuff, two hides, and an extra large kitty litter pan for a pond. He spent some time exploring that.

Funny story, he finally ate those minnows because I was gone for so long getting all his stuff he got hungry! I went to dump the water dish and saw that all 4 of the minnows were gone! Yay!

Here's a bad cell phone picture, but you guys can at least see his new set up.

[Vegasarah]

Found out that a place in town sells frozen rodents for cheaper than Petco, so I'm glad! I was browsing around and saw way at the top of a stack of vivariums a huge monitor scratching at the glass. I took a step back, figured he looked like a Asian Water Monitor only about 4 feet long. I asked the girl that was feeding other cages near me. Apparently someone brought him in sitting in a 40 gallon tank and just handed him over. He had burns all over his back from knocking against his heat lamp. The guys said "The person at the pet store said that as long as I kept him in a small tank he wouldn't get big. He got too big, I can't take care of him any more. Take him." The girl said that was about 2 days ago and that they are rehabbing him and he wouldn't be for sale. They put one of their big pythons on a 50% off sale so that they could free up that enclosure for him! She then told me that the day they got him, they filled up a bin with about 50 dubia roaches and just let him go crazy on them. The poor thing was so hungry that he just sat there and killed them all, any time a new one would move he would lunge at it. After he crushed them all he ate them all! I'm glad that they are keeping him and not trying to sell him for a quick buck. I also got a large light fixture there today that I thought would be good for holding one of those huge flood bulbs properly. Anyway, that's my adventure for the day!

[infernalis]

you want the deep dirt on the cool end

move the light to the other end.

The way it sits now will dry out the pile, and you want the pile to be moist.

not so bad drying out the thin layer.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by infernalis

you want the deep dirt on the cool end

move the light to the other end.

The way it sits now will dry out the pile, and you want the pile to be moist.

not so bad drying out the thin layer.

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

Glad to see you are thinking things through.

Monitors seem to love burrowing under things.

[Pirarucu]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

The one thing I will say is if you are using bricks for a basking spot, lay a piece of plywood on top, at least when you've measuring temps. The light will heat the bricks up hotter than wood, and you'll get a hotter reading, but the light won't get the monitor any hotter. My point is that 130F is a different basking temp depending on what the measured surface is, and even if the bricks are hitting 130, the monitor might not be.
Also, why not make the dirt deep through the whole cage?

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by Pirarucu

The one thing I will say is if you are using bricks for a basking spot, lay a piece of plywood on top, at least when you've measuring temps. The light will heat the bricks up hotter than wood, and you'll get a hotter reading, but the light won't get the monitor any hotter. My point is that 130F is a different basking temp depending on what the measured surface is, and even if the bricks are hitting 130, the monitor might not be.
Also, why not make the dirt deep through the whole cage?

Okay, I can put plywood on top. The basking spot on just the substrate is at 115 according to my temp gun, so I think a little stack of bricks like stairs would be cool for him to climb on and to get it closer to the right temp.

I just didn't want him to be cramped, if I filled up the whole tank he would only be left with like 10 inches of space to move around in. He couldn't even tripod or climb if he wanted to. Plus that would bring the water dish above the substrate so he could burrow under it and be crushed. It just made more sense to me to do it this way.

[jarich]

How handy are you with tools, Sarah?

If you have the tools, all it takes to make this a better enclosure is a bit of plywood and 2x2s. Basically, if you build a box 8x2x1.5 to put on top of the tank, youll make your life much easier. You will be able to increase the depth of the soil/sand mix by quite a bit. You will be able to seal the enclosure much better by containing the basking light and youll also be able to increase the light and heat of the substrate on the far side of the enclosure.

Your present set up will hold the humidity for a short time, but that depth of substrate will dry out pretty quickly. Then the rest of the enclosure will follow suit. Youll find in about a week that if you dont spray it heavily and daily the soil will dry out and the tank will lose its necessary humidity. Its all going to be going out the top of that light hood right now.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by jarich

How handy are you with tools, Sarah?

If you have the tools, all it takes to make this a better enclosure is a bit of plywood and 2x2s. Basically, if you build a box 8x2x1.5 to put on top of the tank, youll make your life much easier. You will be able to increase the depth of the soil/sand mix by quite a bit. You will be able to seal the enclosure much better by containing the basking light and youll also be able to increase the light and heat of the substrate on the far side of the enclosure.

Your present set up will hold the humidity for a short time, but that depth of substrate will dry out pretty quickly. Then the rest of the enclosure will follow suit. Youll find in about a week that if you dont spray it heavily and daily the soil will dry out and the tank will lose its necessary humidity. Its all going to be going out the top of that light hood right now.

Well, I'm pretty handy, I've built a lot of my furniture myself...God, I could totally do that. I can't believe it's been staring me right in the face this whole time... And it would be pretty much free to do, I've got some scrap plywood in my garage and would only have to buy a few 2x4's! Because this would just be temporary and not in contact with substrate would I still have to seal it?

The only problem I can think of is putting the water dish on top of the substrate. Wouldn't it be a danger still if he was to burrow under it?

I am going to be budgeting this next month right now so that I can see when I will be able to actually do the full build in my dining room. It might be very soon, I'm probably getting some of my tuition money back from financial aid. So the attachment for the tank might not even be needed. If it ends up being more than a month from now that I start, I'll whip up that top this week in the garage.

I've decided that I am not going to keep this monitor into adulthood, the rescue I work with has the right housing that I would struggle to provide. They raise their own feeders (dubia, mice, chickens) and they have the ability to easily care for this guy during his adult life. He's probably going to end up being a 'lifer', we will be very picky about adopting him out to anyone.

BUT in the mean time, I'm building a 6-7 feet long, 3.5 feet tall, 2 feet deep. I'll probably end up putting dividers in it and housing some more Blue Tongues in it once the Nile is gone. The rescue is encouraging me to keep the Nile while he is still a baby/ juv so that he gets at least some socialization. I'm working with him very day, three times a day so that he hopefully won't be too vicious later in life when he can do some real damage. I'm using the same techniques that Wayne's videos show on trust building and it's actually going pretty well. It's only been a week and he already doesn't flip out on me when I feed etc. Anyone else he's not too cool with, which is why every other day I'm having other people very calmly and quietly tong feed him as well. (boyfriend, roommate, best friend) So far NO handling, and I'm not even going to try touching his back for another month at least. I just am trying to make sure that everyone at the rescue can at least get in his enclosure to clean etc without being attacked! And they just don't have the time to do this with him now, so I'm going to keep him for a little while because I DO have the time.

What kind of time frame do you guys think I'm looking at as far as being too big for the build I'm doing? He can go up to the rescue when that happens, so I just want to know what everyone thinks is 'too big' for comfort. Just trying to provide the best life I can for this guy. He's by far the most work and money out of pocket I've ever put into a rescue, but totally worth it. He's a delight every day, tail whips and all lol.

[Pirarucu]

There is no such thing as "too big" for a monitor.

As for the water bowl, that's simple. Build a stand for it, so it's on top but has support under it. Like the foundation under a house.