Monitor attacking blanket

Hail3gh · 01-21-12, 07:42 PM

I am new to this forum and have read through a lot of your posts... I have found that most everything you have to say I agree with I have searched through and not found anything like this... I have a year old monitor and she is awesome I handle her everyday give her baths for exercise and let her run around the house... She always since she was a baby of a few inches long laid with us on the bed... She snuggles and loves to get her head rubbed. I hand feed her and she makes sure not to bite me. I put my hand in her cage and she gets excited and runs up my arm. I speak and she comes to me.. I know this all sounds like I am making it up but its true... Now here is my dilema she is shedding now and she is a little less than a year old. She will be laying on me for a while and all of a sudden she will start rubbing her nose on the blanket and all of a sudden lunge at the blanket and bite it and will not let go... Any ideas if this is because she is cranky because she is shedding or maybe hungry I just dont think she is being mean because she does not hiss or show any type of anger as far as I can tell.

infernalis · 01-21-12, 08:04 PM

Does not sound made up to me.. if she is a she, I hope she's not looking to breed??

alessia55 · 01-21-12, 08:11 PM

I can't help you because I have no experience with monitors BUT I wanted to say Welcome!

I hope collectively people on here can help you figure out what is going on. In the meantime... I'd love to see a photo!

BarelyBreathing · 01-21-12, 08:14 PM

First off, what type of monitor is it?

Second, can you tell me a little about your husbandry? What type of enclosure is she kept in? How large is it? What are the temperatures, and what are you measuring them with? How about humidity? How much substrate is in the enclosure, and what kind? What's her diet? Are you using supplements?

Any time a reptile is in shed, their behavior can change. If it is indeed a girl (how do you know?) she could be gravid, even if she's never been with a male. If this is the case, you are facing a very dangerous time.

infernalis · 01-21-12, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alessia55

I can't help you because I have no experience with monitors BUT I wanted to say Welcome!

I hope collectively people on here can help you figure out what is going on. In the meantime... I'd love to see a photo!

We need a photo, several actually....

The Monitor & the enclosure, preferably multiple angles.

Hail3gh · 01-22-12, 10:27 PM

I have no camera at the moment but Olive lives in a 15 by 5 pen with dirt on the ground a fish bucket full of water a slate rock raised off the ground with a duel heat lamp above it one red one white the temp averages about 85 to 90 degrees I keep a heat rock under the slate just because I live in Maine and nights are cool in the winter.. I feed her a mixture of raw turkey eggs and calcium, and frozen cod or smelts and crickets as a treat every other day I dont feed her live animals other than crickets because I like her not feeling that she has to hunt for the food and she gets plenty of exercise running around the house and I have read that feeding mice is only for the enjoyment of the owner not healthy for the lizard. . Olive is about a foot and a half long and spends about an hour every day running around the house or swimming in my extra large bath tub... I dont know for a fact that she is a girl but its just my gut telling me and I always felt she was a girl and it doesnt seem to upset her when I say it lol... So I think that maybe she might be ready to breed because from what I have seen the way she bobs her head back and forth and opens her mouth is a sign that is what it is... I have had her since she was about 3 to 4 inches long and have always been able to hand feed her she is not mean in any way and makes sure when she takes the food to grab it softly, I can even hand feed her a cricket. I hope this answers everyones questions....

BarelyBreathing · 01-22-12, 11:10 PM

Are you ready for a big change? I sure hope so, because no monitor can be kept this way. Your monitor will die if you don't make changes fast.

First off, your monitor needs a proper enclosure, like yesterday. She needs a basking spot with a surface temperature of 130f. Her cool spot needs to be at around 75f. She needs 18-24" of sandy soil (I use a 60/40 mixture of Eco Earth and children's washed play sand for my monitors). Her enclosure needs to be made of wood, without screen or wire.

Secondly, you need to stop feeding your monitor fast food. It's as horrible for them as it is for somebody who's had multiple heart attacks. Whole prey only. No eggs (unless they are fertilized with a chick inside), no turkey. Also, you want to stay away from cod and smelt.

If you can tell us what kind of monitor you have, we can give you a list of appropriate food sources to feed your lizard, as well as proper humidity, and enclosure dimensions.

infernalis · 01-22-12, 11:38 PM

Cod and smelt is chock full of Thiaminase.. very very bad enzyme. I did a little digging, not all of the species are Thiaminase rich, it depends on locality.

From Cornell University department of Zoological Medicine

Quote:

THIAMINASES
Thiaminases are enzmyes found in a few plants and the raw flesh and viscera of certain fish and shellfish. When ingested these enzymes split thiamin (Vitamin B1), an important compound in energy metabolism, and render it inactive.

Further: I have found through my own negative experiences, pre-packaged seafoods of any kind are all treated with sodium preservatives, only certified chemical free organic foods should ever be fed to any reptile.

BarelyBreathing · 01-22-12, 11:43 PM

Yes, that's what I was getting at, Wayne. Thank you.

SnakeyJay · 01-23-12, 04:26 AM

Welcome and Goodluck with your monitor... These guys on here know their stuff, take their suggested changes on board otherwise you may have a sick little lizard.

Hail3gh · 01-23-12, 06:32 AM

Okay so I have the pen the way you said but I am not sure how to keep her basking area hotter than what it is because I bought two of the hottest bulbs I could find Maybe I measured it wrong because from what I read she is doing well shedding seems to happen constanly she eats and poops a lot. As far as food You told me what I am doing wrong but not really what I should be doing right. Please dont take this as me saying I'm upset for the advice because I'm not at all I am very thankful but from all I read I was doing good aparently I'm not so if I try to look up what to feed her I will just get the same info

Gungirl · 01-23-12, 06:56 AM

What kind of monitor do you have? If you give us that information the The members that know about monitors will be able to further help you do what is right for your little girl.

KORBIN5895 · 01-23-12, 07:26 AM

Please take their advice seriously ( you seem to be) between barely breathing and infernalis they have PERSONAL experience with at least different breeds of monitors. Maybe more but those are the ones I
Can think of off the top of my head.

infernalis · 01-23-12, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hail3gh

Okay so I have the pen the way you said but I am not sure how to keep her basking area hotter than what it is because I bought two of the hottest bulbs I could find Maybe I measured it wrong because from what I read she is doing well shedding seems to happen constanly she eats and poops a lot. As far as food You told me what I am doing wrong but not really what I should be doing right. Please dont take this as me saying I'm upset for the advice because I'm not at all I am very thankful but from all I read I was doing good aparently I'm not so if I try to look up what to feed her I will just get the same info

The hardest part about all of this is so much of that information is deadly wrong.

I have seen so many youtube videos that make me want to cry/throw up/ go postal I cannot even count them all.

My Chomper (Savannah Monitor) is super tame, we allow him to roam in the house, we take him out in the yard, he's a member of the family.

But his enclosure is set up to be his "little piece of Africa" so after his romp arounds, we put him in there so he can be all toasty and humid.

To get higher temperatures for basking, it is critical to use lower wattage bulbs placed closer to the basking spot.

In other words, if you need to get your basking spot hotter, move it up closer to the lights, not get stronger bulbs.

Many people build a platform inside the cage that the monitor can climb up on to bask.

I however wired my lights to be adjustable, so I can move my bulbs down lower.

The ambient measurement taken here is close to the basking spot, it is 78 degrees on the "cold end" of the cage.

sometimes I run a humidifier in there to give the feel of rainy season..

BarelyBreathing · 01-23-12, 11:58 AM

A "pen" isn't going to cut it. You need an enclosure with a solid top which holds heat and humidity. Don't use high wattage bulbs, they will burn your animal. Use three 60watt flood lights in a row, and raise the basking spot so that it's at the appropriate temperature. Measure your basking spot temperature with an infra red temperature gun (such as from tempgun.com). Also, heat rocks are known to cause burns, so throw that in the garbage.

What kind of monitor do you have? We can NOT tell you how to feed your monitor correctly, or set up the appropriate humidity, unless we know what type of monitor you have. Savannah monitors are highly specialized predators who mainly prey upon invertibrates. Tree monitors feed on a lot of smaller lizards and bugs. Water monitors eat anything they can get their mouths on. Do you catch my drift? We need to know what kind of monitor you have.