nile monitor after day 1

[Freebody]

thank you
last night at around 12 am he came out and checked out his new cage and looks like he had eated a few of the small chucks of meat i left out for him surprised he didnt eat the feeder fish in his pond tho being how he was moving around for a few hours.

[Aaron_S]

Well thanks for the pictures. I'm glad the monitor looks ok right now. I doubt it will remain that way.

Your enclosure is a large size and that's great, except it's really tall without using any of the height. Secondly, do you think where this animal comes from that the entire area is full of ONLY 110 or 120 degree hot spots and the rest is freaking cold? That's why 65 degrees is too low. That's too low for any exotic reptile! 75 is better but still low in my eyes. It should be 85 at the very least and that may still be wrong.

You need more substrate. Something he can burrow in and not just a thin layer. You need like 4 - 6 inches of dirt. You didn't really do any research on this did you?

[infernalis]

Captive Care Information Food & Water

Nile Monitors eat meat. Hatchlings and juveniles should be fed a diet of various insects, including crickets, silkworms, grasshoppers, roaches, etc. Make sure to dust insects with a multi-vitamin supplement. As they get bigger, baby can be offered as well. Adult Nile Monitors should be fed a diet of frozen and thawed mice and rats. Other food will be eaten as well though.

Lighting, Temperature & Humidity

You will have to provide your Nile Monitor with a very wide ranging gradient. The cool side of the enclosure should be around 77 degrees F, with the hot end reaching around 95 degrees F. They will also need a large basking spot, able to cover their entire body. This spot should be kept around 120 degrees F. Remember, the Nile Monitor is from Africa, it's hot there! UV lighting is not necessary for Nile Monitors to be healthy, but many people use it anyway. The main concern for these great lizards is the heat.

Housing

Nile Monitors need a very large space. Full grown Nile Monitors will need an entire room, or similar spaced area to live a healthy and happy life. Make sure the walls are made of wood, or other hard material, as these Monitors will dig their way out of anything softer (drywall). Use dirt as a substrate, and make it deep. Your Monitor will want to dig and burrow. A depth of 2 feet should suffice.


Basic care copied from another site.

Sounds very accurate to me.

[Freebody]

yes i did LOTS of reasurch this is a temporary set up the guy i got it from was abusing it, it was in a 1.5" square box its tail didnt even get to be straight so i rescued it!! i had a tank i had my retics in so i made room for him i planned on getting one when i buy my house but im not going to let the poor thing die just because i didnt have soil for it Yes i know it need soil like i said im using my snake aspen simply becasue its all i had on such short notice !! thx for saying you certain its going to not last what kind of comment is that my tank was at 65 D which in america is well over 90 look im in canada so now my tank is 2 hot !!!. the tank is so tall becuase i didnt build this tank for my monitor i built it for my arborial snakes which are now in a different tank if i had known you would be trying to prosicute me for this i would never have come on asking for help !! r=thx arron your help is not helping your just accusing me of being a bad owner which i resent all my animals i have are in perfect health and perfect conditions and i love them dearly, this nile is new to me on short notice or it would have everything it need to be healthy and happy.

[Freebody]

i came here asking for help not pretending to be a profesional and as an expert you should be not talking down to be and ridicululing my effort on makeing a perfect setup, talk down to the idiots that dont seek help and just let there pets die.

[Squisher]

Hey anyone see the Eagles game tonight? Yeah me neither! This is WAY too interesting!

[emseeKAY]

agreed hahaha :P

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Freebody

i came here asking for help not pretending to be a profesional and as an expert you should be not talking down to be and ridicululing my effort on makeing a perfect setup, talk down to the idiots that dont seek help and just let there pets die.

I admire that

[Aaron_S]

I never claimed to be expert. I actually said multiple times that I am no monitor guy.

Secondly, I'm in Canada too and it's understood that you talk in Farenheit when talking about temperatures.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Freebody

...i put a new plate of meat in there today...

If you want me to actually criticize you then tell us, what kind of meat did you give the animal? That doesn't sound like the crickets,worms and possible rodents that was posted in the caresheet. Can you give us a link to your caresheet?

I admire your intentions on "rescuing" the animal. Sad part is, until you set up the enclosure properly and get the diet right then the monitor needs to be "rescued" from you as well.

[Freebody]

most of what i know is from the book Nile monitor writen by Rob Faust << good book lots of info ,an various different website and write ups on wikipedia and other such site the thing that gets me is there is conflicting information, 1 site says feed them rodents where as another site says just rodents is not good ? < this is the thing im talking about the plate of meat i gave his was a veriety of a few things i wasnt sure what would catch his attension so i put in a few diff things on his plate all of which i have read on diff sites and the book, i gave him slices of beef heart,trout,chicken,and i made the ground turkey mixture and put a little of that on which is made of ground turkey raw cooked whole eggs including shells with vitamin and calcium and bone meal, some other people add a few vegies to the mix and some take out the bone meal and vits and use High grade dog food = to the amount of turkey used. some feed them ground chicken necks, sandiago Zoo feeds there monitors this turkey mix for serveral years. this is to consist of around 50% of there diet the rest is fish trout shrip crustations crabs as well as the odd rodents which i read are completey up to the owner if they chose to feed them. the turkey mix can be made cooked or raw but eggs unless they are fertized eggs from a farm your cook them cant remeber the reason off the top of my head its been a few years but it causes some health problem which could be fatal after long periods of time. the book has the recipe they use at the zoo which doesnt include the vegies and dog food< :P.

[infernalis]

The only thing is, remember wiki postings are open to public input and interpitations.....

I would rather trust data from places like pro exotics who deal in reptiles.

I am doing my best to ferret out some info from folks I know, and if I post something you already know, Then we will just leave it on the board for others to learn from.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Freebody

most of what i know is from the book Nile monitor writen by Rob Faust << good book lots of info ,an various different website and write ups on wikipedia and other such site the thing that gets me is there is conflicting information, 1 site says feed them rodents where as another site says just rodents is not good ? < this is the thing im talking about the plate of meat i gave his was a veriety of a few things i wasnt sure what would catch his attension so i put in a few diff things on his plate all of which i have read on diff sites and the book, i gave him slices of beef heart,trout,chicken,and i made the ground turkey mixture and put a little of that on which is made of ground turkey raw cooked whole eggs including shells with vitamin and calcium and bone meal, some other people add a few vegies to the mix and some take out the bone meal and vits and use High grade dog food = to the amount of turkey used. some feed them ground chicken necks, sandiago Zoo feeds there monitors this turkey mix for serveral years. this is to consist of around 50% of there diet the rest is fish trout shrip crustations crabs as well as the odd rodents which i read are completey up to the owner if they chose to feed them. the turkey mix can be made cooked or raw but eggs unless they are fertized eggs from a farm your cook them cant remeber the reason off the top of my head its been a few years but it causes some health problem which could be fatal after long periods of time. the book has the recipe they use at the zoo which doesnt include the vegies and dog food< :P.

Great you actually did some research, well from what I can gather from that ridiculous "paragraph". You should attempt the mix and leave out the other stuff. From what I understood from you the first part of your meat plate wasn't recommended so I would stay clear of that.

EDIT: Infernalis is also correct. Don't use wiki for any kind of credible source. If you tried that in school or anywhere else they wouldn't believe you had any sources since any Joe Blow can add or edit the information.

[Freebody]

I agree i do know alot more then i let on, it just i want to be 100% im an avide animal lover and nothing makes me more mad than when you go to a buddies house or pet shop or somthing and see animals in poor health and trapped in small cages when it can so easily be fixed with a little anitiative and care. i look forward to reading what you dig up for us .
ya some food sources i read sound far fetched or just sound good but are not good for them, like an example ferrets cant digest the vitn n minerals and protiens out of plant products and grain cause them to either bind right up or have servier diaria and stops the absorption of what meat products are in the food, yet lots of food companies put this in there diets as cheep filler and say its good for them but scienfically it is BS, or milk for a kitten is good yet when they are cats its bad yet some people swear its good and feed them it and then have problems.this is the example that i dont want to face with my nile thinking im doing it right and have his health plumit even know my heart was in the right place.

[infernalis]

Hows it going??

Any updates?