Monitor enclosure discussion thread - Page 2

Danimal · 10-10-12, 01:49 PM

:Water Tub Question:

Right now I am planning on keeping the water monitor. So I have been kicking around enclosures ideas. Most of it I am pretty comfortable with but I keep coming back to the water tub and the plumbing. Do any of you guys use a large water tub, like 80-100gal? If so , do you drain it or use some kind of filtration or both. I can reason out what seems the most logical way to go but I have no practical experience with a large animal enclosure.

Is it more practical to plumb it to drain, use filtration to save some water between cleanings or just suck it out with a python, clean it, refill it?

suz1000 · 09-13-13, 08:33 PM

I'm beginning to plan a new 4x8x4 habitat for our Savannah but not really sure how best to lay out the interior. Could I trouble you to shoot me some photos of your Sav habitats??

BH Varanus · 10-16-13, 02:52 PM

Hello everyone!

Here is my past enclosure projects.II hire an electrician for my enclosures I'm a big believer in paying the experts to handle wiring didn't want to be bothered with it. This is the old enclosure and is 8' x 4' x 4' I was testing out filtration and her lay patterns.

I'm currently building a mega (MAN CAVE style..lol enclosure 8' x 8' x 11' with all the trimmings now). I'll have photos of the building process of that one soon. I have added a strong filtration system for my Varanus Ornatus as well that i tested on the old enclosure no more daily water changes !!!!!!!!. Does anyone else have enclosure pics to share; would love to see them?

P.S. my female varanus is Gravid right now; not over fed...lol

BarelyBreathing · 03-12-12, 09:52 PM

What is "bobs you uncle"?

KORBIN5895 · 03-12-12, 09:58 PM

It translates into " there you go"

BarelyBreathing · 03-12-12, 10:01 PM

I can't say I've ever heard that phrase before.

KORBIN5895 · 03-12-12, 10:02 PM

I honestly didn't think you had.

Hail3gh · 03-13-12, 09:30 AM

The substrate thing still baffles me... It is springtime now and I was able to give Olive more. It is up to about a foot and a half.. Now he seems unhappy he will not walk around much and hides in his little man cave... He comes out to bask but just lays there... The substate has only been added for 3 days and I'm hoping he just has to get used to it. My question is could it be possible that not all monitor lizards are going to behave the same way and need the same type of set up. So for one Person 2 feet of sub is needed but for another like myself just a waste of space.. Don't get me wrong I am going to leave it there for a while and see how it goes, but he seemed so much happier before...

infernalis · 03-13-12, 09:46 AM

They prefer to hide in burrows.

Hail3gh · 03-13-12, 10:00 AM

So you think that because I made a spot for him to hide... Out of wood and he loves it in there would make it so he does not feel he needs to make a burrow and is happy with his. Olive has been handled everyday since birth. The pet store I bought him from has volunteers that come in and handle the pets.. Olive does not feel any fear in my house, he walks up to my dogs and cats will climb over the dogs, walk up the couch if he hears my voice... I feel he does not feel the need to hide. I open up his door he comes right to me, if not I can put my hand in and pick him up he will not fight me or run. I never trained Olive he has always been 100 percent happy with people. So in conclussion I say maybe every Monitor is different and not everyone needs the same type of enclosure.

BarelyBreathing · 03-13-12, 12:07 PM

Have you raised the top of the enclosure? He could be feeling a little cramped.

Freebody · 03-13-12, 04:21 PM

I think every monitor needs the same standards for a cage, but i think some will utalize the offered soil more than others imho. and Barleybreathing, Bobs your uncle is a very old english term, not so much used on ower side of the water

shaunyboy · 05-04-12, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freebody

Bobs your uncle is a very old english term, not so much used on ower side of the water

^^^^^
its also grown into.....

" and Roberts your mothers brother " = bob's your uncle

cheers shaun

varanus_mad · 05-04-12, 01:18 PM

Well you did say humidity... p.s. sorry for stepping on your turf wayne LOL

Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Hornby
Posts: 9,623

Monitors and dehydration:
Despite the massive leaps in monitor husbandry a lot of beginners to varanid keeping in general are not getting why we keep humidity high for monitors.

Dehydration i dont know exactly how varanids lose moisure but they do and a lot of there behaviour is built around conserving and preventing this moisture loss.

Ill start with using a CF pet shop bosc for obvious reasons:

Bosc hatches in ghana moved to a holding container with no access to water of any kind.

Bosc spends a few days like this in transport before arriving at a pet shop.
A typical temporary bosc setup for a monitor in a petshop consists of woodchips a very low basking temperature a lot of ventilation and a water bowl.

Bosc bought by a bloke of the street takes it home based on pet shop advice 125f basking spot 75f cool end woodchip substrate and a low humidity...

Kept like this the bosc will proberly live at least a few years because they are extremely hardy animals and can take a lot of punishment but eventually it will kill them plain and simple.

I would say this about the average fate of most imported monitors regardless of species.

Now what can we do about it?

Deep Substrates

Typically i and a lot of keepers use soil/sand 75/25 good ratio to aim for holds a burrow well and is good for humidity...
Now then Depth:

- If your monitor can not bury itself completely in your substrate its not deep enough
- If it doesnt stay damp deep down for a long time its useless and just as bad as woodchips.
- If it wont hold a burrow its a waste of time how can your monitor build a home in it if it wont stay together?

Vents seal em up they allow all of the humidity to leave the vivarium extremely quickly and guess what it takes moisture out of your monitors system with it this is not naturally how a monitor loses moisture and causes dehydration.

Now then a frequent response to this is what about oxygen? Well what about it? unless youve built your viv totally air tight your monitor can breath no problem.

Humidity guages are great at telling you one thing what that humidity is right in one spot.

Seal your bathroom up wack the heating on full and run a bath Hot, humid sticky uncomfortable right? when you open the door to your viv if that heat and humidity does not smack you in the face... your vivs to dry.

Despite the massive leaps in monitor husbandry a lot of beginners to varanid keeping in general are not getting why we keep humidity high for monitors.

Dehydration i dont know exactly how varanids lose moisure but they do and a lot of there behaviour is built around conserving and preventing this moisture loss.

Ill start with using a CF pet shop bosc for obvious reasons:

Bosc hatches in ghana moved to a holding container with no access to water of any kind.

Bosc spends a few days like this in transport before arriving at a pet shop.
A typical temporary bosc setup for a monitor in a petshop consists of woodchips a very low basking temperature a lot of ventilation and a water bowl.

Bosc bought by a bloke of the street takes it home based on pet shop advice 125f basking spot 75f cool end woodchip substrate and a low humidity...

Kept like this the bosc will proberly live at least a few years because they are extremely hardy animals and can take a lot of punishment but eventually it will kill them plain and simple.

I would say this about the average fate of most imported monitors regardless of species.

Now what can we do about it?

Deep Substrates

Typically i and a lot of keepers use soil/sand 75/25 good ratio to aim for holds a burrow well and is good for humidity...
Now then Depth:

- If your monitor can not bury itself completely in your substrate its not deep enough
- If it doesnt stay damp deep down for a long time its useless and just as bad as woodchips.
- If it wont hold a burrow its a waste of time how can your monitor build a home in it if it wont stay together?

Vents seal em up they allow all of the humidity to leave the vivarium extremely quickly and guess what it takes moisture out of your monitors system with it this is not naturally how a monitor loses moisture and causes dehydration.

Now then a frequent response to this is what about oxygen? Well what about it? unless youve built your viv totally air tight your monitor can breath no problem.

Humidity guages are great at telling you one thing what that humidity is right in one spot.

Seal your bathroom up wack the heating on full and run a bath Hot, humid sticky uncomfortable right? when you open the door to your viv if that heat and humidity does not smack you in the face... your vivs to dry.

Author: Shane R. Hoggarth.

varanus_mad · 05-04-12, 01:21 PM

Big subject this one first ill start with the basics:

The types of temperatures and there differences:

First ambient temperatures:

The temperature of the environment surrounding an object measured using a bog standard thermometer.

Surface temperatures the temperature of the face of an object the actual temperature of an object these need to be measured using an infra-red temperature gun a bog standard thermometer with a probe will measure the ambient temperature surrounding the object not the actual temperature of said object.

Typically an ambient temperature will be lower than a surface temperature, e.g. sand on a beach on a very hot day can be hot enough to burn your skin instantly yet your body doesnt cook from merely walking around in the surrounding air.

Substrate temperatures - simply the temperature of your substrate and thus the temperature surrounding your monitor when in a burrow.

Basking temperature well self explanatory really

Monitors are not like other lizards in some ways they are amongst some of the most simple and the most complicated.

Where they differ from most lizards is there ability to exceed other lizards metabolic rates and activity levels they have a couple of adaptions which allows them to do this.

So higher metabolic rates have higher demands than other lizards.

As a result of this monitors utilise higher basking temperatures than the majority of lizard species.

That being said like other lizards they still need a range of temperatures to operate normally.

Basking temperature a good range is 130f to 150f cooler than this and you wont see it straight away but they are unable to metabolise food proberly and leads to a slow death in these animals.

Ambient temperatures:

90f hot end
cool end 80f

Substrate temperatures now these are often overlooked because as humans we only walk on the ground we dont live in it where as monitors live in and out of burrows.

These substrate temperatures are of perticular importance in the UK simply because our climate does not get warm enough to sustain mass temperatures so they drop of very fast perticularly in un-insulated large enclosures with a large substrate mass so when heating a large cage we need to pay attention to these temperatures as well and to try and create a vertical temperature gradient more than likely this will naturally occur anyway but care must be taken to manage the cooler temperatures anything below 70f and most monitors wont bother leaving there burrow they simply wont have the energy to do so.

A good practice is to insulate the bottom of the cage to prevent the ground temperatures from leaching away the heat your trying to built up in the substrate.

A good range of substrate temperatures are similar to ambients but a bit cooler in certain spots. 70f to 90f.

Substrate temperatures are important for another reason nesting female monitors take a great deal of care selecting a nest site so maintaining these temperatures are paramount for the female to succesfully choose a nesting site.

There are many methods of heating vivariums

Ceramics
Lights
Tube heaters

In smaller vivariums you can get away with just using basking lights.

In most homes however a secondary heat source is required.

Personally my preferred method is to use a heating tube positioned just above the substrate usually heating tube and basking light at the same end of the vivarium a heating tube roughly 2/3rds of the size of the cage is a good bet larger cages may need two or more tube heaters to achieve the desired temperatures.

This area does require a lot of experimentation i would advice setting up the vivaria a month before moving the monitor in and experiment with heating the vivaria adding or removing heat sources as needed.