I passed by a pet shop the yesterday and was appauled by what I saw. I did not get pics, but needless to say I wont need to since the monitor in question at friends now in proper caging. The owner had a 6 foot plus water monitor in a wooden cage that was 8 by 6 foot with a kiddie pool that had brown water and the floor of the rest of the enclosure was literally filth. The monitor was unfortunately malnourished and had a nice swollen foot so my buddy has some work cut out for him. It is going in for a vet visit Monday I hope they dont find it to full of parasites on top of the infection. The thing that ticks me off is how so many petshops and hobbyist shops build enclosures that are undersized for water monitors, and other large reptiles.
I would say the bare minimum enclosure size for a water monitor of 6 feet would be 12 x 8 and you might as well bump that up to 15 x 10 since its going to grow a little more, but so many shops keep them in cramped 8 x 8 or 10 x 10 rooms. The excuse I hear most of the time is I let the animal out to sun bathe out back or interact with the customers but how about on holidays? Just doesn't add up. I reported the petshop, and from now on I am bringing my camera. The other thing I notice was a hamster gnawing a dead cagemate which I thought could'nt be too good for service. Funny how everyone used to tell me to go look at the giant monitor and how happy he was. Maybe I should've paid attention sooner.
With how so many shops and places post tours online it wont be hard to spot these displays and I am for sure going to start looking around. Its just sad that they dont want to spend a few extra dollars to keep the animal the the way it supposed to be. I think I start saving pics as screen shots as I find them and post them here and we can guess it they even add up to bare minimum to cage requirement. Definitely for a species like a croc monitor which gets super long. Well I am done with my rant and I will keep ya'll posted on the water monitor.
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