what monitor?

i have had a lot of hands on with monitors. everything from small to full grown water monitors. i am looking for something under 5 feet. i was thinking blackruff neck. but just not sure. the ackies look pretty cool. i am wanting one with the longer neck look. any of u guys/gals keep anything around 5ft? i am just getting back into reptiles. have been out of it for the past 10 years. finaly have a house with some room for a bigger cage. lets hear your thoughts

thanks for any ideas

stuck

If I had the room I too would go with the blackruff neck. They are great.

The Australian species are great to keep, and are all captive bred. If you're looking for something that will get to roughly 5 feet, look at Argus.

http://panoptesv.com/HBD/tricks.html

Argus can easily get 7ft and need a lot of room for their high energy levels. Dumeril's/brown roughnecks, black roughnecks, blue tails, mangroves, and peach throats all stay in the 3-5ft range and are easy to deal with. They all will calm down with gentle handling and just getting use to you. These species also don't really need a full room to be happy either. I'v got a arg b&w tegu that is about 3 1/2 ft and have been preparing to get a peach throat. The fastest way to calm any tegu or monitor is to take a towel or shirt and have it reak of your scent and put it in the enclosure. Refreash the scent every week and the lizard will think you are no threat.

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Originally Posted by shimmer

Argus can easily get 7ft and need a lot of room for their high energy levels.

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Incorrect. Varanus panoptes horni, commonly called "Argus", has males that reach roughly 5 feet and females that reach 3-4 feet.

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Originally Posted by shimmer

Dumeril's/brown roughnecks, black roughnecks, blue tails, mangroves, and peach throats all stay in the 3-5ft range and are easy to deal with. They all will calm down with gentle handling and just getting use to you. These species also don't really need a full room to be happy either.

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This is truly awful advice.

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Originally Posted by shimmer

I'v got a arg b&w tegu that is about 3 1/2 ft and have been preparing to get a peach throat.

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Prepare more.

Ackies are great monitors as are Tristis. Tristis have a bit of the long necked look, get a tad larger than acanthurus and make great captives.

The other monitors you mentioned - namely the Doreanus and the Jobiensis often make nervous captives.

Dumerils monitors (I have one) are nice animals but mine took a good long while to calm down - plus my limited experience has been that they prefer their shellfish diets.........

Just out of curiosity - I have never seen a Horni approaching 7'. Most I've seen barely crack the 5' mark. Is there a freakishly large one running about somewhere?

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Ackies are great monitors as are Tristis. Tristis have a bit of the long necked look, get a tad larger than acanthurus and make great captives.

The other monitors you mentioned - namely the Doreanus and the Jobiensis often make nervous captives.

Dumerils monitors (I have one) are nice animals but mine took a good long while to calm down - plus my limited experience has been that they prefer their shellfish diets.........

Just out of curiosity - I have never seen a Horni approaching 7'. Most I've seen barely crack the 5' mark. Is there a freakishly large one running about somewhere?

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If there is, Big Gunns will have it.:rofl:

The amount of space required for a five foot varanid is not much different than a seven foot varanid.

Both require HUGE amounts of space.

I vote for the argus as well. WC is not an option in my book...

Chris