Colombian tegu OR Ackie monitor?

Alright, so I've been thinking about getting an Ackie monitor or a Colombian tegu in the fairly distant future. What all can you tell me about either or both species? Which one is overall easier to care for and/or makes the better pet of the two? Here's what (I think) I know about them-please feel free to correct anything I've got wrong.

Basking spot: 130 degrees for the monitor, 100-110 for the tegu, going down to 75 at the cool end for both.
Food: Mostly insects for the monitor with the occasional rodent, mostly inverts for the tegu with the addition of fish, eggs, and rodents.
Environment: Minimum of 4 x 2 feet for the monitor, min. 6 x 3 for the tegu, both need about 60% ambient humidity and digging opportunities.
Handling: Monitor's supposed to be tame, tegu's supposed to be feisty?
Lighting: 50-60 watt halogen bulbs for basking, as well as UVB bulbs.

I think that's the bare basics of care and stuff. Once again, please correct anything I'm wrong about.


Any help and suggestions would be great!

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Originally Posted by Boosh96

Alright, so I've been thinking about getting an Ackie monitor or a Colombian tegu in the fairly distant future. What all can you tell me about either or both species? Which one is overall easier to care for and/or makes the better pet of the two? Here's what (I think) I know about them-please feel free to correct anything I've got wrong.

Basking spot: 130 degrees for the monitor, 100-110 for the tegu, going down to 75 at the cool end for both.
Food: Mostly insects for the monitor with the occasional rodent, mostly inverts for the tegu with the addition of fish, eggs, and rodents.
Environment: Minimum of 4 x 2 feet for the monitor, min. 6 x 3 for the tegu, both need about 60% ambient humidity and digging opportunities.
Handling: Monitor's supposed to be tame, tegu's supposed to be feisty?
Lighting: 50-60 watt halogen bulbs for basking, as well as UVB bulbs.

I think that's the bare basics of care and stuff. Once again, please correct anything I'm wrong about.


Any help and suggestions would be great!

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Neither is easy to care for and neither make a "great" pet.

The care of both varanids and tegus is specialized and fairly advanced. It goes beyond diet and basking temperatures. It includes space, general and specific environment needs, deep, digable moisture retaining substrate (in the case of the ackie) and many, many other parameters.

There are specialized forums that address the questions you have. My strong suggestion would be to do the hard research and make sure you have ALL of the bases covered - to the extent where most of the questions you currently have may be answered.

The problem with shopping for opinions on forums is that you will often get opinions - which are very different than facts.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Neither is easy to care for and neither make a "great" pet.

The care of both varanids and tegus is specialized and fairly advanced. It goes beyond diet and basking temperatures. It includes space, general and specific environment needs, deep, digable moisture retaining substrate (in the case of the ackie) and many, many other parameters.

There are specialized forums that address the questions you have. My strong suggestion would be to do the hard research and make sure you have ALL of the bases covered - to the extent where most of the questions you currently have may be answered.

The problem with shopping for opinions on forums is that you will often get opinions - which are very different than facts.

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I'm aware that the care of an Ackie or Tegu is more complicated than what I had posted-I just figured it might be a good idea to post the bare basics of what I already think I know so I could be corrected if necessary. Frankly, I just want to know which would be a better choice out of the two lizards.

Edit: I may want to add that this is pretty much a purely hypothetical choice/situation at this point. I'm just trying to sort of outline my options and stuff before I seriously consider getting anything at all.

I have a stupid question about caging-could you hypothetically house a monitor or tegu in an appropriately sized stock tank if you made any necessary modifications?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Boosh96

I'm aware that the care of an Ackie or Tegu is more complicated than what I had posted-I just figured it might be a good idea to post the bare basics of what I already think I know so I could be corrected if necessary. Frankly, I just want to know which would be a better choice out of the two lizards.

Edit: I may want to add that this is pretty much a purely hypothetical choice/situation at this point. I'm just trying to sort of outline my options and stuff before I seriously consider getting anything at all.

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Bare basics? There is no bare basics of monitor or tegu care.... You don't understand- they require a ton of specific care, if you don't provide for all its needs you're going to kill your pet... You need tons of research, money, and time for a monitor or tegu. It's not a BP you can put in a shoebox and forget for 3-4 days, it needs food every day, water changed all the time, waste removed all the time (and it's the worst waste ever)...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Boosh96

I have a stupid question about caging-could you hypothetically house a monitor or tegu in an appropriately sized stock tank if you made any necessary modifications?

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You can use the stock tank to fill with dirt, then build onto it from the top. The really big ones can be half filled and covered over and work decently. Pro-exotics had some of them set up and they worked very nicely.

I've been putting more thought into this lately, and I basically decided that I'm going to wait to get a monitor/tegu until I know for a fact that I'm ready.