what monitor?

[stuck]

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

[justinmann17]

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

[allergenic]

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

[shimmer]

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.

[allergenic]

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

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

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.

This is truly awful advice.

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

Prepare more.

[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?

[Big Gunns]

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?

If there is, Big Gunns will have it.

[mumps]

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