Id love a critique

[JLuck13]

Ok so after a few months of reading, and a lifetime of wanting i finally took the plunge on sunday and webt down to LLL and bought a water monitor with my fiance. I had been wanting a water monitor for at least 10 years since the first time i went down to the old Prehistoric Pets when they were in Chino and saw their huge pong setup and their big water swimming through and basking on the ledge. Realizing i counldnt care for one, I always put them off and off and got into big snakes and cars and girls. At one point me and my father had a 4 1/2ft and a 6 ft green iguana, that were great, but i dont have to tell you guys here an iguana is no monitor. I finally believe i am in a place to care for one of these guys so i took the plunge. Ive been reading every page i could about husbandry, behavior yada yada yada and would like to hear from people that have had them and have experience with them so i knw im doing ok to start so lets start to break it down.

- 4x18x18 tank
- 50% decomposed granite 50% virgin topsoil mix for substrate
- paint roller tray for a water bowl/pool.
- flat bark "cave"
- 4 level "Retes" stack
- heating bulbs
- food dish


I have about 5-6" of substrate, that is kept mist, but not wet and seems to hold a burrow,shape pretty well. Ive had the tank set up for about a week without an animal in it so i can make sure everything is good which paid off because the first one or two combos of everything i had were miserably off.

The retes stacks are 12x10 (12x12 with 2x2s as risers, creating a 12x10 ledge space) with a 4" hole cut in the middle for mobility through the levels. I have a 95w dome bulb for a heat light creating a 130w basking spot ontop of the highest level and just around 85-88 degrees on the lowest level on the sand. Ambient temps during the day are between 85-90* and ambients are 82-85 at night. I have two thermometers in the cage at all times measuring basking spot temp and ambient temp of the "cold" side of the tank. A 95w light during the day and 100W during the night are used for heat, the white light is usually on around 14 hours a day (10am-midnight) when the white lights are shut off and red lights are turned on, which so far have just about perfectly mirrored the white light temps. The paint roller trough has been working flawlessly i believe for a water bowl. At the deepest its deep enough for him to "swim" and he can walk up it as far as he wants letting him being in whatever level of water is most comfortable for him. He spent his whole first night laying in the shallow water right under the light soaking and drinking. I have maybe a 5" wide 2 1/2" deep circle heavy plastic bowl buried into the sand for feeders, which are superworms and crickets, dusted with calcium with D3. He didnt eat on Sunday, but he started eating a few worms and a cricket or two Monday afernoon. He usually hangs out either in the water, running back and forth digging, or on the ledge in the rete stack that is about 105-110.

Here are some picture please let me know what you think, in the picture of the tank i hadnt build the rete stack yet, i was still focusing on ambient temps/substate soil to water mix

View on the shelf


View under the bark "cave" that he dug into/under, you can kinda see the food bowl too


Monet, my new baby, measured 14 5/8" fom nose to tip of tail

[JLC]

They're so cute when they're little! What are your long-term plans for a growing monitor?

[mumps]

Thanks for asking for some critique. I am glad you did lots of research into your new animal before purchasing, so let's get on with it.

First, while your gorgeous Monet is in that tank (I give it 3 months tops), I would recommend covering the sides and back. Either inside with cork bark or cork sheets, or outside with any kind of covering (paper bags, construction paper, etc.). Monitors have a real hard time with glass and he/she will bolt into it at top speed if frightened. Second, cover about 80% of the screen top to prevent humidity loss. You're going to be misting that thing forever.

Diet: Bugs are great, but you're going to spend a fortune on bugs for a growing Varanus salvator. I would recommend offering the insects in the morning, and in the afternoon offer a couple appropriately sized f/t rodents, whatever you have access to. At 14 inches I would suggest young adult mice or rat pups. The first year of life is CRITICAL to the health aspect of varanids and they eat like mad and grow like weeds. Expect your pet to be around the 4 foot mark by the time it is a year old. So start work on the next enclosure as soon as possible.

Other than that everything looks great. Your temps are good and the substrate, though a little shallow, seems adequate.

Enjoy your new varanid. Are you familiar with techniques for establishing trust?

Chris

[dembonez]

congrats for finally taking the plunge he looks awesome!

[Denial]

he looks great. Invest in a temp gun to make sure your temps are where the need to be. Those little things do miracles lol. The best way to show your monitor it can trust you is through its stomach.

[allergenic]

Great thread.

[4theSNAKElady]

Cute leeetle guy!

[jjmitchell]

as i know nothing of monitor care, I will not comment on the set up, just wanted to say very cool little monitor, enjoy that small size now wont be that way long.....

[Big Gunns]

He really looks good. Very clear eyed and alert. You've really done your homework also. BG would suggest covering some of the sides of the tank so your Monitor feels more secure like Mumps said. Some Monitors are not as skittish as others, but some need that extra security.

Monitors do better when you use a UV bulb also. They can be raised with them, but BG would suggest getting a florescent UV bulb. Vary the diet and give Vitamin and calcium supplementation. Don't over do it though. BG has raised Monitors in the past with little supplementation(a varied diet though) with apparently no ill affects, but he doesn't do it anymore. BG loves to give small monitors minnows. They love them.

[JLuck13]

Thanks everybody, this little guy is quickly becoming my favorite part of my collection

They're so cute when they're little! What are your long-term plans for a growing monitor?

going from a 4x18x18 to a stank tank in the 8-10ft long by 4-6 ft wide and 3-4 ft tall range (depending on what is available) and then on to the extra room in my house

Thanks for asking for some critique. I am glad you did lots of research into your new animal before purchasing, so let's get on with it.

First, while your gorgeous Monet is in that tank (I give it 3 months tops), I would recommend covering the sides and back. Either inside with cork bark or cork sheets, or outside with any kind of covering (paper bags, construction paper, etc.). Monitors have a real hard time with glass and he/she will bolt into it at top speed if frightened. Second, cover about 80% of the screen top to prevent humidity loss. You're going to be misting that thing forever.

Its now covered with black butcher paper, i had watched him hit it a few times, kinda like my beardies used to and was wondering about it. If you look in the picture of the setup the close end is covered with foil/cardstock sheet. The only reason the far end isnt is because i was still cycling lights looking for good temps. I remember that rule when i used to keep my snakes in aquariums

Diet: Bugs are great, but you're going to spend a fortune on bugs for a growing Varanus salvator. I would recommend offering the insects in the morning, and in the afternoon offer a couple appropriately sized f/t rodents, whatever you have access to. At 14 inches I would suggest young adult mice or rat pups. The first year of life is CRITICAL to the health aspect of varanids and they eat like mad and grow like weeds. Expect your pet to be around the 4 foot mark by the time it is a year old. So start work on the next enclosure as soon as possible.

Other than that everything looks great. Your temps are good and the substrate, though a little shallow, seems adequate.

Enjoy your new varanid. Are you familiar with techniques for establishing trust?

Chris

Thankfully, i am very good friends with the guy at my local pet store and get ammmmaaaaazing deals on my feeders. He makes it cheaper for me to buy there than to buy in bulk from online dealers. Whie im not saying im going to try and raise this guy on bugs, it will make it alot easier for crickets/worms/roaches/variety whie he is younger and a handful of supers will act as a good breakfast. It also lets me have access to whatever type of rodents i need. My neighbor breeds rats for his collections (100+ snakes, i honestly dont know how he does it in his garage its crazy) and has said that he would grow his rat collection a tad and let me have what i need to feed the little guy in exchange for one of the chameleons i gave him we were good friends to begin and i have gotten my rat/mine feeders fom him for a whole $0.25 a rat for the last 6 months ssince his colony has been large enough to support my whole 8 or so eaters but i had to cut back my snake colection for this monitor so its going to even out a bit, at least for now.


for substrate how deep would you recommend? It all starts 5 1/2-6" deep, and after he has been in there for now 3 days the shallowest part i could find was pry around 4 3/4" from him burrowing into and out of his flat bark hide. All the readig i could find when i was researching said from 3-8" so i kinda split the difference and went with 6ish, idk why, but 8" of sand seemed a bit excessive for a baby water, but than again, like i said, i am a rookie


As far as trust, i dont know how it works with a monitor, but i tamed an afrock and a few retics and was going to try and use the leave him alone for a week or so and then short calm handling sessions every other day or three for a week or so until everything seemed to be getting better and then getting on a every day or every other day handling schedule, i have tons of time to handle all my reptiles and am down to a retic, the monitor, 4 carpets, 2 baby beardies and a chameleon. So they all get handled at least every other day. I hadnt read much about establishing trust, but he seems calm already and the two times ive had to get him out of his tank he didnt run from my hand when i opened the tank up and hasnt bit/whipped me or attempted to yet. he lets you touch his head/neck/tail and i figured taming/trusting him wuld kinda be like with a snake?

he looks great. Invest in a temp gun to make sure your temps are where the need to be. Those little things do miracles lol. The best way to show your monitor it can trust you is through its stomach.

thakfully i already had a temp gun from working on my car and reading header primary temps and tuning my N2O system, that thing saves me freaking life sometimes