Blackthroat questions

[wafisherman]

Looks like I'm going to be fostering a blackthroat. I'm looking for caresheets and finding a lot of different approaches. I've found a few for Savannah Monitors that seem pretty good:

http://savannahmonitor.org/
and
http://www.anapsid.org/savannah.html

Can someone highlight the main differences, if any, between blackthroat and Sav. care? Burrowing? Climbing? Water for soaking? Diet? Temps? Same or different??

Thanks!!

[redstormlax12]

Without looking at the anapsid one im going to guess its garbage. It is almost impossible to find decent care sheets for monitors. Luckily there are some great monitor keepers on here that im sure will soon help.

Your best bet is to contact some breeders and hobbyist to find out information. Pro-exotics is one of the best monitor breeders around so contacting them and checking out their caresheets should deffinetly help.

[wolfy-hound]

Pro-exotics does have some very awesome information. I consider them to be the "go-to" folks for monitor information.
Blackthroats tend to have about the same needs as a savannah, yes. They can be bigger(no idea what size you're getting), and they can be more bitey and tail whippy.

Don't consider the lizard to be a friendly puppy dog. I was told by the previous owner of Wilson that he was very tame and handleable. No, he was cold and underfed. Once I got him properly hot, and fed well, he turned into a typical monitor.

They move FAST when they want to. They eat a LOT. They will DESTROY a cage if you don't build it like you're containing a rabid chimpanzee.

Good high temps, lots of good food, fresh water to drink, with some humidity. If you can manage to offer a dirt substrate, the lizard will greatly enjoy it. But mulch is okay, and doesn't leave layers of dust through the tri-state area.

Good luck! You're undertaking a large job, and I hope it goes well! Monitors can be wonderful enjoyable creatures. They also tend to be giant pains in the tuckus. I love them. I'm also known to be crazy.

[wafisherman]

Thanks folks.

I'm expecting him to be pretty rowdy. I'm looking for some good welder gloves, but may have settle for standard leather work gloves.

He (not sure of sex actually) is supposed to be 44inches right now. No idea of age or anything else beyond this.

Should be picking it up either tomorrow or Friday.

Should be fun while it lasts (until we find it a 'forever home').

[wafisherman]

Update - (taken for a post I made on another site)
*********************************************

So the herp society I’m a member of was looking for folks in the group with monitor experience. Sadly, or prominent monitor expert had recently passed away and nobody else was chiming in.

As a kid (and to this day) my favorite critter has been monitor lizards. My dream was to have one eventually. As an adult, I have opportunities, but refrained, knowing it wasn't a practical 'pet'.

So when I heard they needed someone to foster a 44" black throat monitor, I chimed in, saying I’d be willing if nobody with more experience stepped up. And nobody did...

So I explained to my boys what we were going to be getting - for a little while at least... I reminded them of our favorite pet store in the next town over. It is a pretty big store, with a neat reptile area that include a great display of not for sale critters. One such critter was "Monster", a black throat monitor. Our favorite critter in the store and we went and visited him at least 2 times a month. So it was really easy for them to picture what a black throat monitor looked like (they also have a few at the big reptile zoo in our town, but we only make it there a few times per year).

Soooo, the contact at the herp society told me where to go and pick up the monitor last night. Turns out to be "Monster", or favorite local 'celebrity' black throat!

Seems he was growing so fast and big that they nice, but not huge, enclosure was just not cutting it any longer. So they were trying to be responsible and not display animals that were clearly not fitting in their permanent enclosure. They were giving him to the herp society knowing they would do what it took to find "monster" the perfect long term home with proper husbandry and right sized cage as he grows to full size.

I picked him up last night and he is a big puppy dog (for a monitor...). I was ready with heavy leather gloves and prepared to wrestle him into the plastic tote for transport if needed. Total joke. No gloves needed. Monster is so used to being handled by the store workers each day (since he was a baby) that being picked up is just no big thing to him.

I brought him home and have him in a 6ft long by 2.5 ft wide enclosure for now. He loves his new soaking tub (didn't have one before) and slept in it last night. He also ate for me. He is settling in nicely. The society has an enclosure for me to pick up that is bigger and taller than mine. I hope to have that one ready to go this weekend.

The only issue is that I’ve already fallen in love with this critter and want to adopt him permanently... So we'll see what happens...

Pics to come