You're not listening either.Originally Posted by Rhasputin
You're not listening.
When she was smaller her enclosure was easily within the range you suggested, with the ammount of dirt suggested, and she never even so much as scratched the dirt.
her cage is always moist, even over the past week with the crappy mesh lid, and she just doesn't do it. I don't know how else to tell you she won't.
Your animal is not digging, it's soaking and acting lazy because you are not keeping it properly.
You can't just place her on any type of soil - it needs to be the correct type and consistency.
Healthy monitors dig. Healthy monitors are active. Healthy monitors require an appropriate substrate to thermoregulate and hydrate.
Without that essential requirement, your sav will not dig. You sav will act like a slug. Or as you put it:
If your tank is the standard 125 gallon - it is probably in the neighborhood of 18" deep. A 125 gallon wide is 24" deep. You stated that your exanthematicus is 3' long. Don't you see anything wrong with that?
Your monitor is soaking in it's water bowl because you have not provided a suitable substrate for her to dig into and hydrate.
You are keeping your animal incorrectly and using her attempts to adapt to your bad husbandry as justification for how you keep her. You need to stop being so intent on defending yourself and do right by this animal.
