what monitor?

[daniel1983]

....most of those monitors are on the pricey side...he will be able to find a nice sav for under $100....:

You will be able to find a 'nice' sav for under $100; however, if he manages to keep the sav living for longer than a year.......the purchase price + feeding costs would equal out in a few years. You may get off cheap when buying an argus or sav, but an animal that can put down over a half dozen adult mice a week can be somewhat pricy in the long run.

....and sav are not as active and dont require the ample space many of the above monitors require.

How do you figure? An adult sav will not be able to change directions in that enclosure without hitting a side of the cage. I have NEVER seen any field surveys that say savs have smaller ranges than the small Aussie dwarfs. But does that even matter? Maybe I am not up to date on my sav husbandry, but as far as I remember they require just as much space as any other similar sized species......thing is that most people don't even provide them a small fraction of the space they could utilize in captivity....maybe that makes some people misjudge the size of cage they actually need.

....You could get away with a 1.2 colony of red or yellow ackies and they arent as pricey as the others....in the end, I still say sav. :gj

A 1.3 colony of quality red ackies will cost around $800+. Even individually they are comparable in price to blackheads. If he is just interested in one monitor, purchacing a group of ackies would that be any different than buying an adult male kimberley for $400, or a Blackheaded monitor for $250.....

but he does't want something small....

....I would recommend searching around for some Sand Monitors (Varanus flavirufus).