Water Monitor

[2bacop]

Ok so yesterday we had a woman come into the store carrying a box with a towel in it. I was at the registar and she came over and said that she had found a lizard at a rest stop near us. I'm thinking maybe some set an anole or house gecko free. When she pulled back the towel I was suprised to see a 1 foot long water monitor. I quickly picked the little monitor up and held it in my arms. It has been below 30 degrees here for awhile and it was very slow and sluggish and had stuck shed on it. The woman had had it on a heating pad so it was warming up but still pretty cold. I told her these things can get up to 8 feet long and maybe a little bigger, which she said was fine because they used to have a 15ft albino reticulus. Not knowing what this little one was feed we tried crickets, superworms, even waxworms, would not eat. I sent them home with some frozen pinkies to try. They called me back today and said that it ate it instantly and asked how many he should give it. Well this is my question, is the water monitor like most other lizards and will stop eating when it is full. I told them to feed it one more and call me back after I got some answers so I hope that someone answers this before tomorrow. Also does anyone have a good care guide I can give them?

 

[Gregg M]

Unfortunately, there are no good care guides for water monitors... From my personal experience, they are big eaters... They will eat anything you put infront of them... They are not comparable to keeping retics or any other large snake... They need tons of room as they get very large... You are looking at an average of 7 feet long depending on locality... A lizard that large requires a room sized encloser... Some people have no idea what they are getting into when they buy a cute little water monitor...

They need high ambient air temps (atleast 82 degrees), hot basking spots (100 to 110degrees), high humidity, a large pool of water, and large caging with lot of food... Their diets need to be varied... They eat lots of insects, rodent prey, fish, shell fish and other meat products...

 

[2bacop]

Thanks for the info, they came back in today and I told them the stuff you told me, they do have the space for the water monitor. They have a room inside and then outside they are converting an old shed/dog kennel into an enclousre for it when it gets really big. They also said that it ate 3 pinkies, and even though they are pretty small I have a feeling when he is all warm and feeling better that it will eat more.

 

[williammce1]

I feed mine alligator meat or chicken, both dusted of course witth calcium and Vionate. I tried a Jehovas Witness once but he wouldn't sit still for the dusting!!

 

[2bacop]

I dont think we can get alligator meat her in Virginia but I told them about chicken. I am assuming it is raw, store bought?

 

[Gregg M]

I tried a Jehovas Witness once but he wouldn't sit still for the dusting!!

:main_laugh::main_laugh::main_laugh: Bill, the more you post, the more I like you brother... LOL

 

[Spooki]

I dont think we can get alligator meat her in Virginia but I told them about chicken. I am assuming it is raw, store bought?

the last time i was in virginia my dad got some gator meat. i don't remember where though.