I picked up Jane back in April when he was about 8". I've meant to post about him sooner but just haven't gotten around to it. Back then he was rather hissy, whippy, and generally unpleasant. In other words, he was a healthy young monitor.
I started him off in a 4' x 3' enclosure capable of holding 1' of burrowable substrate. As he got bigger (he's now almost 3'), I expanded the overall enclosure to be 4' x 8'. The expansion included another 4' x 3' section that could hold 2' of burrowable substrate and a 4' x 2' section that contains an inset kitchen sink for a water dish. His original portion of the enclosure is now the cool, dry side and the new portion is the hot, humid side. The basking temp at the top of his retes stack is a little over 130*.
Jane is now much more manageable than when he was little. He's very curious, especially if he thinks that food may be involved. He gets quite excited when he hears/sees his feeding tongs. He still hates to be picked up, but will crawl all over me when I'm rummaging around his enclosure to spot clean, rearrange things, etc. I do have to keep my eye on him to make sure that he doesn't attempt to taste a finger or my arm but it has been months since he was actually managed to grab me.
Now, some pics:
Enclosure cold, middle, hot, then full length.
Interior of cold, middle, hot.
Some pics of Jane.
That's about it... though anyone wondering about why the name Jane might be appropriate for a monitor lizard, you should look into some sci-fi by the titles of Firefly and Serenity.
I started him off in a 4' x 3' enclosure capable of holding 1' of burrowable substrate. As he got bigger (he's now almost 3'), I expanded the overall enclosure to be 4' x 8'. The expansion included another 4' x 3' section that could hold 2' of burrowable substrate and a 4' x 2' section that contains an inset kitchen sink for a water dish. His original portion of the enclosure is now the cool, dry side and the new portion is the hot, humid side. The basking temp at the top of his retes stack is a little over 130*.
Jane is now much more manageable than when he was little. He's very curious, especially if he thinks that food may be involved. He gets quite excited when he hears/sees his feeding tongs. He still hates to be picked up, but will crawl all over me when I'm rummaging around his enclosure to spot clean, rearrange things, etc. I do have to keep my eye on him to make sure that he doesn't attempt to taste a finger or my arm but it has been months since he was actually managed to grab me.
Now, some pics:
Enclosure cold, middle, hot, then full length.
Interior of cold, middle, hot.
Some pics of Jane.
That's about it... though anyone wondering about why the name Jane might be appropriate for a monitor lizard, you should look into some sci-fi by the titles of Firefly and Serenity.