LA
Young Nile monitor -- about 16
inches long
LA
Couple foot-longers snacking on boiled eggs.
LA
Nile monitor after a successful hunt.
Honkers: Those cute
snake-tongued guys grow into huge honker lizards that eventually need
their own room. You can keep
baby Nile monitors in aquariums for a while, but these guys will all need a
bathtub-sized swimming pool when fully grown.
These are definitely not a lizard for youngsters to keep.
Environments: Nile
monitors come from the river banks of Africa.
Any critter that invades crocodile nests and eats their eggs is a force to
be reckoned with (or avoided). They like climbing areas and swim more than some other monitors.
They need a large swimming “pool.”
When young, Nile monitors love climbing and swimming.
As they grow, they spend even less time in the water. Baby Nile
monitors
need lots of swimming room and love being misted.
Temperature: Monitors
demand 85o or better during the day.
Too cool temperatures make them susceptible to disease.
High temperatures speed up their metabolism.
This helps them digest their food more easily and fight off
diseases. Sick monitors often
respond to temperatures around 100o.
Take your ill monitor to a good lizard vet fast. We like Rick
Harmon.
LA
Nile monitor on right grabbed his goldfish the first time it was offered.
Left guy pickier.
Foods: Go to the savannah
and water monitor pages for
food ideas.
This 18" Nile monitor very delicately ate his first egg (with shell), tiny bite by bite.
Lighting: Nile monitors need full-spectrum fluorescent lighting or daily
sessions in real sunlight. The
closer they can climb to your bulbs, the better your bulbs work.
LA
Goldfish contain needed calcium for the fast growing bones of Nile
monitors.
Supplements: Because the
bones of small Nile monitors grow so much, your baby monitors need calcium
and vitamin supplements dusted on their food.
Heat: An under-cage
heater plus a basking heat source make a good combination. Provide a range
of temperatures for your Nile monitor if possible. Heat
rocks also provide a good basking site.
Clean your heat rock often to discourage bacterial growth.
LA
Delicately drinking from a four-inch bowl. He drinks like a pigeon.
Water: Nile monitors love
soaking in the water. They also enjoy
catching fish swimming in their water bowl. And they love turning over their water dish and making a royal mess.
They snake their head under it and
flip it over. Possibly trying to hide, looking for food, or just
having fun. Use a very heavy water container or buy a
heavy-duty mop. Use a deep container, because they tend to overflow
their container.
Nile
monitor babies are wiggly and bitey. Big guys are much bitier.
Seven weeks
later, still a biter -- but a larger biter.
Handling: Savanna and water monitors tame quite easily.
Handle them often.
Niles
monitors
are harder to tame. The
smallest ones are easiest to work with.
When you first get your Nile, you may need to use stout gloves to handle it.
Some Niles
will never adjust to handling. They can snake their neck around and
sneak a quick nip. A large, mean Nile monitor is more
than most people can handle. Keep your shoes on. They like toe
food.
LA
Can you see the second Nile monitor hiding under the cypress chips?
LA
Nile monitors show up better over a light colored substrate.
LA
Nile monitors like to walk across their ceilings also (and sometimes lose
toenails).
Inquisitive: Nile
monitors
like to explore their surroundings. Give
them branches and rocks to climb on and caves to explore.
If you provide them a diggable substrate, they will probably
burrow into it for fun. They
like variety.
Biters: In
the Nile monitor’s high school Year Book, Varanus niloticus was
voted
“most likely to bite.”
LA
Nile monitors love to eat if you keep them warm.
LA
Nile monitor, not big yet, but already eats 4-inch comets.
LA
Here's a similar guy (tegu) chowing on a koi.
LA
And tegus like those tasty hissing cockroaches.
LA
Baby Nile monitor just emerging from his deli cup.
LA
Handle the bigger ones carefully. They do bite and are quick.
LA
Nile monitors twist their long necks around and try to bite you.
LA
He's trying to look harmless.
Last Words: Remember
that Nile monitors walk around in their own digested food.
This means they probably carry salmonella.
Wash your hands after handling all reptiles. Also, don’t feel
too bad if your Nile monitor never grows to full size. We rarely see full
grown ones. LA.
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© 2007
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